Template Job Description Pack
Signup to download our job description templates to give you a head start in drafting a job description.
The template job description pack includes:
- Bookkeeper job description
- Financial Controller job description
- Receptionist and Office Assistant job description
- Marketing Manager job description
- Payroll officer job description
- Driver job description
- IT Manager job description
- Graphic Designer job description
- Forklift Driver job description
A Guide to job descriptions
This guide on how to write a job description may feel a little out of date. After all, job descriptions are obsolete right?
But we disagree. In fact, we think job descriptions are a key part of the employment relationship, so long as they’re well written and kept up to date.
Most HR professionals and managers will start to write a job description when recruiting for a new job, or when seeking a replacement for a leaver of an existing role.
Along with the person specification, the job description in this instance defines the role and person we’re seeking before we start recruiting and it forms an important part of the candidate attraction solution. For this reason, job descriptions tend to be viewed (in the main) as a recruitment tool. And they’re often not reviewed again until the next round of recruitment.
But job descriptions can do so much more than this.
Very importantly, they offer an opportunity to communicate and reinforce the values of your organisation. When well written, job descriptions also provide clarity about your employees’ responsibilities and accountabilities. Job descriptions can be a useful tool in defining what’s expected of employees, and when employees are under performing, they help us to manage capability conversations.
The job description is also useful in succession planning, restructuring, redundancy situations and providing clarity around career progression. Of course, job descriptions are only useful if they’re drafted well, and remain relevant beyond the recruitment stage.
This guide to job descriptions, and the template job description pack, will enable you to draft great job descriptions that assist you in every aspect of employment, from recruitment, to performance management, to redundancies and exits.
Why job descriptions are essential in helping you recruit new staff members
Writing a job description isn’t the most appealing of tasks. It’s not always easy to convey accurately how a job operates on a day to day basis and decide which skills, experience and competencies are appropriate. However, recruiting someone without a good job description makes it more difficult for you to recruit the right person for the job.
Here’s why recruiting without a job description is a bad idea.
1. Job hunters expect them
Unless you’ve decided to hire your cousin or best friend (and that’s a whole other employee management issue), the people who look at your job advert will expect to view a role outline at the very least. Just as candidates expect to be interviewed as part of any selection process, they think that it’s an odd prospect to apply for a post that has no job description.
2. It makes writing the job advert easier
Job advertisements need to do a lot of things in very little space: attract relevant job hunters, sell the company as an employer and inform readers of the role’s responsibilities, challenges and opportunities. Having a well written job description to fall back on makes it more likely that you will cover the essential information relating to the job and generate a good response.
3. They can act as a sales tool
Recruiting is all about persuading the most suitable people to apply for your vacancy. If you don’t use a job description, you miss the opportunity to give immediate information on the company’s values and objectives. Company fit is an important part of recruiting, especially for senior or specialist roles, and a professional job description can play a big part in communicating exactly what it’s like to work for your company.
4. They act as an effective self-selection tool
When job hunters are trying to decide if a vacancy is relevant to their skills, they judge the seniority of the role by looking at the salary, the main responsibilities and the qualifications and skills required. If any of that information is missing, you may end up with two very different results:
- too few applications (because people are unsure if they’re right for the job);
- or too many unsuitable applications (because people incorrectly believe that they fit the job as described).
5. They encourage applicants to provide relevant information
The first piece of advice that recruitment agencies give to job hunters is that they must tailor their CV for each application. By providing a job description, applicants can bring out the relevant information on their CVs that will make the selection process easier and more effective. Without a job description, job hunters may send their standard CV and may give a different impression entirely. The same applies for cover letters – applicants should go through some examples of a good cover letter before customising their own.
6. Job descriptions facilitate a clear and organised recruitment process
Without job descriptions, how do recruiting managers select candidates for interview? How do they prepare questions for those interviews? If you don’t use a framework that includes a job description, you may use the wrong criteria to sift and interview candidates and end up hiring the wrong person. The worst case scenario is that your results become muddled because you’ve used irrelevant criteria, simply because there was no job description in place to guide your selection process.
7. They highlight skills gaps
If you don’t use a job description and person specification, you may miss any skills or experience gaps that candidates have. Using a good job description means that there’s no place for applicants to hide!
They must be able to demonstrate that they can meet the requirements of the post or they’re probably not right for the job. On the other hand, if a candidate is missing some work experience but wows you with their skills and personality, you’ve been able to identify a training need that you can fill as soon as the employee starts.
8. They help you comply with employment law
We’re not suggesting that legislation demands that companies must use job descriptions. Clearly, that’s not the case. However, if you use job descriptions to formulate the questions that you will use at interview, the recruitment process will be relevant and fair.
