What is the Purpose of a Job Description?

The purpose of a job description is to inform all parties of the expectations, roles, responsibilities and requirements of a job. This applies to all jobs irrespective of the occupation or industry it relates to.

Why Are Job Descriptions Needed?

Businesses need to recruit the right people but if there is no defined role specification in place can candidates be sure they have the capabilities, attributes and qualifications required in order to apply?

Similarly, can the recruiting manager match an applicant’s CV to a vacancy without understanding the requirements of the role?

It is often said that employees are key to a company’s success: get the right people onboard doing jobs that match their skill sets and employee engagement will be high.

Conversely, staff operating in the dark, not knowing what they are supposed to be doing because they have never been fully informed, is a recipe for disaster.

Let’s look at the above in more detail.

Job Descriptions Can Aid Recruitment

As an individual, have you ever been put off applying for a job because the details are so vague? Or have you applied for a role based on what the job description in an advert said, only to find out further down the line that the post is completely different?

The time (and probably money) spent by the hirer in creating an advert has been wasted. They will be attracting the wrong applicants and have to spend hours wading through irrelevant (to the role) CVs.

From an applicant’s perspective they have wasted time deciding whether to apply, or worse, have arrived at an interview only to discover the job isn’t what they expected or wanted.

Had a comprehensive job description been created from the word go a relevant advert could have been placed attracting the right sort of applicants with the appropriate skills.

Put simply, each party would have been in possession of all relevant and material facts enabling a decision to be made: for the job hunter, to apply for a role; from a recruiter’s perspective to be able to select suitably matched candidates.

A job description can also be used to inform the type of questions which may be posed at interview. With the trend for competency-based interviews continuing it is vital that the recruiter understand the role in order to formulate suitable questions/scenarios.

Job Descriptions Set Expectations

Jeb descriptions can be rather prescriptive: this is what you must do; this is what you must not do etc. One of the main advantages it does offer though is the setting of expectations.

These could be explicitly laid out, for example, in the number of widgets manufactured or number of calls answered. Or it could be more loosely defined such as expectations to attend networking meetings or see to the welfare of staff. These may be clearly defined goals.

It’ll obviously depend on the role but expectations work both ways: for the employer to know the job will be done and for the candidate to know, well, what’s expected of them.

Job Descriptions Help Set Salary Levels

It goes without saying that a salary is an important – and expected – part of any job. Few people work for free.

Knowing how much to pay someone though can be difficult especially if the role is new. Are you paying too much or too little? Does the employee expect benefits? How many days holiday does the applicant get? Is a job all about the money?

If a department is being expanded and additional roles being created, e.g. increasing the number of customer service executives or IT managers, should a more experienced candidate be better rewarded than a less experienced one? Is the job description the same? You may want to consider expanding on the job description or creating an entirely new one altogether for more junior or senior roles.

If you’re unsure how much to pay an employee – or, put another way, how much employees are worth – take a look online: Hays and CV Library have useful salary checkers. Or, simply go on to any number of job sites and see what the competition is paying.

If the market is tight you may want to consider paying more. The benefits of why people should work for you and not the competition will be very much part of the job description and salary is an important component.

Salary levels also work in the other direction: they help the candidate decide how much they’re worth and whether a job matches their experience and qualifications or not. The position of a Senior Chef will require considerably more experience and responsibility at a Michelin star restaurant vs a local pub and this will be reflected in the salary level. It kind of makes sense.

Job Descriptions Aid Negotiation

While the duties, responsibilities and tasks in a job description are fundamentally what is expected of the incumbent, they may be open to negotiation.

Take salary again, for example. While few people would negotiate a lower salary, higher salaries might be delayed until the candidate has worked for a certain period or it could be an end of year bonus. Alternatively, benefits might be offered in lieu of a higher salary. For example, gym membership, private healthcare, extra holiday or free car parking. The marginal cost of these for the company may be small but the benefit to the employee significantly more.

Alternatively, you may recognise the qualities of a particular candidate but she doesn’t meet all the requirements. Is there room for negotiation from both parties? Or, perhaps the candidate is over qualified and you could really use him in additional roles?

Ultimately what you wrote in the job description should fit the role. Some positions will be simple to fill and require few qualifications. Others will be very, very specific and finding the right candidate may be near impossible. Be open minded. If you’re just starting out recruiting for a role the JD may change or use it as a basis on which to begin a negotiation.

Job Descriptions Can Aid Productivity

A business’ biggest asset and key to its success should be its staff.

An engaged workforce performs better, is more productive and staff retention rates are higher.

People who know what is expected off them, know what they are supposed to be doing, when/how they are supposed to do it, and have a certainty of purpose. A well structured job description will provide the framework around which this ‘certainty of purpose’ can be developed.

A comprehensive job description may also be used by both employer and employee to create targets, goals and aspirations. For example, if the job description states “meet daily, weekly, monthly targets” these can be set from the outset ensuring clarity for both parties.

Job Descriptions Help with Company Structure

A business can use its job descriptions to look at the hierarchy and reporting structures within the organisation.

By ensuring direct report levels are included within individual job descriptions, there can be no confusion regarding who manages who. The removal of doubt creates a feeling of stability for all within a company, everyone knows their place, and everyone understands who and where to turn in the event of a problem.

