Writing The Job Description

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The adage goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, but that is just what job seekers do. It’s what we all do. If the title or the cover of a book doesn’t interest you when you’re at the bookstore, you won’t open it and read the summary, much less purchase it. Just like a book cover, if your job description doesn’t catch a job seeker’s attention, you can miss out on a great new employee.

It can be a difficult and time-consuming task to write an effective job description. You must include all the right information, in an understandable way, to pique the interest of your ideal candidates. Many times, job seekers (especially passive candidates) simply skim through lists of job posts, so be sure to start off on the right foot.

More is almost always better when it comes to job descriptions. But you shouldn’t embellish descriptions to attract applicants – just make sure they have some meat.

Let’s review the basic sections of a job description:

 

Duties & Responsibilities

This is where you start creating the job description, and what the employee type, title, qualifications, location, salary, and other factors will be based on. Consider this section the foundation of your job description. Start by listing the basic duties you need an employee to perform, any anticipated activities they will be involved in, and expectations of the position. From this list, you can elaborate and fill in details, especially those which will be important to job seekers. You shouldn’t list every single little task, but every candidate should have a clear understanding of what the job will require of them when they apply. There should be no surprises for a new employee.

It can be a good idea to list the duties in order of priority and assign an estimated percentage of work time spent on each. This gives candidates a greater understanding of what their daily, weekly, or monthly schedule will entail.

 

Description

This is where you can provide a general overview, or summary, of the position. Remember, this is generally the first section of the published job description, and the first part candidates will see. Don’t get into a lot of the details of what the position is required to do, those should be listed in the Duties & Responsibilities section. Be sure you state what the position is, who it reports to, where it fits into the company hierarchy, if it will be a management position, and other basics.

This is also a great place to list things like benefits, a little information about the company, the branch/division the position is in, the products or services related to the position, information about the city/location, etc. We recommend writing this section last, so you can hit all the major points and encourage job seekers to read further.

The Description section is your chance to sell the job and your company to job seekers, so make sure it shines!

 

Job Title

Based on the Duties and Responsibilities section, you should have little, if any, problem determining the job title. Make sure the title will be understood by job seekers who are unfamiliar with your company. If “Specialist I” is a title for someone who works as a laboratory technician, you may want to advertise the position as “Laboratory Technician” or “Laboratory Specialist” to help job seekers easily understand the position when searching. It should be self-explanatory as this is the main, if not the only, part of a job description which appears in job listings.
Use standard industry titles to help you reach more job seekers, especially qualified ones.

 

Job Location

While many companies hire for positions which cover large territories, we still recommend including an approximate location. If you have a preferred location but really don’t mind if an employee resides outside of it, then put the general location in the job description, but specify the preferred location in the Description section. There’s almost always a preferred location.

Don’t put the location as “Midwest” if the employee needs to cover parts of western Iowa and northeastern Nebraska, be more specific. If you prefer that the employee reside in Iowa for tax or administrative reasons, then put the location as western Iowa. If a position needs to cover four counties in central Texas (and they should reside within their territory), then you can put central Texas as the job location, but specify that candidates are expected to reside within whichever four counties you determine are their territory. If the position will report to a specific location every day for work, then use that location.

Job seekers become frustrated very quickly when job posts don’t accurately describe the job, especially the job location. If they become frustrated with your job descriptions, they’re less likely to pursue any jobs they see from you, which is quite counter-productive. When you have many applicants for a position, but only 20% of them are in the location you described (or are willing to move there), you’ve wasted time, energy, and money (including the job seeker’s) with unproductive leads. Be as specific as possible!

 

Job Type

You should select either “Full-Time”, “Part-Time”, “Freelance” (Contractor), or “Temporary”. For Internships, you should probably choose “Temporary”.

It’s also a good idea to add the number of work hours expected on a per week basis to the Description section if the position isn’t full-time or if you expect the employee to work more than 40 hours per week on a regular basis.

 

Salary

In short: we recommend publishing a salary.

To clarify, we recommend most employers publish either a range, or the base salary. For example, if you have an hourly position which ranges from $14/hr. to $18/hr., depending on experience (DOE) or other conditions, you can publish it as “$14-18/hour, DOE”, or “$14+/hour, DOE”. The first option being the range and the second option being the base, both including the “DOE” condition which indicates what the final wage will be based on. Both options will help attract qualified candidates, so long as you’re in the ballpark for the industry average.

Job seekers tend to feel companies have something to hide when they don’t list salaries in job descriptions. It may not be fair, and you may have valid reasons for not publishing it, but that is the way they feel. In our opinion, there are more pros than cons to publishing a salary, so use a range or base as suggested above.

 

Additional Application Instructions

If you require specific information from candidates you should enter it here. For instance, if you require a résumé be submitted with the application, or you want a cover letter to list certain information, or you require 4 letters of reference, then enter that here. You should also include your submission preferences, with any necessary contact information, such as if you wish candidates to e-mail a resume or fill out a job application through your applicant tracking system (ATS).

 

Qualifications (Experience & Education)

Here you will enter the basic experience and education requirements you deem necessary to perform the job. Under Experience you should list the basic Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) candidates should have, in addition to the general work experience you desire. Remember to keep it to the most basic qualifications you consider adequate, or you will miss out on some great candidates.

 

Preferred Qualifications

This section lets you expand on the Experience and Education sections by listing the qualifications your ideal candidate would possess. Just keep it reasonable. Do you really think you will find a candidate with a PhD in plant pathology, with 15 years of related work experience, to fill your position for a crop scout?

 

Some Final Tips

  • Ask employees to write a job description for their own position, and update them at least annually. This will give hiring managers or recruiters a good base to start from when employees leave or similar positions become available. It’s also a useful tool during employee reviews.
  • Avoid jargon, unless knowledge of that jargon is expected for the job.
  • Avoid gender-specific pronouns such as he/she, him/her.
  • Be concise, but descriptive. You don’t want candidates to lose interest, but they do need information.
  • Be honest! Don’t exaggerate any part of the job description.
  • Have others review the description before posting. Get other employees who will work with the position, who work in a similar position, or who will have some management responsibility over the position to review the description and offer suggestions for improvement.
  • Edit the description if you aren’t getting results.
  • Show some personality in the writing, and get creative. People don’t want to work for robots!
  • Start applying what you’ve learned and visit our Job Board to start advertising your open positions today!

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