Build A Job Description To Make Candidates Fall In Love
Attracting the right candidate is the first step to hiring great talent, and the first step to attracting the right candidate is preparing a great job description. A well written job description inspires the right resources to apply for your open positions.
Remember that your job posting/description is your first impression for potential candidates, and first impressions matter – don’t disinterest talent before they even apply.
A job description should:
- Describe the skills and competencies required to do the job
- Define the role’s place within the organizational hierarchy
- Provide a foundation for the employment contract
- Help with performance review and management
A great job description is usually a well-balanced mix of marketing, the reality of the role, the required skills and the organization's culture. Also, to ensure diversity in the applicant pool, it should be designed to never alienate women, people of color, the differently abled and the LGBTQ+ community.
Some job descriptions are too laid back, focusing on the company’s informal culture while others are too heavy on company-specific jargon and unrealistic lists of required skills. With the former, potential candidates are turned off by not knowing what the position really entails while with the latter, they simply fail to connect with the company's culture. The right job description is both informative and inspiring.
Here are five key pointers to keep in mind when writing a job description to attract top quality candidates:
1. Create The Right Job Title
Weird job titles can help you stand out and show a more laid-back culture but remember, most people search for roles that match their skills and experience. Therefore, using terms like ‘ninja’, ‘guru’ and ‘rockstar’ in your job titles and descriptions can confuse job seekers and put them off from applying.
Yes, you should be creative with your job description to stand out – just not so much on the title that you miss out on candidates who are searching for jobs under the more common title. For example, instead of calling it 'client relationship manager,' use the more widely known 'account manager'.
2. Make The Responsibilities Goal-Oriented
Make sure the job description is exciting and engaging by explaining your business objectives and how the available position will contribute to reaching them. For example, “We're looking to achieve 20 percent growth this year. Join a team that will attract 10,000 new clients in 2020!”
Also avoid using a long, bullet list of responsibilities or competencies as they are difficult to absorb and can be overwhelming to read. Instead, narrow them down to the top five bullets or group them under broader categories, such as “technical skills”, “management skills”, “communication skills”, etc.
3. Involve Your Current Employees
Job descriptions shouldn’t be restricted to just the HR department, as this is how they end up stagnating for years and failing to reflect the current skills, experience and culture needs of the job. Involving the hiring team and future co-workers will help determine what skills are important today and help fine-tune the job description.
4. Make Sure You Address Cultural Fit
Culture is everything in hiring. Cultural fit is just as important as experience and competency to both employees and employers. Every company has a personality and this is why you should highlight the perks and quirks your workplace has to offer. These can include rewards for healthy life choices, an on-site gym, casual work attire, remote work opportunities, fun office games, and more.
5. Get Rid Of Gender Biases
Cultural fit is important but it must not undermine diversity and inclusion; make sure you avoid gender-specific pronouns by proofreading your job description for them. The Journal of Social Psychology has a list of “masculine” and “feminine” words that makes such simple, yet crucial, changes easy to effect.
Gender-biased language is often subtle, but still harmful. In 2013, American Psychological Association research showed how seemingly innocent words signal gender bias in job ads and deter great talent from applying by subconsciously lowering their expectations of fitting into the culture.
How good are your job descriptions?
A well-written job description not only inspires the right potential candidates to apply, but also greatly helps with assessing and measuring their performance once you onboard them into their new role.
Let the professionals at ASB Resources help you put together a job description with the right blend of both informative and inspiring factors in order to attract the best, qualified talent available in the job market for the open position in your company. Schedule a call with one of our experts today!
