A well-crafted job description helps job seekers see themselves in the role, determine if they have the right skills to perform, and indicates what skills they might develop on the job. By taking time to craft skills-based job descriptions, you widen talent pools, attract more diverse candidates, and increase hiring velocity. It’s one of the first steps on your hiring for skills journey.

Follow these guidelines and view the example to get started.

Re-examine each part of your existing job descriptions 

As you evaluate job descriptions through the lens of skills, keep these questions in mind:

• What skills does the job require, which do they need to have on day one, and which skills can they acquire over time?
• Are there components that imply a bias towards a pedigree or specific educational/work experiences that aren’t necessary to excel at the job? 
• Do the requirements align with the job’s required competencies? 

Components of the Job Description

Job Description

• Outline how specific skills will be used in the role and communicate its business impact. Include a breakdown of daily and weekly job duties and describe the types of projects the role covers. Candidates empowered with this information can assess whether their skill set matches the competencies required.
• Frame the role in positive, general terms that don’t imply biases toward specific age ranges or educational backgrounds. 
• Indicate the benefits an employee will receive from working in the role. This might include the opportunity to build new skills or contribute to a compelling company mission.

Company Description

• In addition to a description of what your company does, articulate your company’s approach to career development and list behavioral values that guide how work gets done.

Required Qualifications 

• Include the skills a candidate will need to show up and be successful on day one. This includes not only technical skills but also behavioral skills such as communication, persuasion, adaptability, etc.
• Be specific about competencies/skills required that are not educational-degree or experience level specific. This reduces the chance of applicants having to guess if they’re a good fit before they begin the application and interview process. 
• Is a certification or form of education (e.g., college major) necessary for this role? Unless the position requires specific science/math knowledge only transferable via a particular degree, don’t limit your job opportunities to specific majors.
• List other ways the candidate could have acquired the skills and knowledge you need without having a degree or certification. This avoids closing the talent pool to only members of specific economic/academic backgrounds and ensures compliance in some countries.
• If the role requires knowledge of certain software or tools, list them one by one.

Preferred Qualifications

• Include the skills that would be nice to have, such as additional education, areas of expertise, or leadership skills. This section allows you to attract your ideal candidate while not limiting your reach by making the job description so specific that it turns away candidates who meet the required qualifications.

Additional Information

Include the compliance statements standard in your region. These may include:

• Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
• Fair Chance Ordinance (FCO)
• Candidate Data Privacy Notice 

Example Job Description

The following job description may or may not be similar to how your organization currently writes job descriptions. The purpose of this example is to demonstrate how you can weave skills into the qualifications section of the job description without having to make a separate list of skills. By tying each job duty to the skills required to carry it out, you give candidates the opportunity to self-assess their current skillset and imagine themselves in the role. 

Skills-based hiring does not stop at the job description. Writing the job description in this way becomes a baseline for how you evaluate the candidate. For each skill in your list, consider how you will evaluate it. For example, to evaluate program design skills, you could ask a behavioral question such as, “Tell me about a program you designed and implemented.” 

A well-designed hiring process with multiple interviewers will have predetermined skill-based questions for each interviewer. This way, questions don’t get repeated and you can put together a picture of the whole candidate as a team.

Position Title: Customer Service Manager

Skills-based verbiage in bold

Job Description

The Customer Service Manager is responsible for ensuring the satisfaction of our customers. This position will report to our Managing Director, and keep them up to date on activities within the Customer Service department. In this job, you will supervise the daily operations of the customer service representatives, create a reliable customer loyalty program, and manage the relationships with customers, including handling customer queries and complaints. You will get the opportunity to build relationships with our valued customers, make an impact on our contract renewal rate, and foster team spirit among a group of dedicated employees.

Indicates the benefits an employee will receive from working in the role.