Remember, any candidate is entitled to request a copy of the notes and scores taken at their individual interview. If you can demonstrate that the interview questioning was relevant and based upon the job description, you are far less likely to suffer from any claims of discrimination or unfair treatment.
Job Description Templates
Signup to download our job description templates to give you a head start in drafting a job description.
Performance management processes are simplified if you have well drafted job descriptions
Well drafted job descriptions are one of the documents that can act as a foundation for ways to appraise and review staff performance.
Job descriptions often make an ideal starting point in one-to-one meetings because they are easily understood by employees. From time to time they will provide a framework for the one-to-one discussion by enabling you and your employee to review the responsibilities of the role.
If you’re holding regular one-to-one meetings with an employee, you won’t need to go through the job description each time you meet. However, every six months it’s useful to ask:
- Which of the responsibilities contained in your job description were most important over the last 6 months?
- Has your role changed from that contained in the job description? If so, why did your role change and what have those changes contributed to the organisation?
- How well do you feel you’re carrying out the main responsibilities of your job description?
Using the job description also makes it easier for you to assess the performance of your employees. Job descriptions form the basis of performance and behaviour standards that are focused on business objectives.
To get the most out of the performance management process and to ensure that it’s fair, check that the performance standards that you draw from the job descriptions are realistic and they are specific as far as is possible in terms of quantity, time, costs and methods.
If you’re considering the use of a job evaluation system and some kind of measure to determine pay increases or bonuses, the job description and person sepcification will play an essential role in this. In particular, it will enable you to draw from job descriptions to define competencies that will lend themselves to accurate and relevant decisions.
A performance management process that’s based on job descriptions is likely to be fairer than one that is based on subjective factors such as observation.
Staff councils and trade unions are generally keen on appraisal processes to encourage improvement and development but, unless they believe that the basis of the assessment is fair, they won’t buy in to the system. This could increase the risk of disputes with employees as the appraisals are conducted.
Common sense says that employee’s roles will change and that it’s not always practical to amend job descriptions in every case. However, you should make the effort wherever possible to keep job descriptions up to date and the appraisal meeting gives you the ideal opportunity to discuss them with your employees.
Having the job description in place removes uncertainty and makes the appraisal process more objective and productive.
Using the job description makes also simplifies the identification of training needs for the future. By assessing actual job performance against the requirements set out in the job description, you can create a development plan that’s relevant to each employee and to the company’s business objectives.
Jump to the end of this article to download our job description templates.
How job descriptions support succession planning and career progression
Approaches to succession planning vary. However, they usually focus on identifying and nurturing talent within an organisation in order to ensure the business can grow and meet both current and future organisational priorities.
Although the approaches vary, succession planning often involves identifying and developing future managers, or leaders, or individuals to fill critical roles. The aim being that, if one of these individuals were to leave the organisation, there is a succession plan in place in order to fill this gap in skills and knowledge.
In order to develop an actionable succession plan, it is first necessary to identify the skills, experience, knowledge and competencies required for the critical roles in your business. The most effective way of doing this is through creating a job description to detail the responsibilities associated with each role, and the skills required to carry out the role effectively.
Having a clearly defined job description and person specification enables you to get the right people into the right roles while ensuring the individual has the competencies required to fulfil the role, and to ensure they’re a suitable fit for the company culture.
The absence of a thorough job description could lead, not only to issues in selecting the most suitable internal applicant, but it could also make it difficult for the business to understand exactly what a role entails and the knowledge and experience required to ensure it’s carried out successfully.
Job descriptions should always be considered “live” documents because roles will adapt and change over time in line with business requirements.
In addition to succession planning for the organisation, having clearly defined job descriptions and person specifications will also support career progression within a company.
This helps to ensure employees are able to identify promotion opportunities, what those roles will involve, and the skills and knowledge required to reach that level. This will enable employees to establish for themselves the areas where they may require further training or qualifications if they’re looking to progress within your business.
It also enables managers to establish which employees want to progress and the support they may need to reach their potential.
For individuals seeking career progression or promotion, it becomes much easier to clearly and objectively assess any skills or knowledge gaps with the aid of a clearly defined job description and person specification, because they can determine where they may need further support or training.
This can have a motivational impact on employees as they are able to visualise opportunities for growth and development. It also supports employee retention initiatives because it enables organisations to retain the knowledge and skills of committed employees.
You can download our job description templates at the end of this Guide to Job Descriptions.
When job descriptions are essential to redundancy and restructuring initiatives
During a redundancy process, it’s important for job descriptions to be up to date, especially for employees whose roles will be placed at risk of redundancy. Job descriptions help to ensure the business rationale is accurate and reflects why the role may no longer be required.
