After many years as professional recruiters, we find that nearly all hiring managers agree on some basic truths:
- Employees are by far the most critical asset to any company.
- Culture building in collaboration with those employees is key to company success.
- The costs of the wrong hire – not just financial but mental and emotional – are disastrous for everybody.
With the seemingly universal agreement on these things, then, we find ourselves surprised at how hiring managers often open a new job requisition: with a job description that does little to attract the type of employee they insist is so important.
Many hiring managers treat the job description kind of like an expense report – something to get through and move on.
But job descriptions are part of the blueprint for your company itself. They shape the team who creates your products, faces your customers, and enacts your mission.
They’re also the first step in the hiring process. They set candidate expectations and dictate who those candidates even are.
Brushing past the job description – the talent blueprint – and heading straight to candidate selection and interviews is like trying to build a house without a blueprint. You won’t so much build something as piece it together, possibly oddly.
To truly set your company apart as one that builds and values a world-class team – and to keep resume submissions to a number you can review and manage well – you need to start with better job descriptions.
Here is a six-step guide on how to write them:
- Approach job descriptions as marketing documents.
An overwhelming number of job descriptions start by either touting the company or saying nothing at all about the company. What you want to do is strike a balance between these two extremes.
A job description, like a marketing document, has to sell your company, so you want to create a positive initial impression of your brand. But when you introduce a job by making it all about your company, you create the impression that candidates and their needs aren’t important to you. Conversely, when you introduce a job with no information about your company, you create an impression that brand purpose and personality aren’t important to you.
Good marketing pieces manage to tell your brand story while explaining why customers should buy from you. In the same way, good job descriptions manage to tell your brand story while explaining why candidates should work for you.
Good job descriptions also reflect the reality that search engines are part of the audience too. And the reality of search engine optimization is that a job description must open with, well, a job description. If it opens with “Who We Are” or “About Us,” you’re telling Google that the content is actually company information, and Google will rank it as such.
So, start your job descriptions with a compelling mix of candidate-focused and company-focused content: place the candidate front and center in your brand story. Show (without hyperbole) the compelling challenges that candidates will help solve, and the exciting projects they will contribute to, within the context of your company’s mission.
Some ways to do this: - Describe how the role you’re seeking to fill would contribute to your company goals, make an impact on customers, help the wider community, build on your growth, or advance the field.
- -Explain how the specific position would enhance your ideal candidate’s career, develop her skills, propel her forward, and give her the opportunity to be part of something important.
- These are the things that make your company special and fulfilling to work for. From here you can pivot to listing the responsibilities of the role (more on that in a bit).
- Give the job an accurate title.
“Keep [City] Weird” might be the enthusiastically-embraced motto where you live, but consider carefully whether you want “weird” to be an adjective that applies to your company and its job titles.
It’s true that weird often wins the day, but sometimes weird can simply be silly or trite – or not even weird anymore: Indeed tells us that “ninja,” “rockstar,” “genius,” “hero,” and “guru” appeared in the wacky-and-trendy job titles in 2019. If you’re part of a trend, yet still fancy yourself weird…well, there may be a disconnect somewhere.
However, if you (or your superiors) insist on oddball job titles, we offer two guidelines:- Be judicious. You want to stand out, but not for the wrong reasons. Is your unusual job title clever and whimsical, or lame and try-hard? You also want to show your authenticity. Maybe your company really is delightfully quirky, and weird job titles work for you. But people can see through contrived attempts at uniqueness. So use these kinds of titles wisely, or not at all.
- Include the “real” or typical job title somewhere in your description. Candidates don’t search on weird titles, and search engines don’t rank them well. If you’re looking for a data scientist, and the phrase “data scientist” does not appear in the first paragraph (or at all) in your job description, your search results will be disappointing. Support an unusual title with one or more instances of its real-world, more common counterpart in the job description.
- Be judicious. You want to stand out, but not for the wrong reasons. Is your unusual job title clever and whimsical, or lame and try-hard? You also want to show your authenticity. Maybe your company really is delightfully quirky, and weird job titles work for you. But people can see through contrived attempts at uniqueness. So use these kinds of titles wisely, or not at all.
- Spend time to understand, define, and clarify the role and its responsibilities.
Here are two ways that a job description is often written, to the detriment of everyone it reaches and any hiring process that attempts to follow:- You copy and paste a previously used job description or a generic template, and make basic (if any) edits.
