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If you’re looking to hire great people, you need to start with a great job description.
A great job description includes the necessary details about the job and (more importantly) a taste of your culture and who you are as an organization.
While great job descriptions aren’t a guarantee of hiring success, they’re a necessary first step and highlight a simple truth: top candidates won’t apply to a lame job posting.
Spice up your job descriptions with these tips
Sofia wanted to slam her head into her desk in frustration. Two months ago, her spa’s receptionist left with no notice. Now the busy spa was pure chaos, between clients checking-in, phone calls and all the miscellaneous tasks. Serenity Spa did not have serenity. . . . and Sofia so needed serenity .. NOW.
Her last attempt to hire a receptionist was a complete nightmare. After stumbling around trying to create a job description to post, she came across another company’s work … and might have copied it (kinda) and posted it up to the job board.
Then came the flood. 527 applicants in less than a week.
So many unqualified applicants.
Remote work from another province? No.
Outsource to India? No.
Do we need our website updated and design work done? C’mon, no.
And the migraine got worse. Sofia quickly stopped reviewing all the applicants and went in search of a pain killer.
Hey there! It’s Rascal. Yes, I’m breaking the 4th wall.
I *WISH* I could give you a fairy tale about how the hiring process is so smooth and you don’t get any bad applicants with a great job description.
That would be a fairy tale indeed. Can I live in that world? Please???
The truth is a great job description doesn’t stop all the bad applicants. It filters some (those who actually read it). What it really does is sets things up for great candidates.
Your job description is the first step in selling the role to a potential employee. That’s right, think of it as selling the role. Great potential employees will be attracted to a well written job description.
What do you need:
From the top, you want to get them excited about your business. Don’t be boring – integrate your culture, personality and passion into explaining the business. Think of this like an elevator pitch for a new employee.
Here are some things to include:
Next, talk about the role. Start with an overview of the position, including its mission (purpose) and the impact the person in that role will make.
Then dive into the responsibilities for the role. What are the things they will be doing from day to day?
Finally, the requirements – what are the things applicants need to be successful. This can be education, experience, location (is it remote work or in office?)
This is where you’re trying to “close” them and get them to apply.
Talk about the benefits, why it’s an awesome place to work, even the wages (range) if it’s appropriate.
Let your personality come through. You’re looking for a great cultural fit for the role, which means the quicker they get to know you, the better. Some of our favorite job descriptions have been “semi-formal” – very conversational and specific to the company.
Get good at filtering (<delete key>) applicants quickly. We’ve hired hundreds of positions over the years and there’s always an avalanche of bad applicants. One of my favorites was the house cleaner (with no technical background) in Mexico applying for a Director of IT role .. in Vancouver. Huh?
What happened in our little fairy tale? Sofia found RascalHR.
We’re better than the bottle of painkillers Sofia was searching for. RascalHR includes hundreds of job descriptions, ready for you to put your special touch on them, saving you hours.
Once she found her needle in the haystack, she created the employment contract in minutes using RascalHR and was able to get back to serenity.
It’s that easy to make the migraine-inducing parts of HR simple. Let us help you.