MAKING JOB DESCRIPTIONS WORK FOR YOU (PT 1)

Last time we looked at when you should hire new staff. In this edition we are moving on to the role of the job description that traditionally accompanies a position.

By and large, a job description (or specification) describes the job and then sets out the qualifications, responsibilities and skills an applicant should have. Usually the applicants also have to be able to work well in teams, be good communicators, be IT literate and career oriented.

In the current environment generic job descriptions like this, with the information detailed above, will generate huge volumes of applicant CVs. All of these have to be read and responded to, or even interviewed.

That means the already challenging task of recruiting a new member of staff is becoming even more onerous. As a result the CVs pile up, unread, whilst you cope with the existing staffing levels and you and your team work ever-longer hours trying to manage. As morale suffers, you end up taking the CVs home on a weekend to review them all.

Review done, typically, you (or - if you're lucky - your HR department) then try to arrange interviews with the strongest CVs. At this point you find that these are the candidates that don’t stay on the market for long, irrespective of the overall job market, as other companies are also on the look out for the best staff.

So the process then starts again, the job description goes out and you wait for the next tranche of CVs with the resolution that you will run the process more quickly this time.

My job is to help you hire the people who will make a positive difference to your organisation and my advice is that you should view a job description as part of the hiring process but not as a key part. In reality it only provides a very rough filter at the outset.

The real key is to define what your expectations are for any new hire if they are to be deemed a success, at the very outset of the hiring process. You should have clearly defined and measurable measures for success, and you should have clear and measurable required behaviours too.

Measuring Success

The success measures should specifically cover your expectations after 30 days, 90 days and 1 year.  There should also be success measures set for the end of the probation period, whenever you set it, so that the decision about whether to continue employing the person is not subjective but based on clearly defined expectations that have or have not been met.

By way of example, these are some samples of my expectations after 30 days and 90 days for when I  hire someone to train as a recruitment consultant:

In 30 days:

• To be fully cognisant of our database and able to demonstrate an in-depth ability to perform searches and enter all conversations on it.
• To be able to present a complete overview of the technical speciality they work in.
• To be able to have informed conversations with candidates in their sector.

In 90 days:

• To have met the targets set, leading through the recruitment process from obtaining the role, submitting CVs and setting up interviews; and having basic control of the process.
• To be able to effectively present candidates to clients.
• To be able to plan the day effectively and unsupervised.

The tasks must be SMART:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-bound

Many people find this process of defining expectations challenging as it is a different way of looking at recruitment. However, if you put the time in at the outset your hiring and training processes will be congruent and effective and you will have made a major step forwards, towards minimising the risk of making a poor hire.

Next time:

Once you have worked out what success for a new recruit will look like, the next step is to look at the behaviours expected to ensure success and in turn how to measure them; and how then to apply this approach to job description design.