Crafting A Compelling Job Description.
When it comes to hiring new team members, as an Employer, there are a few things to consider before you start working with a recruitment agency or hiring directly yourself via advertising or your own networks - one very important thing to consider is to write ‘from scratch’ or ‘review your existing’ job description. Taking the time to develop a crystal clear and comprehensive job description is setting your business up for a great hire.
Whilst writing a job description from scratch can be daunting and time consuming, it is an invaluable step in the process to attracting and engaging ‘top talent’ and equally important ‘the right fit’ for your business. It is also your potential ‘new hire’s’ first impression of your business – how would you ideally envision your business to be viewed – highly organised, pre-planned, confident about who you are as a business with clear expectations?
Some of the best job descriptions I’ve seen over the past 15 + years in my recruitment career are written with transparency, they are to the point with a consistent pattern or structure including brand logo and summary capturing the brands’ identity sitting at the top.
If you establish a basic structure to work with including a few key elements such as ‘about the company’ to showcase your EVP (Employee Value Proposition) it will become easier to achieve consistent messaging and establish expectations from the beginning stages. Clarity in company expectations supports in finding the right candidate for the role and to also set them up for success once in the role.
Once you’ve established these fundamentals, then all that is needed, is to fill in the key responsibilities unique to each role; commencing from the tasks performed the most, listed down to the tasks performed the least. Think about the essential hard and soft skills required to be successful in the role.
Don’t forget to entice ‘top talent’ with all of the great things about working in your company and benefits they will want to know about and voila you have yourself a great pre-planned job description to work with!
It doesn’t have to be long and complicated, think overall simplicity and to the point then consistency in format, branding, tone of voice.
An example of format is:
Company logo:
Position Title (be clear and to the point):
Job Location:
Reports to:
Direct Reports:
About the business:
Position Overview:
Tasks and Responsibilities (bullet points here is best, list top down from tasks performed the most to tasks performed the least - usually around 10 – 15 points) (Can add clause - but will not be limited to)
Requirements/Skillset (a must-have list e.g. technical, software, degree qualifications, experience level, soft skills)
Work Structure/Offer: (Remote/Hybrid expectations, travel requirements, benefits)
If you need support or would like to discuss further don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.
If you’d like to connect with Jo to find your dream role or to become a new client of ours we would love to connect, please email Jo@thetalentmill.com.au today.
By Jo Dickson // Edited By Shannon Parsons