What is meant by Job Descriptions and Job Specifications - How to Create Compelling Job Descriptions to Attract Best Candidates

Job Description practical application and use in legal issues.

Above mentioned notes is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin has to be known that is need to provide job description document to every employee in the organisation.

Every employee must be provided with his job description as to how to perform his duties, limitations or boundaries in his duties, to whom he has to report and answerable, code of conduct, punctuality and discipline and safety procedure that is to be followed in case of Performing hazardous jobs. (This practice is being followed by few organisations in United States ) Having a job description document with employee, helps employer in dealing with employees especially in the circumstances when an employee proceed legally against employer for rejecting his/her claiming of compensation for the accident happened during the course of employment or for taking disciplinary action against employees who committed wrong.

Circumstances could be like; employees especially who does hazardous jobs, must follow safety measures which are framed by the safety officer to avoid accidents. To those employees if any accident happens, he may claim for compensation on the statutory grounds framed by the Legislature. Here it is the task of HR manager to crosscheck with actual safety measures to be followed and safety measures followed at the time of occurrence of accident. If it is found that the victim did not follow actual safety measures to be followed, he may not be eligible to claim the compensation. The victim of accident cannot claim that he was not aware of safety measures to be followed while performing such job, since he was already provided with job description document having all details of his job as to how to be in his job. if it is found that the victim followed actual and safety measures to be followed, the victim has right to claim compensation in accordance with the statutory provisions framed by the Legislature (labour laws). (In India, Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 is the law that deals with claiming of conversation by employees who succumbed to accident during the course of their employment)

likewise; when an employee proceed legally against employer for taking disciplinary action against employee, it is a task of HR manager to crosschecks with predefined in-disciplinary activities mentioned in the job description which was already provided to that employee.

Consult Project Managers about the Opening

Lack of internal communication can lead to hiring problems from the get-go. In order to avoid hiring the wrong people, you should consult your department heads and project managers about their candidate expectations.

Continuous learning and development are just as important as competitive employment benefits to today’s workforce. Explore your company’s possibilities in regards to providing adequate training and development, as well as senior employees’ mentorship for future job candidates. Make sure that everyone is on board with the candidate profile you want to attract before you write the job description.

Define the Job Title Properly

It can be argued that the job title you use will determine the type of people you will attract to the job opening. Based on the previous consultation, make sure that the job title you will use represents the position adequately.

For example, if you are searching for a graphic designer for social media content, you should use a title such as “Social Media Content Manager.” Simply writing “graphic designer” won’t mean much to most candidates, and you risk attracting the wrong people to your position.

Write an Overview of the Job Description Once you settle for the title of your job position, you should write a few sentences about the opening. The job overview paragraph will often be the determining factor of whether someone will continue reading through your job description. You can touch on the main responsibilities, major skills necessary for the application, and most lucrative benefits your job position offers. Samantha Abernathy, HR and Recruitment Specialist, spoke on the topic: “Today’s job candidates will go through dozens of openings every day until they find the one that suits them. Whether you need a writer for online research papers or a web developer with CMS knowledge, make that fact as clear as possible. You will only be able to find the right person for your position if you think like a job candidate.”

List the Necessary Hard/Soft Skills

Depending on the industry you operate in, you will naturally need different skills and competencies from your candidates. Thus, hard and soft skills should be listed clearly and without any double meaning to avoid confusion. Hard skills typically refer to skills related to the job at hand. For example, these can be C++ or Java knowledge for developers.

To avoid legal issues, you can ask for documentation such as degrees or certificates from your candidates when it comes to hard skills. Soft skills, on the other hand, relate to competencies tied to teamwork, time management, leadership, etc. Look for a balance of hard and soft skills in your candidates so that the person you hire can easily become accustomed to your team.

Be Flexible in Terms of Experience

While you may want to hire a candidate with over 10 years of experience for your position, such a prospect might not be possible. Instead, be flexible about the experience you require from potential candidates and focus on their immediate skillsets.

You can easily recruit and train a junior developer or writer to become the expert you need them to be in a few years. However, established professionals will be much less flexible in terms of changing their workflow or mindset. Accept a wide range of candidates with varying degrees of experience in the industry before you dismiss them as unviable for your opening.

Provide Candidates with Competitive Job Benefits

It’s not enough to simply list all the requirements you have from a candidate and call it a day. Competitive employment benefits will effectively stop employees from leaving your company even more so than a high salary would.

To that end, define several good benefits which you can provide to your staff, such as medical insurance, professional development seminars, and senior mentorship programs. Place yourself in the shoes of your job candidates and think of the employment benefits they would like to see in the job description. At the end of the day, it’s also good to include the starting pay, as well as the possibility for a raise or job position advancement.

Avoid Spelling & Formatting Errors

Lastly, you should aim to maintain your business’ professional reputation by carefully proofreading any job description you post online. While it may seem like an obvious final step in writing a compelling job description, even a single grammar mistake can drive away potential candidates.