Job Descriptions Can Aid the Creation and Maintenance of Company Culture

You would have to have been living in a cave for the past several years to not realise how important the culture of a company has become. Millennials in particular are increasingly likely to factor in how ethical, sustainable and people centric an organisation is before considering applying for a job.

Well written job descriptions may help to underline or even identify the culture within an organisation.

For example, is the company hierarchical or (as is often the case in tech companies) is there a rather flatter structure?

Your job descriptions will need to reflect the kind of culture you need to foster in order to attract and retain the right people for your company.

Job Descriptions and Business Goals

You could create the most comprehensive job descriptions ever seen, BUT if they are not aligned to your business goals and aims then they are not worth the paper they are written on.

So, What is a Job Description?

Or rather what is a job description not?

A job description must be job specific (it’s obvious really) and relate only to what is required within a role.

Job descriptions are also living documents and shouldn’t be linked indefinitely to an individual post holder who may wish to progress up the career ladder.

In the public sector it is common to have job descriptions and a separate person specification. The job description being restricted to outlining the role whilst the person specification drills down into the qualities and qualifications required to fulfil the needs of the post.

Whatever form it takes, a job description needs to be continually reviewed – it shouldn’t be set in stone. A post holder may identify areas that need addressing once they are actually in the role – things may need adding, tweaking or removing all together.

An organisation must always be prepared to continually review their job descriptions to ensure they are fit for purpose.

What Should be Included in Job Descriptions?

Formats and layouts are entirely at the discretion of the individual company but there are some things which should always be included:

• Company name
• Title of position
• Brief summary of the role
• A list of core duties
• Line manager/reporting to
• Responsible for staff – if so, how many

The following can be included or could form part of a separate person specification as noted above.

• Necessary/desired qualifications
• Necessary/desired previous experience
• Necessary/desired physical requirements (e.g. does the post require heavy lifting?)
• Any other job specific requirements

There are also more general items which could be included in a job description but these are likely to be companywide and may change year on year and should ideally form part of a general staff handbook:

• Holiday allowance
• Sick leave
• Annual pay rise/increment procedures
• Grievance and disciplinary proceedings

You’ll note that pay/salary isn’t listed above – there is some debate about whether listing salary is appropriate in a job description.

The arguments work both ways – certainly an applicant would expect to have some idea of the remuneration attached to a job they are looking at as it will inform their decision to apply or not.

However, pinning down a set salary and not deviating could cause problems down the line. What happens if you realise you are overpaying for a role? Would you continue to fill the position at the rate you first advertised in the next time it falls vacant?

Consider having a salary range/band listed instead which will allow for a degree of flexibility and the ability to pay more (or less) depending on the quality of the applicant/postholder.

Note that different industries have different requirements and therefore job descriptions vary enormously in both scope and content.

Is there an Alternative View of Job Descriptions?

Not everyone is convinced that job descriptions are absolutely necessary, or even useful.

Take this quote for instance from Hugh Facey the Inventor of the Gripple (“grip” and “pull”) wire joiner and the founder and still director and chairman of Gripple Ltd:

… we have no job descriptions and that is … the only job description is that if you see the ball dropping and it’s near you, you catch it. And it’s amazing, if you don’t have job descriptions people can actually get on and do something – job descriptions stop people doing things.

Gripple is a hugely successful company with a recorded turnover of £77m for the year ended Dec 2018 – it is also largely employee owned, with every employee being required to purchase £1,000 of shares within 12 months of joining.

There is some validity in Hugh Facey’s statement, most of us will have heard the phrase ‘it’s not in my job description’! Rigid definitions of a role could prevent employees from looking at alternative ways of working and may restrict innovation which could easily lead to stagnation and a low employee engagement.

The decision on whether to have job descriptions and on how detailed they are is ultimately one only individual organisations can take.

Are Job Descriptions a Legal Requirement?

No – they aren’t!

However, from April 2020 it WILL become a legal requirement (UK) for all staff to be issued a ‘Written Statement of Particulars’ which must contain the title and/or a brief description of a job.

Examples of Good v Bad Job Descriptions

Take a look online and you will find lots of sites offering templates which will help you construct a well-crafted job description. Take care to ensure that some of the personality, ethos and culture of your business shines through though – remember the point about millennials earlier in this article.

The popular online job hunting site, Indeed, has some great guidelines and downloadable templates as does Better Team.

Try to avoid jargon, overly long and/or ‘made up’ job titles: Galactic Viceroy of Research Excellence may sound clever but is it really if no one knows what it entails (cloud based research for Microsoft in case you’re wondering!).

People tend to skim read job descriptions, particularly at the applying for a job stage. If the job title doesn’t mean anything potential applicants won’t bother to read any further.

Here are a few key points to keep in mind when creating or reviewing a job description:

• Start with the job title and a brief summary of the role
• Use bullet points for key tasks and responsibilities
• Use bullet points for key skills requirements
• Use bullet points for educational/experience requirements
• Use clear, concise language to ensure readability
• Use ‘we’ and ‘you’ instead of writing in the third person
• Avoid language which shows unconscious bias (whether age, gender or race)

Key points:

• Job descriptions are not a legal requirement
• Well crafted job descriptions can be useful from both an employer and employee perspective
• Job descriptions should be continually reviewed and updated
• Job descriptions are linked to a role NOT an individual