What is a job description?
The job description is a brief explanation of what the job entails. It describes the responsibilities associated with the job, along with the activities and specific skills that are needed.
The job specification you provide will be used not only to publish a job advertisement, but also to help employees understand their responsibilities and evaluate job performance.
What should be included in the description?
What goes into the description depends to some extent on the nature of the work, the level of work and the size of the company. A large company that wants to fill an IT position at the highest level in a large city is likely to want to include more details to get the right candidate than a small store looking for salespeople.
In general, the following should be considered:
- job
- department (if the company is large enough to have departments)
- main responsibilities
- qualifications required to perform the work satisfactorily
- to whom (e.g. sales manager, senior vice president, warehouse manager) the employee will report
- whether the job is temporary, full-time or part-time
- working hours - especially if these are non-standard
- salary
- location
- benefits
- other conditions of employment
Writing a description
You should perform a thorough analysis before attempting to write a job description. This will allow you to focus on the needs of the job you want to fill rather than the type of person you think you want to hire.
When writing a description, you will want to summarise briefly the key responsibilities, tasks, and qualifications required for the job you identified in your task analysis. You should include any special needs, such shift work, handling heavy objects, or the ability to create videos for social networks. If the competition in this area is fierce, you may want to include information on the benefits of working in your business, such as flexible working hours, vacation time, etc.
If you have a small local business that competes with larger companies for talent, include all the benefits you could provide and larger companies may not have them.
You will use the job description to create job offer text for online jobs. The description and title of the job should therefore be written in words that a suitably qualified jobseeker would use when looking for a job.
When writing a description, don't try to be clever or entertaining. It should be written so that you and anyone else involved in the recruitment process have a good understanding of the job specifications and expectations. It should also help jobseekers understand whether they are qualified for the job and if it could meet their expectations.
If you are replacing an employee instead of hiring and you already have a registered job description, make sure that the old description still describes the type of person you need to fill the job.
Pay special attention to the qualifications you mention. In order to avoid discrimination, make sure that the qualifications stated really are necessary for the job you are describing.
In addition to being used to recruit jobseekers, a good job description will also help you stay on track in the recruitment process.
- Will, say, the web developer you hire be able to plan, design, and program a car parts website?
- Will they have to master specific programming languages such as C#, VB.Net or SQL?
- Will they have to do independent work without supervision?
- Will they be responsible for less demanding tasks that require only basic skills in HTML and CSS?
- Will they have to communicate intensively with customers by phone or in person?
- Will they work with a supervisor or project manager who will mediate with the customer? ...
When the recruitment process enters the interview phase, the job description will be even more useful. It will serve to focus the interview on the tasks that need to be done and on getting the answers that will allow you to decide which candidate best suits your real needs.
A jobseeker with an infectious smile who shares your passion may be very likeable and fun, but are they really the right person for the job? Comparing their skills and experience with the requirements stated in the job description will help you make the right decision.
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