All you need to know about writing a job description to attract competent employees who want to stay.

We have put together a comprehensive guide on you need to know about writing a job description to attract competent employees who want to stay. Your overall employee turnover rate is going to impact your work culture, productivity levels and the general impression of your firm among the employees. There are direct costs of hiring, rehiring, training and retraining involved too. 

The best strategy when it comes to hiring is that to make sure your team is onboarding talent that works for you and wants to stay. The cost of an employee that leaves your organization mid-contract or during the probationary period is huge and requires only a few tweaks in the hiring process to be resolved.

You will need to focus on the job description in order to get the resources that suit your firm. Here are the three main areas to focus when writing the job description:

  • Defining the need
  • Outlining the criteria
  • Explaining the incentive/environment

Requirement gathering

Before hiring someone your organization has to pin down the exact role that the hired person will carry out. The recruitment process is very straight-forward. But, before you jump into the simple steps it is important to make sure that you know exactly what tasks and roles does the candidate need to undertake on a daily basis. You must know the time these tasks will occupy, the significance of these tasks and the skills needed. 

Every organization has a different mix of skilled resource and requirements. Finding the right person requires outlining them in a way that the candidates can critically assess their abilities and chances of fitting in appropriately. 

The cost of hiring an employee who feels they are unfit for the role are too many. Making sure that the need is essential is another thing. Sometimes organization hire people and then shuffle them in new roles. The shuffling creates turmoil within teams and that discomfort disturbs work harmony, productivity and job satisfaction of everyone involved.

The cost of not knowing who you need can be eradicated if a job description is laid out using time blocking, whereby the candidates can picture the start of the day to the end of it and know what to expect when they apply for the position. 

A detailed JD is much better than a brief JD that is intended to give the organization margin for pivoting. Too many people may apply if the role and tasks are not specific enough, making it hectic to sift through all the applicants during the later stages.

Key Elements of a Job Description

  • Functions and role (Department and the role within the team)
  • Smart goals/Responsibilities
  • Skills, educational and experience background
  • Qualifiers that can help the candidate assess themselves (e.g equipped in using digital mediums like Facebook, or comfortable working in PST 9:00)
  • The organizational hierarchy or who the candidate will be reporting to
  • Future of the role (Bonuses, growth, promotions and expected timelines)

Pre-Qualify Candidates (save your own time and energy)

You can also talk about the company and industry to give the candidates the concept of who you are and what domain do you operate in. An idea or sketch of the team culture and working environment can further help them self-assess themselves and their performance at a place like yours.

Other factors that can help you get reasonable and interested candidates are mentioning the location of work, nature of work, hours needed from the candidate and so on. You should also mention your tolerance and intolerance for discipline and ethics. This should allow the applicants to know what to expect and make sure they are ready for it before applying. 

Including the salary, perks and bonus criteria can also motivate or streamline the candidates who apply.

Avoid these

Organizations often make these mistakes. 

  • They copy the job description for other places that can lead to trouble.
  • The team leads mention that they can do it themselves
  • They are not clear enough and that leads to the candidate doing everything without prior consent
  • Organizations want a kindred spirit who are available all the time not employees
  • Lack of clarity on the KPIs

This can lead to the right candidates turn away and quit when they find a better offer some place else. So you may need to work on this as well.

Summing-up

If you operate in a specific niche or require clearcut skills or have a unique environment and you do not want to hire a misfit then it is best that you layout your requirements tidily in a job description. 

Once you get that right, the right candidates will be attracted to the job and you will get to choose which one suits you the most. The chosen ones will stay as long as your requirements in the job description and all prior communication were consistent in accordance to the work, realistic and unbiased. Happy hiring!