latest articles
Making the JD
Hiring great talent starts with attracting the right talent. Here, an effective, engaging, and inclusive job description is the key. The right JD will attract the right talent. Many times a JD simply has everything in it, which is a big NO-NO.
“The best job descriptions combine a little bit of marketing, the reality of the role, the necessary skills and competencies, and the organization’s culture. One can also split the JD as per the mentioned descriptions for simplicity and clarity for the applicant.
In addition to the standard role description and skills and experience required, recruiters and hiring managers must place an emphasis on culture, mission, and values to avoid making a bad hire. And to ensure you are attracting a diverse pool of highly qualified applicants, you must also make sure your descriptions don’t alienate women, people of color, the differently-abled, and the LGBTQ+ community.
Another good point for a JD is to mention good to have and must have in a candidate. This gives clarity to both the hiring manager as well as the applicant.
- Getting the title right: In today’s time we are seeing fancy titles being offered to candidates, in order to attract the right talent, the designations or titles need to be as per the industry standards especially in the Tech industry call them engineers/consultants/developer/analyst. Depending on the work they do. Also, many companies make a mistake by giving fancy designations and the work, mediocre this is a put-off for talent, and will see attritions hitting them soon. Note if you want your posting to be searched and have more hits have common job titles to it.
- Clear & Crisp beginning: How many of us actually have time to read long-drawn JD’s. Have a crisp 3 to 4 lines describing what one would be contributing to. A clear vision of the company and how would the applicant fit in it. Also WIIFM (What’s in it for me), once the attention is caught the reader is intrigued to go ahead and read the rest of the JD.
- Avoid adjectives of the highest quality: When we go out to get a resource, we look at only the best and nothing less, this can be done through our assessments and interviews. By writing adjectives of the highest quality such as “Best of Best”, Extraordinary, Excellent, Superb, Exceptional, etc. This is a deterrent to many applicants, there is talent available without these qualities, who you can turn away. “HIRE FOR ATTITUDE TRAIN FOR SKILLS”, is a popular saying.
- What are the responsibilities and opportunities for the candidate: We love making JD’s long and complex and simply forget to mention what are the core responsibilities and learning opportunities for applicants, we also need to understand that this is a kind of advertisement and we also need to sell to the right candidate, what are they going to do and how will they contribute to the growth of the company and in turn how will they grow with the company.
- Inputs from current employees: Many times the JD is an overkill, the HR / Hiring manager writes in everything they need in the JD, expecting 1 individual to know all and do all. This is not possible and we need to realize that, this could lead to a delay in hiring or hiring a resource who is overqualified for the role leading to early attrition. Times are changing and so are the skills rapidly, so be mindful when writing the skills you are looking for. Be specific about what are must-haves and good to have in an applicant.
- Culture: This is a very important aspect one must mention, do you have WFH, gym, canteen, free meals, flexible hours and the likes. This is also a deciding factor for applicants. It’s important to have a good culture fit for both parties, culture makes a company, be proud of it and flaunt it if you have to. Don’t forget to speak about diversity, it is important.