Company Description

The Fuller Organization is a company rooted in cleaning values. The organization founded in 1875 helps customers achieve high levels of cleanliness at a reasonable cost.  We pride ourselves on our customer relationships and strong customer loyalty. Working with the Fuller team is exciting, fast-paced, and will reward you with the knowledge that your work contributes to peace of mind and environments that meet high standards of hygiene.  At Fuller, we value the growth and development of every team member.  Our core value “Thrive together” means that we learn from each other and grow from it. We believe at Fuller you will not only find a great place to work, but also a great place to grow, learn new skills, and develop your career. 

Articulates the company’s approach to career development and lists behavioral values that guide how work gets done.

Qualifications

• To manage a time of five customer service representatives, you’ll need skills in leadership and strong coaching skills.
• A new customer loyalty program is a key initiative for our business. You’ll rely on project management and program design skills to design and implement this core program.
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally is essential to this role as you will be communicating with stakeholders across the marketing and services teams to execute the customer loyalty program and communicate results to business teams on an ongoing basis. Your skills in survey development and analysis with help you contribute to our team’s continuous improvement.
• Your skills in customer interaction, problem-solving, negotiation, and communication will help us deliver unparalleled service that keeps our customers coming back.
• You are a fast learner with new systems and have demonstrable skills with word processing software, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Includes the skills a candidate will need to show up and be successful on day one.

Lists required tools/software

Avoids listing educational requirements or years of required experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Two or more years of experience managing teams in a customer service environment.
• Experience in the service industry

Includes nice-to-haves

Additional Information

This is a full-time, salaried role that covers a Monday-Friday day shift. We offer health, vision, dental, life, and disability insurance, 401(k) matching, an employee assistance program, parental leave, and paid time off.

The Company provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type, without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Includes useful details about the job, benefits information, and compliance statements

Learn how to hire for skills

To learn how to build skills-based hiring into every aspect of your TA process, download our ebook, A Practical Guide on Hiring for Skills

They know the ins and outs of recruiting great candidates, but does your organization know the best processes for hiring a full-time talent acquisition professional?

Business growth starts and ends with hiring the right people, and as your organization continues to add employees, issues around people management, workflow processes, and legal regulations become more complex. A solid HR foundation is critical to business success, and the bricklayers of people operations are Human Resources professionals. You know this, and so do the candidates applying to your organization’s nascent, or nonexistent, TA team.

Hiring for these roles is difficult for startups that are busy focusing on developing product and honing business objectives, but beware waiting too long. According to renowned Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen, “The number of companies in the Valley that put HR off to the side and decided it wasn’t important and are now dealing with some level of catastrophe—either a public catastrophe or one that’s in the making … and it’s totally unnecessary. If they had taken HR seriously at an earlier point, they probably would have been able to fight a lot of their issues.”

Establishing an effective HR department is critical to growing your business, building company culture, and managing employees. Here’s how to hire a top-quality HR professional at the right time for your company, from crafting a solid job description to what to ask during an interview.

At What Stage Does Your Business Need a Full-Time HR Hire?

The short answer is: the earlier the better. From a legal perspective, organizations with 50 or more employee begin encountering state and federal regulations like the Family and Medical Leave Act. Hiring a HR professional is an absolute must after crossing this threshold.

For smaller startups, tight finances may be the biggest hurdle when launching a Human Resources department, but the greatest success happens when HR is considered early in the process, even before the recognized need for an HR function. For startups with limited financial resources, hiring a full-time HR professional may not be an option, which is why outsourcing the job to a consultant can be a cost-saving alternative. Seasoned advisors bring value and impact to organizations by leveraging strategic TA to drive business growth at any company size.

“It’s about asking what would you like to achieve from the business side—what are the business objectives,” said Anna Brandt, HR Advisor at Backbase and N26. “Then, it’s about asking how do we make sure that the recruitment plan or TA strategy will support the delivery of those objectives?”

Business objectives should also be a consideration when developing a profile for what kind of HR professional your organization needs. For example, if data privacy and compliance are important to your industry, then it’s crucial your HR hire is knowledgeable and experienced in the legal regulations affecting your organization.

