Your complete guide to shaping a special job spec

The surest way to guarantee highly qualified and quality candidates when recruiting for your business is to construct job and person specs that are both as detailed and as clear as possible. Often however, this vital step of the hiring process is not afforded the attention it deserves.

You might have a clear picture in your head of the person you require and the role they’ll be fulfilling, but if you’re unable to articulate it properly and communicate it on a web page then you’re unlikely to source the most appropriate candidate.

 

 

The advantages of detailed specifications

Preparing detailed specs will help you to focus on exactly what skills you need, while aiding your HR department or recruitment consultant in identifying candidates for you to interview. It’s also a great opportunity to evaluate your departmental needs, giving you the chance to reassess everyone’s responsibilities and juggle them around if necessary.

In order to help you better understand the distinct differences between a job spec and a person spec, here’s a definition of each:

• The job specification is a tailored description of the vacancy, including the responsibilities and goals of the post-holder.
• The person specification is a profile of the person you consider best fits the bill.

Job and person specifications don’t just help you and your organisation clarify your needs, they also greatly help candidates determine how well suited they are to the role. They help to attract those who might not otherwise apply, and narrow the field by hopefully excluding those who don’t fit the bill or who don’t even like the sound of the job.

Many employers make the mistake of advertising a vague-sounding job, with the intention of seeing ‘who turns up’. This invariably leads to time being lost sifting through irrelevant applications or interviewing candidates who, when confronted with the reality of the position, discover the role is not for them after all. Don’t sell yourself short and open yourself up to swathes of unsuited candidates. It’s much preferable to have one high quality, relevant candidate rather than one hundred ill-suited.

Checking them out

The specifications you prepare will help you evaluate CVs speedily and ruthlessly, as well as providing a list of pertinent questions for interview. You can then use the spec as a checklist against the candidate’s CV, assessing who’s the most desirable by who accumulates the greatest number of ticks. It’s also wise to rank the desired qualities and skills that you wish the candidate to possess. Some employers operate in industries where they often prioritise skills and qualifications, whereas others consider personality type to be most important when recruiting a new member. By making clear to both yourself and the candidate which qualities matter most you’re saving yourself resource that can be used elsewhere.

Here’s a run-through of the information that you need to include in your job spec:

The job specification

Overview (normally the opening section)

• Department and job title
• Salary range
• Core job description
• Aims of the position
• Specific responsibilities

Range of responsibilities (often the second, more detail-specific part of the spec)

• Day-to-day duties
• Who the job-holder reports to
• The ‘job process’ from start to finish
• A ‘typical day’ (if appropriate)
• Examples of one-off projects (livens up the job – livens up the spec)

Here’s a run-through of the information you need to include in your person spec:

The person specification

Skills & abilities

• Abilities you expect your ideal candidate to demonstrate
• Think in terms of technical, organisational, communicative or creative skills
• Apply each skill required with the specific job tasks

Qualifications & experience

• What specific education or course background do you require?
• What level of experience (if any) is needed?
• Is the candidate required to have held a prior job of similar description?
• Length of experience gained – in which specific industries and departments

Character & personal qualities

• What sort of personality would fit in with your team?
• Use descriptive words that would describe the nature of your ideal candidate
• Think of traits that would help them complete the job efficiently
• Character traits of a person with a love of the industry or a similar role

Ideal qualities (this is where the ‘nice-to-haves’ are often listed’)

• What other qualities would you like your employee to display?
• Include any other areas of the person and job that you have not included
• Think laterally in your descriptions – delve into the underlying nature of the person and job

Don’t neglect your specs

By specifying as much as possible your exact needs, jobseekers will know exactly what the job entails and be able to say better if they fulfil your expectations. By specifying exactly who it is you are looking for, you are avoiding the problems that can arise once the successful applicant has actually started work.

By being as specific as you can, you’re making the process as transparent as possible. The benefits of this are that the candidate then won’t have any unexpected surprises upon taking up the position, and neither should you with regard to their qualifications or personality type. In essence, a job or person spec is a communicative document between you and your department, your HR or personnel officer and your job applicant – so don’t neglect it!

I hope you have found the above advice useful. Here are some other Viewpoint blogs to help you progress your career:

• How to create an engaged workforce
• Is your business doing too much typing and not enough talking?
• 6 leadership styles you need to succeed
• To promote internally or to hire externally?
• So your top performer is leaving – now what?

Share this blog: