What is a job description?

Modern-Day job descriptions include a little more in today’s world than they did the past. Traditionally, a job description has been limited to describing the skills and competencies needed of the employee to fulfil their role, what day-to-day activities the job will be, and where they will fit in the overall company hierarchy. 

Today, however, although job descriptions include the above information, they also focus on the employee value position (EVP) of their organisation, the benefits of taking the role, and the company’s mission statement and culture.

In today’s world where candidates are consumers, and they expect to be treated like one, you need to make them really buy into what you and your organisation are working towards if you want them to even consider applying for the role.

6 Tips on how to write a Job Description

1. Choose a clear & specific job title.

Lately, we’ve seen Linkedin flooded with job titles from ‘Word Ninja’ to ‘Data Rockstar’ to ‘Tech Guru’. Aimed to attract millennials and put a more interesting ‘spin’ on a role, employers seem to be missing the point completely. Not that this is anything new in the tech world, where roles like chief rockstar and chief inspiration officer have been around forever… but why try to cover up the reality of a role with flashy words?

Rather than incorporating buzzwords into job titles, organisations should spend more time building out the role, choosing a clear and specific job title that really sums up the role.

Tell them what they are really applying for!

2. Open with a strong summary

You have to sell your organisation’s dream if you want them to get on board! In today’s world, candidates have more choice than ever, so you have to show them how they align with your organisation. They need to come to work and feel that they see purpose in your vision and what they are working towards.

Open by summarising to your potential candidates why your organisation was created, what is the vision. Rather than getting caught on the nitty-gritty of what your organisation does, candidates will feel more connected with something they can relate to.

3. Be as clear as possible about the role’s responsibilities and duties

It’s important to be completely transparent with candidates when writing your job description, particularly when it comes to role’s responsibilities and duties. Start by listing core responsibilities from a high-level view. For example, you could say “responsible for social media”. From there you should list what this means from a day-to-day perspective. Here you can go into further detail, where you might say “daily posts to LinkedIn”. 

This means that you’ll find the right candidate, by attracting the ones who feel that the role is a perfect fit for them and deterring the ones who aren’t interesting. It’s effectively a great tool to shortlist your candidates, without having to do any of the screening!

4. List down the hard and soft skills that you’re looking for. 

When writing your job description, it’s important to include both hard skills and short skills. Hard skills are skills that you can teach and are measurable abilities. This includes skills such as maths, programming, design and writing. In comparison, soft skills are traits that make you a good employee and essentially build up the culture of an organisation. These include communication skills, leadership styles and work ethic.

Obviously specific hard skills are essential for each role, but soft skills are what will really make someone a good employee and a good fit for your business. Take the time to agree with your leadership team what really matters to your organisation, and include this in the job description. 

5. Know your keywords!

So that the right people can find your job description, be sure to include the keywords they’re searching for when looking for a job. Instead of using job titles that you might think sound quirky like “content ninja”, you should make sure you include the actual title of “content manager”. 

Often people will go straight to Google when searching for a role, so if you want to increase your chances of your job being found by the right people, be sure to know your keywords!

6. Don’t forget your call-to-action!

One common mistake when writing a job description, is that people don’t give a specific enough call-to-action at the end of their description. An instant reaction of a candidate is to simply send in their resume, but if you want something more, such as a cover letter which answers specific questions, you really need to call this out clearly. 

Give the candidate the right opportunity to impress you!

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