Likewise, fast-moving startups will need someone who can multi-task, has high-energy, and is able to switch gears quickly. The ideal candidate for an e-commerce corporation might look very different, so aligning your organization’s HR goals with the ideal candidate profile can help refine the search when it’s time to hire.

Job Descriptions for HR Managers and Recruiters

As with any job posting, you will want to outline the core functions of the role. Key responsibilities for an HR professional may include:

• Organizing departmental planning, including hiring and termination policies
• Overseeing employment and compliance with federal and state regulations
• Implementing performance management and improvement systems
• Managing employee salary, bonus incentives, and other compensation programs
• Managing employee safety, welfare, wellness, and health
• Organizing employee training programs
• Managing employee relations, including fielding complaints, concerns, and feedback
• Offering employee services and counseling

Depending on the size of your organization, it may be important to emphasize how the role could evolve over time as the HR department expands, bringing changes to the role and its responsibilities. But, be careful to avoid clichés like “ad hoc responsibilities”, which can deter great candidates.

Tech Proficiency Matters

Technological innovation like artificial intelligence is advancing exponentially, and the HR industry invests billions of dollars in new tools for recruitment, performance management, engagement, training, inclusion, and analytics. “Recruiting has really been transformed these past years,” said Hessam Lavi, Director of Product at SmartRecruiters. “We’ve seen a shift from HR and recruiting coming from an admin function, or merely a cost center, to much more of a strategic function.”

Today’s HR professionals need a strong understanding of modern HR technology, like automated sourcing tools, talent acquisition suites, and candidate relationship management integrations. That’s why strong HR candidates know how to implement technology to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks, improve data quality, and free up more time for value-added tasks. This requires an understanding of the HR tech tools available in the market and an ability to pitch business leaders and stakeholders on investments that will yield a high potential return.

Interview Questions for HR Professionals

HR managers and recruiters are expected to be on the front lines of hiring new talent for your organization, which means you need to understand their ability to assess and interview potential candidates. Sample questions for HR professionals may include:

• How will you drive results in your role?
• How do you conduct job terminations?
• What kinds of interview questions do you typically ask?
• Describe a difficult encounter with an employer/manager/colleague and how you handled it.
• Describe a time when you didn’t follow policy or had to deviate from policy.
• How would you deal with an unethical situation? Any examples?
• What kinds of trends do you think will shape the future of HR departments in the coming years?

As with any strong candidate, responses should drive positive conversations, demonstrate thorough research of the company, and reinforce the importance of HR’s role in the company’s overall business growth strategy.

The End Goal

At the end of the day, hiring a HR professional will allow your company to develop better employees and hit your company growth goals. According to Marjorie Adams, President and CEO of Fourlane, “An internal HR person will improve internal processes and development, including tracking vacation time, improving performance review process, helping employees set goals and managing benefits. After all, a business owner doesn’t have the time or talent to take these tasks on, let alone do a good job administering them.”

The average job description is a breeding ground for meaningless corporate babble, but it’s mostly these six overused, vacuous phrases that steer candidates away rather than hold their interest.

To excel at anything requires a finely honed BS meter, and few things fail the smell test like overused corporate jargon in the workplace. Seeing the same phrases in your company job descriptions is equally groan-inducing for candidates. Writing job descriptions can feel like a time suck for recruiters who are pressured to quickly fill multiple positions, and this often results in job postings riddled with office lingo that end up discouraging qualified candidates from applying. More words do not equal more meaning, and a word salad can hinder the process, taking three times longer to fill the open position.

You want accurate and engaging job descriptions to attract high-quality talent, improve your organization’s time to hire, and drive more candidate traffic to your company. Job seekers read a lot of job descriptions—natch—and can see through hollow jargon, so before you put anything out there, take a break, read it again, get a second pair of eyes, and purge your JD’s of the following howlers. You’ll only look better in the end.

