How to write a job description: HR gives us a starting point for future relationship between people and companies.
"There is no second chance to make a good first impression."
A good relationship with the best candidates is established from the first contact: recent studies show that 49% of job seekers state that they have refused an offer due to a negative experience during the application phase. On the other hand, candidates who have had a positive experience during the application fase are 38% more likely to accept job offers and more than twice as likely to become customers of said company or to choose that brand in the future. [Source: Management Words]
A positive experience for candidates begins even before sending their CV, that is just in the moment they read the job description
Let's start with the fundamentals: at the base of a well-structured job description there is a defined job profile. The recruiter will begin by collecting all the information to define the job profile, which is nothing more than the set of fundamental skills that describes and identifies the person to be sought, and that describes the tasks, the responsibilities and the features necessary to fill that particular role.
The job profile is in fact a general outline of the role, from which to start to create a complete and clear job description.
The job description, accompanied by all the information that we will see below, will be used to create a clear job posting, aimed to catch the attention of the most suitable candidates with the job profile most in line with the role and to whom then is going to be offered the job.The HR partner or specialist who has to draw up a job description is called to carry out a complex activity, which starts from a joint analysis with the manager of the office in which the person to be selected will work, thus to identify what are the fundamental characteristics of the referrend role, starting from the duties and responsibilities, but not only. Following there will be an alignment with colleagues from business and administrative areas, a research and analysis of similar job descriptions to reach a role description as clear, streamlined and effective as possible.
Spending time to design how to make a job description hepls to make the selection process smoother, making it more efficient, in order to reach most consistency possible between job description and job profile.
How to create an effective Job Description: Step by step
So let's see with more detail how to plan an effective job description: the goal to keep in mind is to be able to picture all around the professional figure in question, describing the tasks he will have to perform and the responsibilities he will have to cover.
Before starting, you need to make sure you have collected all the elements necessary to complete it: role, seniority, qualifications, previous experience, skills, attitudes. Distinguish the must haves from the nice to haves: job descriptions that are too dense and complex risk to demotivate even the best.
- The first step is to start each job description with the company bio and a description about the working environment: challenges, values, growth path offered, commitment in ESG and the Corporate Social Responsibility, all this informations will help the candidate to understand whether this is the company he wishes to join.
- The second step to make an effective job description is the accurate description of tasks to be performed, tasks to be completed and the responsabilities which come with the role.
- The third step is to carefully evaluate the skills actually required, not only at a technical level, intended as hard skills but also at an attitude and relational level: soft skills are increasingly considered essential elements in the traits that characterize a professional figure. These are, for example, the ability to socialize or to work in a team, the ability to solve problems and react to unexpected events, or the personal attitude in managing stressful situations and being resilient and flexible, to react and adapt intelligently to changes.
Or also the ability to speak in public, to effectively communicate abstract concepts, to foster a culture of feedback or to act as agents of change within the company organization. These qualities, together with the skills acquired at a hard level, such as educational qualifications, linguistic knowledge or the ability to use software, are characteristics that must be analyzed to define which are the fundamental elements to be included in the job description along with motivation.
In this third step it’s important to include information relating to the hierarchical and organizational structure in which the selected person would be inserted (job title and positioning in the organization chart, team, collegues, figures with whom to interface mainly). - The fourth step for an effective job description involves the inclusion of key information relating to the specific role, such as the salary level, benefits offered, the potential of growth, the tools and methods of work to be expected.
Job Description and Job Profile: the rules of the perfect match
To ensure the best possible matching between the job description and the candidate's job profile, it is essential that the job description is effective and describes the position with transparency and clarity, highlighting the fundamental requirements but also the opportunities for gratification or growth offered by the role. It is about allowing the candidate to imagine and visualize himself already within the organization, for a transversal Employee Value Proposition experience that begins with this first contact. Recruiters can start from Glickon's experience to test the potential of a lean and efficient process.The relationship, in fact, is built starting from the job description, which is a fundamental step for the whole recruiting process and for this it is very important to avoid any superficiality or lack of information, under penalty of an indefinite selection and unlikely outcomes.
The best talents are attracted to an effective job description, which presents the role in a transparent and persuasive way, describing its main features and going so far as to trace the main dynamics within the work environment.According to a recent Glassdoor survey, “A disproportionately large number of application processes are too long, complicated and repetitive, resulting in a significant dropout rate of candidates applying for a job posting. An average 80% of dropout rates ", again according to Glassdoor.