It’s also important where a selection pool is used in a redundancy process, to ensure the roles included in this pool are selected correctly according to the roles and responsibilities required for the remaining positions.
Similarly, if there’s a vacancy in the business as a result of restructuring, the job description for this vacancy needs to be closely looked at in case it should be offered as a suitable alternative to redundancy to anyone placed at risk. In this case, a job matching exercise can take place.
During an organisational restructure, it’s important to have up to date job descriptions for all roles to allow the business to identify where a restructure is necessary and to provide rationale for this restructure. It will allow the business to review roles and responsibilities and to understand if responsibilities need to be redistributed to improve the efficiency of operations.
This is especially important where a restructure means that a role is no longer required, and therefore is placed at risk of redundancy. If the restructure means that certain job descriptions will need to be amended, if these changes are material, the business will need to consult with the impacted employees, explaining the reason for the changes and allowing them to consider the proposal, and suggest alternative ways to achieve the same result.
Once the employees have agreed to the changes, their job descriptions can be updated accordingly.
We’ve identified a number of ways that job descriptions are key in the employment relationship. If you’re thinking about updating your job descriptions, download our job description templates to give you a start, and read on to understand how to write a great job description.
How to write a great job description
When developing a job description, you will probably think of the work you need doing, and the type of person you need to do that work. This is relevant and important. But before you start, think carefully about the following question:
“What does this work mean to the business, our clients, customers and stakeholders?”
Answering this question will give you the information you need to write a job description that communicates the values of your business, and the meaning of the work you do.
It also makes it more likely you will select the right person for the job, and it forms the basis of induction, management and development for a new recruit, improving your employee onboarding experience.
Once you’re clear about the answer to this question, you can go on to write a traditional job description which should clarify reporting lines, role, responsibilities, person specifications and competencies.
The aim is to make everything crystal clear so that the employee or new recruit understands his or her role and responsibilities within your business.
Here are some headlines for the information you may wish to include in your job descriptions.
Job Title
This should simply state the title of the job.
Department/Location
Define the department and or/location where relevant.
Reports to and responsible for
Detail the position that this role reports to and the roles or departments that the post holder is responsible for.
Key relationships/contacts
Use this area to detail the main lines of communication with other job roles internally and externally, and the reasons for those links. This is also useful during job evaluation exercises and it supports the job role’s objectives and responsibilities.
Main purpose of job
This should be brief but clear, and identify the overall purpose of the job which will be distinctive from any other jobs.
Primary responsibilities/ accountabilities
This is the core of a job description and it’s important to start by determining the key areas of responsibility within the job. It’s also useful to identify what, and how, end results are expected to be achieved by the main purpose of the job, as this information will create tailored objectives that will aid performance management. These statements can be worded in the most effective way which identifies what is done, to what, and with what end-result.
For example:
What is done (maintain regular contact with); to what (customers); with what end-result? (to ensure they are happy with the service and improve customer retention for the business).
Person specification (knowledge, skills and experience)
In this section define the knowledge, skills, experience and qualifications required of the person that undertakes the role. This is useful in recruitment and also for job holders to understand what is required for effective performance of the role. Separating knowledge, skills and experience into ‘Essential’ or ‘Desirable’, allows you to prioritise what the job holder must have to carry out the role effectively.
Competencies
Competencies are the personal characteristics and qualities of individuals that enable them to perform their jobs effectively. Competencies are a useful part of the recruitment process, and create a deeper understanding of the role for both applicants, the employer and a job holder. The key is to try and describe them in way that they can be measured.
Date
Including the date the job description was drafted is useful as it can prompt regular updates to make sure that job descriptions remain relevant.
Keep in mind the purpose of the job and you will find it easier to write a job description that adds value to the job holder, and your organisation.
Download our job description templates below as a useful starting point to update your job descriptions.
Summary and conclusion
A detailed job description can be a useful part of the relationship between employee and employer, although not a legal requirement.
Job descriptions can help a company be aware of the different roles required for the business to work effectively, which will be useful during recruitment and later in employment.
Defining the responsibilities of different roles helps to determine an appropriate salary level, as well as what kinds of person specific information, such as skills, experience and competencies, are required to best fit a vacancy.
Knowing this at an early stage can help employers to consider what training may be necessary, manage performance and aid in any organisational change further down the line.
Unfortunately, job descriptions are not a one size fits all guide, and it’s important to remember that job roles often alter in practice to suit an individual’s abilities. Job descriptions need to be updated regularly, as the more accurately they reflect a job role, the more useful they are to both the employer and employee.
The best way to approach these issues is to ensure that job descriptions focus on overall role objectives rather than specific tasks, and to update any changes regularly.
Job Description Templates
