The Ultimate Guide To Writing A Great Job Description

  Writing a job description that clearly communicates the specific type of candidates you want will provide your company with a multitude of long term benefits.  Deciding who to hire when and what they will do for you is one of the biggest challenges company owners face. In fact, it can make a huge difference in how successful your organization becomes. For instance, hiring, training, and managing your team is easier when you have set clear job descriptions. Such as, outlining the purpose of the role, what you want to be accomplished, and what’s needed to get the job done. Defining these details up front in your job description provides you with 3 key fundamentals:

1. The foundation of an effective job ad so you can hire the right people
2. A framework to manage the employee(s) in the role
3. Clarity for your entire team on what the role entails, why it exists, and how it helps achieve company goals

Key differences between a job description and a job ad

Before we jump in, let’s talk about the difference between a job description and a job ad. Here are some important distinctions between the two: To summarize, a job description is a company document describing the ideal candidate internally to your team and a job ad is externally marketing the position to candidates. Nonetheless, both your job ad and even job description should be succinct and direct according to Business News Daily. Now that you know what we’re working on, let’s get started on your job description. Without a doubt, you know your business, so you already understand the high-level objectives of every role. All you have to do is get your ideas in writing. From there, your job descriptions will quickly identify the kind of help you need and provide a foundation on which you can build a team that will help you to accomplish your overall mission.

How to write a great job description

Good job descriptions outline the ideal candidate. Below is the outline for a job description.

1. Job Title: Determine what role you need to grow your team.
2. Reports to: Define who will onboard, train, and supervise their work.
3. Job Mission: Describe your purpose for the role.
4. Expectations: Outline your expectations on what they will accomplish.
5. Job Tasks and Responsibilities: A list of the role’s tasks and purpose statements that align with your expectations.
6. Technical Skills: Required skill competencies necessary to do the job
7. Qualifications: Experience and accreditation requirements
8. Team Core Values: Qualities you expect in all team members
9. Personality Profile: Know the behaviors and motivations of ideal performers.

Once we cover how to write each section, it will prompt you with the right questions to collect your ideas. Secondly, show you how it comes together in a job description sample. You’ll be ready to craft a high-quality job description that educates, informs, and helps you bring the right people on board.

Job title

When naming the position, there are two ways to go: In other words, formal or ‘niche.’ Your position title can be self-explanatory or you can use terminology that will make sense only to your internal team. For example, if you were creating a role for an Inside Sales Agent, you can use ‘ISA’ as the title of your job description and put it on your organizational chart if that’s what you plan to call the individuals performing the role. In the meantime, questions to answer when creating a job title:

• Do you want everyone to understand the job title immediately or would you rather create a title that’s meaningful just to your team?
• What will work with the organizational chart you are building?

Who they report to

Now that we’ve covered some essential questions. We now have to ask ourselves, who they’ll report to. Think about the big picture. In short, everyone reports to someone, and ideally, the person the employee reports to will onboard, train, and then supervise. Your first employee(s) will most likely report to you. Then eventually, employees will ideally report to others. Questions to answer when deciding who they will report to:

• Is it feasible that every employee reports to you?
• What’s your ideal scenario on who will onboard, train and supervise them?

Mission

Summarize the position’s core mission. On a very high level, you need to determine what they will be paid to accomplish and how they should do it. Include basic goals of the role that focus on outcomes. If you are a small business owner, each employee should take some tasks off your plate. Likewise, make sure the job’s mission is working towards the same larger company goals. For instance, questions to answer when documenting the Mission for this position:

• What are the basic goals for the people in this role?
• What broad areas will they address in their daily activities?

   

Expectations

First, imagine a top performer in this role. Secondly, take the mission you just identified and determine how you want that person to accomplish those goals on a regular basis. Thirdly, think about the standards you want to set for the position. From there, list the expectations you have for a top performer. Questions to answer when considering Expectations:

• What would a top performer in this role get done regularly?
• What achievement standards are needed to accomplish company goals?

