A company is only as good as its employees: that’s why the hiring process is such a critical component of building a successful business. Without the right workers, productivity falls, and turnover rises, siphoning time and money. The right employees will do the opposite, increasing your productivity and developing into valuable long-term assets.
You might think conducting interviews and testing are sufficient when choosing the right hire, but there’s much more you could be doing to get the best candidates working for you.
The most important step in finding the right hire is writing the optimal job description.
Components of a job description
The optimal job description might require you to research the position and gather notes on the important attributes needed to fill the role.
The description itself should be as clear and concise as possible while at the same time conveying the duties and responsibilities of the position. It should also be clear about expectations of behavior and attitudes to minimize unwanted candidates from the pool.
Some information that is frequently included in a job description is the:
● Position Title
● Purpose of position
● Detailed description of responsibilities and tasks
● Qualifications desired/required
● Location of job
● Schedule
● Work environment
● Description of an ideal candidate
● Wage/benefits
Job descriptions affect hiring
A good job description will reduce the number of unqualified applicants and increase the number of qualified candidates. A bad job description will waste your time – and therefore your money – through interviews, background checks, and employee turnover, all of which could be mitigated by putting more thought into the initial job description.
The following four examples detail the ways in which a poorly-written job description can impact the hiring process:
1. A bad job description attracts bad applicants
Without a clear description of the responsibilities and qualifications desired, the primary purpose of the job description – to attract qualified candidates – is unfulfilled. An unclear or unstructured description will fill up your hiring pool with unqualified applicants that misunderstand the description.
Filling a position can be hard when applications are limited – but more isn’t always better. A vague job description might attract a greater pool of applicants. Conversely, a very specific job description may result in a smaller pool overall but increases the total number of more qualified candidates.
2. A good job description helps recruiters
A recruiter is undoubtedly a valuable tool that can assist you in the hiring process by streamlining the process and accessing a wide range of resources to find the best-qualified candidates. They often use computer applications to speed up the screening process.
Without an accurate or well-written job description, recruiters struggle to find candidates. If they do find any, it will take much longer than it would with a good job description.
Some recruiters need to spend time re-writing their client’s job description, which you may not agree with. This also takes up time and slows down the process.
To prevent these shortfalls and quicken the hiring process, make sure to provide all the critical information of the job description before hiring a recruiter. This will speed up recruitment and increase the likelihood of finding good candidates.
3. Unclear descriptions result in improper hires
As an advertisement to come work for your business, a job description serves the front-end role of communicating your company’s expectations and values. If you can’t seem to put those into words, it could be because you don’t know what you’re looking for.
To determine this, ask yourself what skills the candidate needs? What specific tools should they know how to use? How many years of experience should they have? Are there any occupational conditions that need to be satisfied by the candidate? (i.e. lifting 50lbs, Javascript).
Take a look at past employees that did good work. Identify what their competencies were and how they played to their strengths. For example, if you run a software company and your best employee quits, take a look at his time log to see what programs he spent most of his time using, then list these programs in your job description.
Spend time to make sure the list is comprehensive to avoid hiring the wrong applicant, which could siphon productivity and shrink your profit margin.
4. Poor job descriptions increase turnover
If you’re an employer you’re probably familiar with the frustrations of employee turnover. Studies suggest up to one-third of new employees quit their position within 6 months. Nobody wants to work at a job they dislike, and nobody wants to hire workers that dislike their job – so how does this happen?
If you aren’t forthright and direct about the details of the job, you risk employees leaving after realizing the true nature of the job. All the time you spent training that employee while providing a wage was wasted when the employee quit.
The real cost of that employee now combines with the loss in production and the cost needed to restart the hiring process. Avoid this scenario entirely by writing direct and detailed job descriptions. Make sure to include more than the basic information by describing your ideal candidate and the values of your company.
Combined, an appropriate job description will optimize your hiring and increase your bottom line with highly-qualified employees.
