How to Write Terrific Job Descriptions

As an HR professional, among your list of responsibilities is the requirement to write enticing job descriptions to attract the very best candidates. The art of putting together such descriptions easily learned with a few steps. Here’s how to do it:

Understand your audience

In order to put together a job description that will attract the attention of the very best individuals, you must understand what they are looking for. So, set about doing this by looking at what other companies hiring for similar roles do and even talking to potential candidates to get to know what boxes they want to see ticked when they are looking at a job description. What do they want to see, and what do they not want to see? That is often just as important! Don’t reinvent the wheel but instead seek to improve upon job descriptions that already exist.

Be precise and concise

Take into account feedback from potential candidates, but often you will discover they are turned off by lengthy job descriptions which do not actually give the desired information. Instead of getting to the point quickly, many job descriptions try to say an awful lot, but don’t do it very well at all.

“Candidates are likely perusing a lot of positions/jobs, so what stands out about yours? Not only should it be unique, you should say what you want to say quickly and accurately. That will catch the eye of the candidates you are looking for,” advises Michael Sanderson, an HR professional at Revieweal and Australianreviewer.

Get some help

Not all of us have a set of skills directly aligned for this task, and as an HR professional, writing skills may not be  one of the talents that you have had to develop before. So how do you set about it?

Remember that there are countless online services which assist in everything from layout to editing to proofreading and beyond. Here are some examples:

• Bestbritishessays can assist with those all-important editing tasks, ensuring you cut what you don’t need and keep what is essential
• Likewise, Simplegrad will assist in editing activities but will then help you in proofreading to ensure your copy is free of errors and reads well.
• Write My Paper will also provide invaluable assistance in presentation, layout, editing and proofreading, giving you all-rounded help in the task at hand.

Get feedback

Once you have developed a job description that you believe fits the bill, now is the time to get some important feedback. Run a test with a couple of ads to see what kind of response you get, and engage with other professionals to see what they advise in terms of improvements that can be made. Going at this alone will not lead to the best results, as putting together a great job description involves the buy-in of colleagues in a few different areas. Which brings us to..

Make it a collaborative effort

Be aware that it is unlikely you can do this perfectly alone. Indeed, you shouldn’t even have to, because the result will be infinitely better if this becomes a group effort with professionals with different backgrounds bringing their expertise to the table.

“It is doubtful that you will get this right the first time round because it is a trial-and-error process. Experts will not necessarily be the best job description writers as they might get bogged down in the technical aspects, while HR and marketing experts might lack some of those exact details. So it should be a group effort, involving feedback from all,” suggests Tom Baldock, an HR at UKTopWriters and UKServicesReviews.

Use analytics

Depending on what platform you use to advertise, it is likely that there will be analytics available to see what the response is to your job description. Use these insights to tweak as necessary, and remember that standards are always changing, so never consider this job totally finished. Job descriptions will evolve just as the industry does, so stay on the ball and keep track of developments. Make sure that you use the key buzzwords that are hot in your industry right now (once again engaging a professional to assist you here will be key) and then keep your finger on the pulse and make changes as necessary.

Conclusion

Writing terrific job descriptions will be an ongoing process, and don’t expect perfection straightway. Get the necessary help, as well as vital feedback, and see this as an ongoing process in which you pay close attention to changing trends.

About the Author

HR professional Aimee Laurence can be found offering her expert insights at Paper Fellows and Writing PhD thesis, where she writes about how to build a career in the profession. She also tutors on the Uni assignment service platform.