7 Easy Ways to Improve Any Job Description

We’ve all seen it. The poorly written job description.

It should be quick and easy to pull together a job description, right? Perhaps it is easy to write one that’s run-of-the-mill. But what’s not easy to do is to write a great job description. One that will get the right applicants to submit their resumes. One that gets quality candidates in front of the hiring manager. One that leads to filling your open positions quickly.

SPEND THE TIME

In today’s tight job market, it’s worth spending a little extra time and effort up front to writing a good job description. Think about the information that candidates want and need to best understand the job requirements. Sum up why they should want to work for your company. Why is your job special? What is different about it – as opposed to another company (perhaps your competitor?) with a similar job?

SEVEN EASY TIPS

There’s a lot to consider when writing a good job description. You have an array of information to convey in a limited amount of space. So, without further ado, here are seven ways to help you deliver stronger job descriptions and improve your postings to attract qualified, motivated applicants.

1. Celebrate your company culture: let the personality, the quirkiness, the special sauce of the company shine through in your job description.
2. Speak directly to the candidate you want: imagine your perfect candidate, then write the job description for that person. Envision them sitting across from you as you explain the role.
3. Define what you are looking for and make it clear in the job description: how can you expect to attract the right candidates if you aren’t clear yourself what you’re looking for?
4. Be clear with the details that really matter: if the position requires a specific education level or certifications to be considered, include that information. Include must-have skills in the job description, but avoid unrealistic requirements.
5. Don’t use fluffy words or jargon: this type of language in a job description can discourage candidates from applying because they may not understand your terminology. Alternatively, they may see you as one of many in the crowd, nothing special.
6. Let them know why it counts: people spend many of their waking hours at work. Great employees want to feel like they have an essential role to play and understand how it contributes to the greater good and success of the company.
7. Get all stakeholders, and anyone who will be interviewing candidates, on board: it’ll quickly become a negative and confusing experience for a candidate if interviewers have a different perception of the position. Make sure there’s internal agreement on the job description before you post it.

START TODAY

These tips for improvement are by no means the only keys to writing a great job description. But if you start practicing these tips today, they will make a difference. They illustrate how, with a few simple steps, you can improve the likelihood of getting quality candidates in the funnel. Don’t waste your time, and theirs, because of a poorly written job description.

ABOUT JOVEO

Joveo^® delivers the most relevant hires in the shortest time to companies around the world. Providing real-time insights at every step of the job seeker journey from click to hire, our AI-powered job advertising platform dynamically manages and optimizes sourcing and applications across all online channels. Powering 20M+ job postings every day, our machine learning continuously identifies success, learns and improves to reach the talent you need, when you need it.

Built for ease of use, Joveo replaces the guesswork, complexity and inefficiency of today’s recruiting with intelligence, transparency and power, delivering more relevant candidates, more certainty, more success.