1. “The fast-paced environment”
This all-too-common phrase in the startup world tries to mask the reality that a new hire will start his or her first day weeks behind schedule with no one available to train them. A common excuse for this is a lack of “bandwidth”–another word to avoid unless you’re hiring at an internet provider–means that no one has the time or motivation to invest in training a new employee. If your organization needs to hire someone who can get up to speed quickly, outline what the candidate is expected to learn and accomplish within the first few months of the role.

2. “Excellent interpersonal/communication skills”
A recruiter should be able to tell from a quick glance at a candidate’s resume and cover letter whether or not he or she is organized and articulate. Instead, listing these “soft skills” suggest a new hire shouldn’t be abrasive or disagreeable with other employees. Instead, give practical examples of how public speaking, presentations, or collaborative projects are major functions of the role, and how candidates can succeed in these areas.

3. “Self-motivation”, “self-starting”, “proactive”
Translation: We want someone to predict the future, to know exactly what management wants, when they want it, and without them asking for it. Rather than these descriptors, use the job description to define expectations for the role, establish clear metrics for success, and goals that demand high-level job performance.

4. “Amazing, fun company culture”
Beyond the meaningless superlatives that do nothing to describe the company’s function or culture, phrases like this show that company leadership has only just discovered the concept of employer branding. Some companies will praise their office perks as a way to distract from underwhelming salaries. Employees are a company’s greatest brand advocates, so find ways to highlight the workplace culture through testimonials and other positive messages, rather than throwaway BS no one can define.

5. “Competitive salaries”
While salaries can be negotiated with respect to a candidate’s prior work experience, this term mostly means a company will ask for your expectations and cull the CVs asking more than they can pay. Financial compensation is one of the top concerns for prospective candidates, and with job aggregators like Glassdoor advertising estimated salary ranges in candidates’ search feeds, companies are much more likely to attract and convert candidates with an accurate salary range.

6. Hashtags. Stop it with the hashtags—you’re a grown-up
Job descriptions can feel dry, but it’s far better to err on the side of formality than feign cool, and using hashtags to convey a sense of playfulness. This doesn’t impress serious candidates. Even if you’ve been dying to trend #spreadsheets4lyfe, odds are candidates will take you less seriously if your job description reads like an Instagram caption. Make a strong statement with your company brand— it speaks louder than even the choicest of trendy hashtags. #tryharder

Data from a recent LinkedIn study reveals what candidates actually care about when they weigh their employment options via your job ads, and it’s not “company culture”.

LinkedIn asked 450 candidates to review the example job ad (pictured below) and to highlight the passages they felt most relevant/ likely to make them apply. What the world’s leading business networking site found, from the resulting heat map, is that is it’s time to ax the verbiage and talk details.

Think of a job ad as a first touch, candidates will spend a couple seconds scanning dozens of similar posts to narrow down their job search to a few feasible options. They will want to know the who, what, where, when, and why, and little else.

As you can see from the heat map above, compensation was number one while company details ranked last. LinkedIn saw the same priority ranking from candidates when the participants were asked to name the most important aspects of the job description.

You can see what is important (money) and what is not (company-splaining). So, as hard as it is to face up to the fact that candidates could give a flying mousepad about the company description you agonized over, at least now you can get to writing a job ad people will actually read, and you’re going to do it by dropping these dated gimmicks.

Rambling description of the company mission

Don’t torture yourself creating a counterproductive flowery description, company name, function, location, and an embedded a career video at the bottom is more than enough.

Desired skills and personality traits

Instead of a vague list with flat lines like “team player” or “multi-tasker,” give readers a precise list of responsibilities, like the number of people the new hire will manage, the departments they will work with, and what success in the role looks like.

Compensation DOE (depends on experience)

Compensation and benefits are the two most important details you can include to encourage candidates to click apply so don’t shy away . Give a range of compensations and name some of the benefits of your workplace like “childcare” or “gym membership,” even if it’s simple as “bottomless kombucha” these simple perks will catch applicant attention.

