Setting the Stage: Creating the Navigational Map

Editor’s Note: Moving forward in our Hire Aspirations series of articles, we will be making several recommendations that should be considered guidelines to build upon and create a customized approach for you and your company.
TL;DR: Serenity Is Multi-Faceted Blockchain Based Ecosystem, Energy Retailer For The People, Focusing On The Promotion Of Sustainable Living, Renewable Energy Production And Smart Energy Grid Utility Services.

A job description is the navigational map for the entire hiring process. Its role should not be limited to a tool for job posting; it is much more than that. It is the introduction of the company to potential candidates. It contains the description of the role. It is also a tool by which the interviewers gauge candidates throughout the hiring process. A job description can help hiring managers rank what is important to them. It is an opportunity for peers to explain their day-to-day activity and set expectations for the candidate. It is a tool for the HR representative to evaluate potential candidates. It is an introductory message to potential candidates about your company and goals, as well as the culture and mission your company is trying to promote. Once hired, it is a tool for newly hired employees to understand their role and what goals they will be establishing for themselves.

It is very important to draft a well-written and concise job description to help reduce:

The number of applicants by ensuring the right person applies for the job.

Time spent sifting through applications, which will free up time for valuable one-on-one meetings with the candidate.

As you can see, the role of a job description is very important. The goal for this article is to outline the anatomy of a job description and to show its importance.

Anatomy of a Job Description

Once a hiring team is assembled and establishes both a communication channel and pre-planning process that maps out various critical stages, the next logical step is to create a job description. Before that happens, it is important to understand who will contribute to this portion of the process. The hiring manager and HR representative typically work together to assemble the job description. While this is a good start, we believe that there are other key contributors to this process. The people who will have the most effective and influential input into the creation of the job description are the peers of the potential new hire. Not only are they familiar with the day-to-day activity of the role, but they can also shed light on the different qualifications of the candidate. Is it enough for front-end engineers to be proficient in JavaScript or do they also need to know React or Angular? What level of proficiency is good for this role? Should the project manager be familiar with the Agile process or is a simple PMP certification enough? These are all questions that peers easily can outline. As we examine the anatomy of a job description, we will highlight the necessary steps and who will best contribute to this portion of the process.

Introduction of the Company

If the hiring process involves a meet-and-greet scenario, then this section of the job description will allow the company to introduce itself to the candidate. In this section, the company description, mission statement, goals and how this role will fit in the company’s larger strategic picture are just a few of the key attributes of the introductory section of the job description. A startup may want to stress the importance of the work that they are doing: “WeWork wants to expand the world’s consciousness!!” (okay, maybe a hyperbolic example, but you get the point). Medium-sized companies want to establish their resilience and what their future will look like. Since these are the first introductory words that the candidate will read about the company, be sure to make the elevator pitch a good one.

Description of the role

Once candidates learn about the company, they will want to know more about how they will fit in, and this is where you can expand further and talk about the specifics of their role. Key issues may include the group of people who the candidate will be working with and what that group is trying to achieve. There is also an opportunity to talk about the culture of the company and how the group fits within it.

Roles & responsibilities

In this section, a more precise list of roles and responsibilities will give the candidate better insight into the role and how they would be able to accomplish those tasks. When writing the list of roles and responsibilities, imagine as if it is the first day for that person and you are explaining day-to-day responsibilities. With this approach, the following rules apply:

List the most important information first. Each of these items listed will carry their own weight, so make sure that the most important ones are listed first.

Verbalize them in a way that the candidate (and eventual employee) will understand without having to be familiar with the culture and day-to-day activities of the group and company.

The first 2-3 bullets are the most important items on the list and will give the candidate the information needed to decide whether to apply for the position.

Remember that this list is not only a tool for the candidate, but it is also a tool for the hiring team to use throughout the hiring process. We will talk about how this is used in the future during the interview process and offer stage.

Qualifications

As you progress through the job description, the qualifications section helps candidates understand what kind of skills are needed for this position. It is also important for the hiring team to articulate the required skills needed. And this is where the peer interviewers on the hiring team will be very crucial to the process. As a hiring manager, one may know the skills needed. However, the peers of the candidate will know the intricate details of the position and how much of certain skills are needed. Many inexperienced managers and recruiters use it as a binary checklist. The candidate moves forward if all the qualifications are met. However, the actual qualification of the candidate is more nuanced than that. For a senior front-end engineer position, for example, some teams want the candidate to know ReactJS intimately, while others would prefer intimate JavaScript knowledge, understanding that frameworks like ReactJS can be learned on the job. It is important to properly verbalize this information. This is how the two different versions of the senior front-end engineer position would look:

Scenario 1: knowledge of ReactJS is very important

Proficient knowledge of ReactJS framework along with Redux and React Bootstrap is required.

Scenario 2: knowledge of general JavaScript is important

Proficient knowledge in a JavaScript environment is required. Our front-end framework of ReactJS, along with other JS libraries and NodeJS in the backend, make up the majority of our architecture.

As you can see, there is a difference between the two scenarios, but the need for transparency is similar and obviously important to landing the right hire.

Benefits

By this point, if candidates have read this far, you have grabbed their interest. Now they would like to know how they will be compensated for their skills. In this section, it is the company’s opportunity to again be as transparent as possible. We recommend the following information in the benefits section:

Salary range

Provide a range. You don’t want to waste time in the hiring team and candidate’s respective schedules if the salary range is not considered acceptable. Revealing this information at the beginning of the process is crucial.

Health and dental benefits

If you provide these benefits, it would be beneficial to not only list them, but also what percentage is paid by the company. If the company pays 100% of the health benefits, then that is a generous add-on to the total compensation package that the candidate should be aware of, especially in such a tight labor market.

401(k) matching contributions/stock options

Paid time off/allocated time

Other options such as tuition reimbursement programs or public-transportation assistance

Edits and More Edits

Treat the job description as a living document that will constantly be updated. During the interview process, when the interviewer asks the candidate, “do you have any questions?,” it is important to note the questions that are commonly asked. If the answer to some of the common questions can be placed in the job description, then it should be updated accordingly.

This is also the point where documenting such information in your selected documentation process becomes important. The job description will be documented and shared with the hiring team. As we move forward with the next section, which is the interviewing and communication process, we will dive deeper into the documentation process and its importance.

Setting the Stage: The Benefits of Pre-Planning

Editor’s Note Moving forward in our Hire Aspirations series of articles, we will be making…

Hire Aspirations

Apr 28 , 2022