A well described job description
Understanding a job before you advertise it can deliver long term value to everyone involved, the organisation, the candidate, the management, the stakeholders and build a positive vibe and be transparent about your organisation. And you truly know what you want from your future colleagues.
Here are a few steps described that might help in getting a good job description out, which lives beyond the initial job advertisement and becomes a living document.
Get input from everyone who can make the job successful
Yes a job doesn’t just need a job family (Design, Product, Dev, HR) where it belongs to, to make it successful, it also needs stakeholders (including customers), and some jobs are really working out with stakeholders. It might be meaningful to understand from them.
(1) Discussion and survey
Start with a list of all important stakeholders, peers for the job. Prepare a list of questions you want to ask about the job and the expectations. Run an internal discussion or a survey to understand what does the job really mean to them, how can the job help achieve their outcomes.
The stakeholders could include managers, managers managers, close working groups, squads, even customers etc.
The questions you might ask, could include
- Why is this job important
- What is critical for this job to work effectively
- How can you help make this effective
- What kind of attributes would make this effective
It's important if you are the Hiring manager, you contribute to this document as well.
(2) Compile the list
You potentially now have a list of things you would want to include, it's time to compile it in a neat list and find patterns that make sense.
You will be better informed about the job, then the leading company with the most shiny job description.
Structure
Depending on your audience you might audience you might just make it formal, informal, or semi-formal. Since its a Document — document, and is referred to semi-formal is good, unless you are making a Job Ad disguised as Job description.
Either ways a good job description, delightful or not , funny or not. Should include whats most essential.
- Whats the job about (company, domain — introduction)
- What kind of a candidate we are seeking (attributes, persona)
- How would we know the candidate qualifies (qualifications and job requirements)
- Whats the company/ department about
- Why would you join this company
Job description beyond the interview process
A well described job description, which has the right content is a great image for what your stand for. Can live and be meaningful beyond just the hiring phase.
