published May 28, 2012

Maximizing the Results from Your Job Descriptions

Maximizing the Results from Your Job Descriptions

A good job description can help employers hit the target when searching for candidates for a vacancy in their company. Here are few other benefits of an effective job description:
  • It helps attract the best talent in the market through clearly defined duties and responsibilities
  • It reflects on a company's professionalism in terms of clarity of thoughts and expectations from employees
  • It sets the boundary for expectations of the employer and the employees
  • It removes ambiguity from the set of responsibilities an employee is expected to perform
  • It keeps employees in the right direction in their day-to-day roles and responsibilities
A successful job description can save heart burns for both employer and the employees. Now that we know how critical a good job description is, let's look at the components that make up a successful job description.

Job Title: Job titles significantly impact the way a candidate perceives a job. Job titles give a short, superficial peek into what the job entails for a candidate.

Clear Job Description: This is an overview of tasks related to the position at hand. It gives clear and concise information on tasks, stating upfront a set of expectations from the employee.

Roles and Responsibilities: This section is the most critical part of a job description as it details out all tasks expected to be performed by the employee. It gives full details of the employer's expectations from the employee to achieve during his/her tenure on the company.

Skill-set of the Employee: This lists down special skills required by the employee to perform his roles and responsibilities efficiently.

Minimum Criteria to Qualify for the Position: This contains the minimum educational qualification and training that the candidate requires to be even considered for the position.

Career Growth Path: This lists down future opportunities for growth of the employee within the organization – this helps attract good talent. Candidates with defined career goals are able to envision their upcoming career graph with the one they are set to achieve.

A company's requirements and expectations from a job position change with time. Employers must be careful not to base a new job description on a past one to be able to meet the company's objectives, effectively. Employers must prioritize tasks for the employee in the job description rather than stating them as a random list of tasks. And last but not the least, employers must not dump every task that they can think of, while compiling the job description, as this may result in to an over-burdened position that few candidates may be interested to take up.

Conclusion: An effective job description can help employers attract people who are right for the position and the company. If your job description is well-written, you will certainly benefit out of a shorter process of reviewing resumes and you will strike your luck in minimum time.

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