Job description writing 101: how to get the right people interested
Let’s face it: we’re all guilty of dusting off an old job description and posting it as if it were brand new. After all, if a job is the same years later, nothing needs to change, right? I’ve reused existing job descriptions myself, changing a word or two to update them. Your job descriptions should change with every iteration of the position, but writing for a new position is an entirely different ball game. If you’re starting from a blank page, our comparison of the best AI job description generators can give you a first draft to edit.
Maybe you haven’t hashed out all the details yet, and that’s completely fine. But you do need to know what you’ll be asking from your future employee, and what’s in it for them. The point of a job description is to get the right people excited about working for you. Show them what you’ve got, and hopefully they’ll do the same.
Our top five tips on writing an effective job description for a new position
1. Make the job description clear, concise and inclusive
Job postings can scare off potential candidates with technical jargon and vague wording. Overly flowery language can describe an ambiguous role that the candidate may not feel qualified for. Even worse, a job description could use biased language that unintentionally assumes a candidate’s gender. (“We’re hiring a new frontend developer. He must have x years of practice, and he must have graduated from a top Ivy League school.”) You can avoid this with neutral language that leaves out pronouns and other assumptions entirely.
For example: “We’re hiring a frontend developer who is creative, driven and enjoys working in team oriented environments.”
To make sure your candidates know exactly what they’re applying for, always include:
- Everyday tasks and responsibilities
- Weekly, monthly and yearly goals and expectations
- Where the job sits in relation to others in the department or the direct supervisor
- Weekly hours or time commitment
2. Make your job posting transparent
Candidates want to know the pay early. Many employers hold back the salary until a candidate is seriously being considered, and at that point the candidate may have to walk away for financial reasons. All of their work, and yours, goes down the drain.
Skip that step and be transparent, not only about the position’s pay rate, but also the hours, the benefits and the work environment. If you’re open to working from home, include it. If you offer flexible hours, include it. These details may seem small, but they can be the deciding factor for a job seeker to apply.
3. Ask for specific hard and soft skills
To find the right candidates, you’ll probably have an official qualification in mind. Maybe it’s a Bachelor of Arts in Business or a Master of Science in computer engineering. Maybe it’s an online certification or a number of years of experience in the field. Whatever your markers are for this position, make sure they include soft skills, too. Soft skills, unlike hard skills, are behaviors that candidates may have regardless of their degree or years in a field. They’re about how people function in the workplace: how they work with a team, who they work best with, how they approach conflict and what kind of setting they need to thrive. These things are often overlooked, but they can make or break a candidate’s potential.
4. Provide next steps
One of the most frustrating parts of applying to jobs online, and I say this from experience, is never hearing back from the employer. Even if you have thousands of applicants, reply to every one who didn’t make it past a round. Rejections aren’t the best emails or calls to receive, but they beat radio silence.
If an applicant does pique your interest, move them to the next step and look at how they’d fit the role, soft skills included. A structured interview with an interview scorecard template helps every interviewer rate candidates on the same criteria.
Then give each candidate a reasonable time frame to hear back from you. Explain clearly and honestly what your hiring process looks like, and follow through, so candidates know exactly where they stand.
5. Rethink the traditional process entirely
Some employers are moving away from traditional job descriptions and putting more weight on the skills and outcomes a role needs. That shift makes the description shorter and the screening more important: the post gets people to apply, and a consistent process decides who moves forward.
It makes your job easier, and it makes it more likely that the right candidates find you.
Hand off the screening
If writing the job description is the easy part and screening is where your time goes, you don’t have to do it alone. Workwolf® sources candidates, filters them with AI, phone screens them with its recruiters and books the best fits into your calendar, so you only meet the finalists and make the hire. Workwolf® runs on its own AI engine, Packfinder. It screens and ranks every applicant against the profile of each client’s top performers, and it gets more precise with every placement.
Book a call to see how it would work for your roles, or run your numbers in our hiring ROI calculator.
