Job Creation Advice

How to write an effective Job Description?

The key to attracting the very best people.

A good quality Job Description needs not only to communicate what responsibilities the job entails and the skills needed to perform it, but it should also be a marketing document, designed to attract the best talent to your business.

Put yourself in a candidate's shoes - would you apply to a business with a shoddy, unclear job description, or a business that takes pride in all their external communications with an informative, helpful document?

The job spec should be a representation of your business (even if you a small outfit), highlighting business strengths, opportunities and giving reason for top candidates to take the time to apply - after all this could be the first piece of communication they may have received from the business, so it needs to make an impact!

We have made posting a job as helpful and structured as possible, to guide you through this process; but here are a few tips from isleofwightjobs.com to help you structure and create the best Job description for your business, some are maybe more relevant than others.

The Business.

Start with a company overview, detailing your market, products and services and maybe a brief overview of your history - people like to work with trusted and respected businesses. Think about how this information is relayed on your website - most of it will be kept in an 'About Us' section.

The Role.

It might sound simple, but this must be concise, clear and give a potential candidate a thorough understanding of the brief. Give a good overview of the objectives of the role, the role responsibilities and any further responsibilities.

Salary.

Always include a salary or, at the very least, a salary range. Isleofwightjobs.com lets you specify a range that will be published to jobseekers and that will be taken into account when they're filtering their job search by desired salary.

Benefits

A good set of benefits will persuade candidates to consider a salary slightly lower than their expectations. If the job comes with access to a company car, gym membership or generous holiday, say so.

The Team.

Who does it report to? How is the team structured? These are questions a candidate will ask themselves, so help! Maybe provide an organisation chart? Detailing job titles alone is fine if you do not want to violate internal privacy policies.

The Person.

This should give an overview of the skills, experience and competencies required to succeed in securing the role i.e. sector experience, technical skills, man management experience etc... A good way is to structure this in two brackets - essential and desirable?

Qualifications.

Are there any qualifications required for the role - a CIM, IDM, or degree? Be cautious not to get too caught up in qualifications being absolutely necessary to apply (unless they really are!) as this can put off perfectly capable and strong candidates who may not have every qualification under the sun but could actually be better suited to your role/business.

Culture.

Give an overview of your culture. What makes it great to work there? Why would someone want to join? What are your business values?

Career Opportunities / Training.

As with above, this is an opportunity to sell your business! As with a candidate's CV, you need to stand out from all the other excellent job opportunities out there on the market and give the best candidate’s reason to apply!

Community / Corporate Responsibility / Diversity policies.

As an employer you are required to adhere to many regulations, as you well know, on-top of your own implemented work and employment policies. These matters and this kind of information would of course be attractive to many individuals.

A full breakdown of polices and legislation can be found on the our employer resources page

Please note: Any employer advert found to be breaching any of these policies will be notified and requested to amend their post. Failure to do so will result in the advert being taken down from isleofwightjobs.com

We hope you will have found this overview helpful, however, please feel free to get in touch with us at isleofwightjobs.com if we are able to help further.