Tasks and responsibilities

Above all, create a list of tasks to be done. Another thing to consider is each task should have a specific purpose. For instance, pair each task with a purpose statement, then make sure the responsibilities align with the expectations you’ve just identified. Instead of creating a laundry list of duties of mundane tasks, think deeply about exactly what you see them doing and why it’s important. This helps your team understand why this position is necessary to achieve the greater goal while also getting buy-in from your team. Buy-in equals engagement. Strive for no more than 5-7 clear and direct task and purpose statements. Keep your list concise by grouping similar activities and goals together. Questions to answer when creating a comprehensive list of tasks and responsibilities:

• What are the tasks you want this person to address each day?
• What is the purpose of each task?

Technical skills

Convey the must-have skills and knowledge everyone in this position will need to master to accomplish the tasks and responsibilities you’ve identified above. This section will contain the required skill competencies and job requirements necessary to succeed in the role. In order to determine the necessary technical skills ask these questions:

• What skills are needed to accomplish the position’s tasks?
• What basic knowledge is needed by everyone in the role?

Qualifications

Include the necessary credentials for a position such as a number of years of experience in a similar position, licensing requirements, or a certain level of education and/or knowledge of a particular software/machinery. Setting these standards ensures a well-qualified team. Equally, important are the questions to answer when writing job qualifications:

• What will qualified individuals have credentials or need to know?
• What educational, experiential, or licensing requirements are important?

Team core values

Take the time to think about which core values you expect from every individual in this role.  Values will help you create the best culture for your team. A team with a culture that’s appreciated by all of its employees always comes out on top. Of course, there are a couple of quick questions to ask when determining your core values:

• What qualities do you expect in all team members?
• If all team members possess these qualities, would the team succeed?

Personality profile

Identify the mission, tasks, and qualifications for the role, it’s now time to decide the behaviors and motivators of the ideal candidate. With this purpose in mind, Wizehire has created personality benchmarks for many roles using our proprietary DISC behavioral assessment. Specifically paying attention to how they would interact with not only the team, and in their role, but also why they’re motivated to act in that way. Because knowing the preferred behaviors and motivations of your team members will help to keep them engaged and operating at peak capacity. In Addition, ask yourself and/ or the hiring team these specific questions to answer when considering the ideal personality profile:

• How will a top performer in the role act?
• What qualities will motivate them to perform?

Here is a sample personality profile for an Inside Sales Agent based on the Wizehire benchmark for the role.

Putting it all together for an exceptional job description

Curious about how each section comes together in a comprehensive job description? Here’s an example job description for an  Inside Sales Agent Job Description to show you how it all comes together. Download sample job description Each section of a compelling job description can be filled in with the prompts from this guide. Here’s a checklist to remember all of the questions and tips.

• Job Title/Reports to
  • Question to ask: What type of help do you need and who will supervise their work?
  • Tip: Self-explanatory or ‘niche’.
•  Mission
  • Question to ask: What will they do and how will they do it?
  • Tip: Keep it broad.
•  Expectations
  • Question to ask: What are your expectations for top performance?
  • Tip: Set achievement standards.
• Tasks and responsibilities
  • Questions to ask: What are the role’s tasks? What is the purpose of each task?
  • Tip: Group similar activities.
• Technical skills
  • Question to ask: What are the required skill competencies to do the job?
  • Tip: List only must-have skills.
•  Qualifications
  • Question to ask: What do good candidates need to have/know?
  • Tip: Educational, experiential, and/or licensing requirements.
• Team core values
  • Question to ask: What qualities should all team members possess?
  • Tip: Use these 5 Core Values to build your team’s culture.
• Personality profile
  • Question to ask: What are the top behavioral and motivational qualities?
  • Tip: Use a personality assessment (Wizehire does this for you!).

This brainstorming makes writing job descriptions faster and easier. After you get your ideas solidified, you’ve created a comprehensive job description template. Review all positions on your team and make sure they have solid job descriptions.  You can use them as a foundation on which to build a great company!

Job descriptions help you to hire, train and manage

With these foundational pieces in place, you can begin to craft an effective hiring process. You’re able to create job ads for future hires that will attract the right potential candidates for your open roles.  Effective job descriptions help to you hire better, train faster and manage effectively.  The success of your business depends on your team—their personal qualities, skills, and more. Carefully crafting great job descriptions allows you to set clear expectations and meet your unique company goals. It all starts with brainstorming and researching to figure out your ideal role requirements. Determining the exact criterion and writing a job description is simple. Just plug your criteria into the job description formula as laid out in this guide, and you’re ready to grow.