Look, we’ve all done it. Copy and paste is one of the modern world’s most useful functions (all credit and much respect to Larry Tesler), but it should not be your go-to tool for job descriptions.
Copy-and-paste is a tempting method for job descriptions when you have a rock star (titles notwithstanding!) on your team, and you want to hire another rock star just like that person. But take a minute to ask yourself and other team members if that really is what you want. Does Rock Star have a skill set that could be complemented in some way? Are you building an assembly line or a truly diverse, thoughtful team that challenges and betters each other in supportive and productive ways?
Copy-and-paste is also the default when you’re under the impression that job titles have plug-and-play descriptions. It’s true that there are universal commonalities to a lot of roles, but your company, organizational model, business goals, current and planned projects, and technology environment all factor into unique requirements and expectations for every role, at every level of seniority. In your job descriptions, account for these specifics. You’re only setting yourself and any new hire up for disappointment if you don’t. - If you’re working with a professional recruiter, you task her with writing the job description via a five-minute phone conversation or five-line (if that) email.
Engaging with a recruiter is an investment in your company’s future and in a people-centered partnership. Such an investment is a testament to your company’s commitment to its employees. To get the most out of this investment, you need to put some time into the recruiter partnership.
Professional recruiters are great at eliciting details regarding the candidates you’re looking for, and at matching you with the right ones – activities that take time, and ideally, face-to-face conversations (but video meetings can work too). Stop trying to squeeze in a meeting with the recruiter on your way to lunch, invest real time into this partnership, and be an enthusiastic participant in the discussions and activities that the recruiter facilitates.
- You copy and paste a previously used job description or a generic template, and make basic (if any) edits.
Whether you’re working with a professional recruiter or not, here are some elements that you should learn about from the hiring manager and team members, and include in your job descriptions:
- Objectives and expectations for the first six months
- The size, type, organizational fit, and purpose of the team where the position resides
- Current and planned projects for the company or team
- Typical deliverables or specific upcoming ones that the team or role must provide
- Why someone would be interested in the position
- How the position leads to career progression and growth
To sum this one up, for a quality job description that attracts quality candidates, spend quality time.
- Distinguish between your must-haves and your nice-to-haves.
One of the most common mistakes that people make in writing job descriptions is asking for too much in the requirements section. Very few candidates have the exact skills for your technology stack or your project.
This doesn’t preclude your searching for the best-fit candidate with the most relevant background. But it should persuade you to expand your idea of who the best candidate really is.
Challenge yourself or the hiring manager on what is actually required in order for a person to be successful in the position. Do some internal research to learn what types of people have performed well and why. Do some external research to learn how the market is evolving and what is available in it. If you can, work with a professional recruiter who specializes in your space or industry. They often have a much wider lens than you do, and can help you examine and organize your must-haves and nice-to-haves. They also usually have a well-vetted network poised for you to leverage.
Another thing to consider when separating your must-haves from your nice-to-haves is the compensation budgeted for the position. When your job description asks for too much, you can’t afford the candidates who bring all of it. - Sell and close.
Include a paragraph in your job description that summarizes why your company and the role are especially attractive. Here are some items to include: - Company benefits like health care, flexible scheduling, and remote work options.
- Company achievements like growth and recognition.
- Company activities like community involvement or philanthropy.
- Company perks like snacks and social events.
- Make an official commitment to diversity.
We saved this for last, not because it’s least important – in fact it’s critically important – but because a good job description ends with an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statement, which communicates that your organization is an equal opportunity employer.
Resist the temptation to use boilerplate language here. Write something that not only covers the legal aspects of EEO, but that also articulates your sincere pursuit of an inclusive workforce.
Here you can also indicate whether your company can support candidates who will need immigration assistance, which is particularly relevant in the technology sector.
Your company’s EEO statement, along with its diversity and inclusion policy, is another topic worthy of its own post (or series of them) that we’ll publish separately.
Ultimately, job descriptions carry a lot of weight: they kick off the hiring process, and they’re essential to attracting candidates who meet and even exceed your needs. But rather than seeing them as a chore, think of them as a source of help and differentiation for your company: they’re an integral part of your company blueprint, and written proof that you value your people.
If you’d like help writing your next one, visit us at https://cognitiontalent.com/, or reach out to us at contact@cognitiontalent.com.