Here is a step-by-step how-to guide for writing the perfect vacancy announcement.

1. Write a descriptive job title

Always follow this golden rule: write a job title that is simple and engaging at the same time. While job titles like ‘Full-Stack Frontend Ninja’, ‘Content Creative’, or anything to do with superheroes are common, they aren’t actually fit for purpose, i.e. clarifying what exactly the position is. Avoid jargon and make sure to use relevant, searchable keywords. If you’re looking for an SEO-focused Online Marketer, you should clearly express this in the job title.

2. Positively introduce the company

Your company description needs to be short, snappy and interesting to capture the attention of potential candidates very quickly. More detailed company information should be moved to the end of the post for interested parties that want to learn more about the company. Always include the following information:

Who are you?

What is the company offering the position? What products or services do you offer? What is the company mission? Do you operate internationally? Make sure to list any awards, major achievements or anything that you think makes you an interesting employer.

Why are you hiring?

Clarify exactly why the company is hiring. Is the company expanding? Are you restructuring? Do you need cover for parental leave? Make sure that a potential candidate knows exactly what to expect.

3. Describe the position

In a short paragraph, briefly, describe the position being offered using positive language, but be realistic and avoid using hyperbole. Use bullet points to list the most important responsibilities and any relevant obligations to make it easier to scan. What kind of experience level will be expected of the candidate? Will they have to manage a team? Does this role report directly to the CEO? How big are the company and the team in which they’ll be working? Jargon is out of place here, so make sure to use common expressions that everyone can understand.

4. List specific skills and requirements

Now, switch your focus from the position to the candidate. What should the person bring to the position? It’s a good idea to divide this list into ‘must-haves’ and ‘good-to-haves’, e.g. perhaps fluent English is a must-have, and any other languages are a plus!

Any Visa or legal requirements should be listed here too, keeping in mind current legislation. For example, in many countries, it’s illegal to specify gender, ethnicity or any other detail that may be considered discriminatory. As an example, in Germany, it’s illegal to specify ‘Native German speaker’/’German as mother tongue’ as a requirement. The correct way to express the required language level is to say ‘Fluent German’/’Native-level German’. Make this list very brief and to the point.

What personal qualities would the ideal candidate have? Rather than just listing traits (e.g. good communicator) it’s a good idea to describe behaviour like, “As Comms Manager, you need to be able to write precise, print-ready texts under pressure”. Only list points that are relevant to the position, and don’t overdo it! Again, no ninjas required.

5. Describe what sets you apart as an employer

Candidates aren’t only looking for a suitable position, they’re also looking for a great company. In a short paragraph, describe what candidates can expect from you. What is the company culture like? What does a normal day look like at the office? What benefits do you offer to employees? What do you offer employees in terms of personal and professional development, including any seminars, workshops or training?

6. Give details on what happens next

Tell candidates how to apply for this position. How should they submit their documents? Who should they contact with any questions they might have? How exactly does the application process work, and what should they expect if they are called for an interview?

7. Include company background

If you wish, at the end you can add a few vital statistics about the company, e.g. foundation year, list of investors, name(s) of manager(s), etc.

So, it’s not rocket science! In as little text as possible, try to convey as much information as you can. The language that you write it in should, of course, depend on the position and the distribution channels that you use.

If you want to know exactly how successfully your job ads are performing, you can use our free employer’s’ tool which includes a company profile, job ads (also free!), performance and candidate analysis tools, and plenty of scope for employer branding.

Republished from Jobspotting and updated November 14, 2017.

At first, I struggled to keep from giggling.  Two years IS a long time to wait to decide you made a mistake accepting your job.  But as I listened to her talk; I started to get why she was so upset.  She had originally accepted a Business Partner role for a small company of 400 employees.  During the recruiting process, she had been given a job description with clear duties reporting to the President.  The first couple of months, she actually did some of the duties that were listed in the recruiting materials and job description…. enough that she assumed that as she “proved herself” she’d be trusted with those she had yet to do.  Her boss never told her and she wasn’t going to rock the boat as the new employee so didn’t ask.

