Crafting the Right Job Description

Finding the right job candidate requires time, diligence, and focus. To quote from an unknown pundit, “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your prince.” Indeed, you do. If you are an employer, or if you have contracted the services of a contingency recruiting or a retained recruiting firm, there are steps that you can take to assist in weeding the frogs from the princes. The creation of a job description is the first of those steps, and the most vital.

Consider why…

Development and preparation of job descriptions that accurately define position content have a direct bearing on the quality of job candidates attracted by those job descriptions. And the quality of candidates, in turn, impacts the productivity and profitability of your company, including employee retention. Job recruiters, therefore, must craft job descriptions that are realistic, legally compliant, and consistent with the organization’s vision for effectiveness. Ideally, they will also reflect the company’s desire for growth.

Senator Hillary Clinton postulated that it takes a village to raise a child. We propose that it also takes a village to write an optimal job description, a village that should include a professional job analyst. Brainstorming and teamwork are advantages when writing job descriptions. They provide insight and accuracy as well as necessary checks and balances.

The first order of business, in order to indemnify the employer against charges of bias, is to ensure that the job description contains no prejudicial verbiage. “Young, male, Caucasians only need apply” is a extreme example of prejudicial verbiage. The job description must be written so that it complies with EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) legislation.

Next, the HR recruiter and his/her brainstorming team need to define the level of experience and education required to fulfill the responsibilities of the position. A list of actual duties to be performed must be prepared. This must include any and all supervisory, managerial, or other decision-making responsibilities. Once these are defined, staffing solutions professionals must clearly spell out what the U.S. military deems KSA’s: the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities essential to perform each duty. Exclude proprietary tasks that can only be fulfilled once the candidate has been hired and trained to perform those tasks.

When this has been completed, the list of duties must be examined to determine which of these needs to be accomplished most frequently. And, the level of frequency must be defined (i.e., daily, biweekly, monthly).

The next step is to review the job description-under-development, in order to link two to five of the most critical tasks with the frequency with which they must be accomplished. The resulting duties will form the core of the applicant that you seek, the ones that will serve as guidelines in hiring the right person. During the job interview, you can address the other required duties.

You see the importance of that village, don’t you?