3 Steps to Writing a Good Job Description

One big mistake many hiring managers make, and number 12 on our list of Hiring Mistakes, is to not really know what they want (hard and soft skills). To help you from falling victim to this potentially expensive mistake, we have put together the following strategy for you to follow the next time you need to hire a new employee.

Back filling an existing position is usually easy.  Hopefully the person leaving the position took the time to write up a complete job description along with instructions on his or her regular tasks.  In this case you have a clear blueprint of the type of skills and experience required for the job.

The situation gets tricky when you’re filling a new position or when the last person got fired for incompetence.  In either case, you may not be quite sure what this job requires.

To write a job description, follow these three steps:

1. Start with the bottom line – what is the product you want this person to produce?  Is it sales revenue  or number of assembled products?  Define exactly what you want along with the metrics of the position.  For example, if you hire a new salesperson, you can easily work out the revenue he would have to bring in within 6 months to justify his salary.  That would be a minimum.
2. Once you have the product fully worked out, make a list of the actions he would have to perform to obtain that product.  Then describe your ideal employee for that position, even if you think that person would be out of reach for your company. At this point you should be able to easily list out the skill sets, experience and education that would be required for your ideal candidate.
3. Finally, think of the soft skills and your company culture.  What type of person would fit in well with your other employees and customers?  Get this all stated and written down.You may need to get some of your staff to weigh in on this position or at least agree with what you have written.  It’s important to take the time to work this out before you start your hiring process.

Once you have it all worked out and written down in a concise manner, you have a blueprint for the ideal employee and you can start looking for candidates that match what you need.

If you would like to avoid these kinds of pitfalls altogether, Continental excels at finding you the right person for the job, with the skills you require and the personality that fits your corporate culture. Cut your risk with new hires and call Continental.

Thursday, July 29th, 2010, by admin and is filed under "Employers, Newsletters ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.