The best job descriptions bring to life for the candidate what their day might look like, who they’ll work with, what they’ll accomplish and what the culture is like.
If you feel that your job descriptions are not reflecting your brand, we’ve put together some simple tips to help you give them a refresh.
1. Focus on outcomes
If you start with the question “What does success look like?” it stops you from listing all the things you think a candidate needs to get the job done. Consider moving to impact job descriptions that help candidates understand what you want them to achieve for instance in 3 months, 6 months and 12 months.
2. What’s unique about you?
There will be something special about your organisation that you can shout about in your job descriptions. It might be your relaxed culture, your approach to hybrid working, your family-friendly policies, or perhaps career development opportunities.
3. Be inclusive
Be careful about the language you use on your job descriptions – it could be putting off the best person for the job from applying! Consider using tech tools like Textio or Gender Decoder to help you get it right.
4. Bring out your marketing skills
Think of writing job descriptions as a marketing exercise rather than an HR process. Get creative about how you could bring the job to life using for example social media, video, interviews, graphics etc. You could even ask your marketing team to help!
5. Get your hiring managers involved
Introduce potential candidates to their future line manager as soon as possible in the process. Get your hiring managers to connect with candidates through video or audio embedded into the job description to help share insights into what success in the role looks like, what vision the department has and what aspects of the role are most enticing.
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