The reason for this is simple – the way you treat job descriptions will speak volumes about how much you care about hiring the right people. Use tools such as Hemingway Editor and Evernote once you are ready to publish your job post to ensure good readability.

In Conclusion

The best way to attract the right talent to your job opening is to take your time in doing so. It’s true that you are running a business and need to make a profit in order to keep the lights on. However, hiring the wrong candidate for your position can backfire and cause unnecessary problems for your company.

Discuss what type of person you’d like to attract with your coworkers and managers to set expectations early on. Go down the list of job requirements and employment benefits until you are satisfied with the writing. While you will undoubtedly attract a portion of candidates unsuitable for your position, that percentage will be marginal compared to the talented individuals you attract.

Bio: Helene Cue is a professional content creator, editor, and recruitment advisor at Essay Supply writing service. Helene’s career extends from articles and blog posts to case studies and research in the fields of digital marketing, business development, and HR trends. In her spare time, Helene is an avid reader and fan of interior design.

Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/fY8Jr4iuPQM

1. Explain the role's impact on the candidate

It’s good that you are focusing on the details of the position, but you need to explain the role's impact on the company. You need to use the job description as an opportunity to tell the candidates about their impact. It will help to grow the interest of the candidate.

Right candidates want to get acknowledged for their work. And, with this enthusiasm, they will work harder, which will help the company hold the market position. Also, mention how the position of the candidate in the company is important. This will make them feel that they are also a part of the company.

2. Be specific about your need

It is very important to be specific about what exactly you want for the company. Over recruitment will only raise the cost of the company. First, you need to analyse what skills or strategies your marketing team is lacking. It will be helpful if you make a list of all the requirements, experience and factors you want from the candidate. And, this will help you a lot in selecting the right candidate for the company. And also to your note, it will save your time. Aspirants generally lose interest in long descriptions. Hence, be specific and particular.

3. Make it simple

Don’t make the job description too hard for the candidate to understand. Don’t make it boring and long. Everyone's time is equally precious. If you are looking for the right candidate similarly they are looking for the right company, who will recognise their work. Make the job description readable and easily comprehensible.

You need to be transparent with your job description. And, you need to take care of simple things; using too many superlative words won’t help. It will only disqualify the potential of the candidates, and freshers can get scared to see it. Further, you can use adjectives that will explain more about your company and its value. You just have to make it informative; that's it.

4. Connect with the candidate

The main motive of the job description is to attract more candidates, particularly to attract the right candidate. You need to keep in mind who the main target audience is. If you analyse current demand skills, then it might help you to look for the candidate who will satisfy the needs of the company. You can also analyse your competitor's job description to correct your flaws.

And, you can write about the services you will provide. A candidate applies for numerous companies, and your company will stand out only if you make the description more attractive. Remember that it will help you to have a unique selling strategy.

5. The environment of the job

You also must talk about the environment of the job and the culture of the company. This will also help to grow more interest in the company. And, if you add more value to the company, then it might be possible that you will get what you are looking for. Tell in the description that each and every member in the company plays an important part, and they are not just workers.

If anyone is recruited into the company, he or she will be a part of the family. Everyone wants to work in a healthy environment, and if you can provide them with that, then no one can stop your company’s growth. It will also help the candidate to select the company easily and be loyal to the company.

6. Mention the urgent requirement

You can say it is like a trick that many companies use to recruit rapidly. It is a strategy to make the candidate think that the job is really very important. By doing so, many companies get a quick response, and the vacancies get filled up rapidly. And, by using these strategies you can also get a huge number of interested candidates who are really determined to work, from those candidates you can shortlist the suitable ones.

7. Offers that the candidate can't refuse

Many companies create offers that can attract candidates. Hence, you really need to make efforts to create the correct offer. By giving an example, it will be more clear. Like, if a fresher knows nothing about the different job descriptions provided by different companies looking for job recruitment, the first thing that he will notice is the offers that your company will provide. This is the point where your job description is entirely dependent on the propositions you provide.

Conclusion…...

So, this was all about how you can improve the B2B job description. Undoubtedly this is a long process. Hence, you need to really work hard. It is not an easy job to recruit the right person for the company. You must remember that the job description is the first thing that a candidate will see and will get an idea about your company. Simply follow these 7 tips to make an eye-catching description.

Job Specification

John specification is a statement in which we explain the qualities required by people applying for the job.

• • Job specification as a statement of minimum qualification that person must posses to perform a given job successfully --- Stephen. P . Robbins & Marry Coutler

  • Job specification is a statement of employee characteristics and qualifications required for satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job or function. Job specification is derived from job analysis.

While the job description describes activities to be done, it is job specifications that list the knowledge, skills, and abilities an individual needs to perform a job satisfactorily. Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) include education, experience, work skill requirements, personal abilities, and mental and physical requirements. Job specifications for a data entry operator might include a required educational level, a certain number of months of experience, a typing ability of 60 words per minute, a high degree of visual concentration, and ability to work under time pressure. It is important to note that accurate job specifications identify what KSAs a person needs to do the job, not necessarily what qualifications the current employee possesses.

It can be explained with the help of the following diagram