As time passed, instead of “growing into” the role she had accepted and expected; she found herself as a “catch-all” for whatever they needed done.  She grabbed dry-cleaning, catered lunches, filled in for nannies, handled A/P when Accounting was overloaded, negotiated contracts with vendors for Purchasing, helped redesign marketing programs and handled a lot of HR duties.  While she could have skipped being the errand girl; at first, she thought that the cross-functional exposure was kind of cool.  It was like an unofficial ‘high potential’ program that exposed her to other areas of the business.

But, at review time, she took a hit:  she hadn’t been doing a defined job role, so there were no real metrics against which to judge her performance levels.  She hadn’t kept track of all the odd-ball jobs and “off-description” duties she’d been doing – so, she had no case to leverage and she didn’t get a bonus, nor a raise.

Time marched on and she still wasn’t doing her original role but she had done a good job of keeping track of all the oddball responsibilities she had.  She was still enjoying the diverse exposure she had in the business but.. it was getting less challenging and more messy. Multiple departments and subsidiaries all had work for her to do – at the same time that all were “top priority.”  She now had NINE unofficial “bosses” in addition to her actual boss.

At review she got a bonus; but not a raise.  The justification was that she hadn’t improved in her mis-defined role and furthermore, they’d discovered another problem:  there was nowhere for her to ‘grow’ to next.  She knew a little about a lot of different facets in the company; but hadn’t developed a real expertise in any of them given her limited involvement with each. Her boss saw her as invaluable for the personal errands she ran for him without complaint; but, he reasoned, you can’t give someone a raise because you like them and they weren’t large enough for “levels” of the same role to make her a Sr. Business Partner.  That’s when she left to call me.

I sympathized; but couldn’t help thinking her employer could have prevented if appropriate steps had been taken back in planning stages of recruiting for the role by:

1)  Charting out ALL of the possible tasks that you expect this role might handle.  If you’re the president and that includes picking up your dry cleaning? You need to be honest up-front (write a transparent job description) and have that discussion during the recruiting process so your new employee doesn’t feel duped or under-valued when you had over the retrieval ticket.  Also, be realistic: there are 40-hours in most work-weeks. Whatever you’re going to have them doing; you need to make sure your planning duties that -as a norm- fit into that 40-hour work-week.  If it’s consistently more than that, then make sure you level with the candidate before you hire them.

2)  Making metrics a MUST.  If your new employee could be performing cross-functionally or is in a high-potential program; take the time to make performance metrics to measure how effective they were with what they were tasked to do and learn in each area.  Also be sure to graph out how much time each department will get from that employee so they can budget what’s tasked to them appropriately – realistic expectations are great expectations when it comes to Talent Management.

3)  Allowing the buck to stop with the “Big Boss.”  Multiple managers and dotted-line reporting structures can be an employee’s “professional purgatory” when not well-defined and supported.  The fastest way to confuse your newly-recruited employee is to not set expectations as to how each of the cross-functions fit from a time-management and priority perspective.  Business needs can cause this to shift at times; but let everyone know who’s on first, second, etc. Finally, make sure they know they can come to you when demands or business needs conflict with their understanding or ability to perform.

4) Planning performance management that never stops.  Don’t wait for review time to tell an employee that what you’ve been directing them to do – or the extra projects they pick up – will keep them from advancing/performing in your company.  This is their career and it’s another time where the buck stops with you.  As an employer, YOU recruited the employee, YOU directed or allowed performance to veer on a different course than originally charted, and YOU are equally responsible for providing an environment where your employee’s career can flourish.  Otherwise, as hiring outlooks continue to improve you can set your expectations from ‘employment greatness’ to that of frustrated employees and a regular need to re-recruit for what will likely be a revolving door.

Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.”