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It's
easy to say over the phone to a recruitment consultant,
what sort of person you're looking for and what they'll
be doing. But how could you benefit from really getting
to grips with a detailed job and person spec? |
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Why
bother? | The job spec | The
person spec | Be specific
Why
bother?
Before you place a job advertisement or register your vacancy
with a recruitment consultancy, it's wise to invest some time
evaluating just what it is you're after.
The job
specification is a tailored description of the vacancy, including
the responsibilities of the postholder and goals of the job.
The person specification is a profile of the person you consider
best fits the bill. Preparing a detailed spec helps you to focus
on exactly what skills you seek. The finished document aids
your HR or personnel department or recruitment consultant in
identifying candidates for you to interview. It's also a great
exercise in re-evaluating your departmental needs, giving you
the opportunity to juggle around responsibilities amongst your
team if necessary.
Job and
person specifications help candidates. They get a better grasp
of the job for which they are applying; helping to attract those
who might not otherwise apply and narrowing 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 lost time spent 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.
The specifications
you prepare will help you evaluate cv's more speedily and ruthlessly,
as well as providing a list of pertinent questions for interview.
The
job spec
| Overview: |
Range
of responsibilities: |
-
Department and job title
- Salary
range
- Core
job description
- Aims
of position
- Specific
responsibilities
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-
Day-to-day duties
- Who
the job reports to
- The
'job process' from start to finish
- A
'typical day' (if appropriate)
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Examples of one-off projects (livens up the job - livens
up the spec)
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The
person spec
| Skills
& abilities: |
Qualifications
& experience: |
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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
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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 department
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| Character
& personal qualities: |
Ideal
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
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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
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Be
specific
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.
Vague (or
non-existent) descriptions can even result in an employee leaving
prematurely because they have found that the job has not fulfilled
their ideals or you can feel continually frustrated due to mistakes
that have been made in the job because the employee has not
known the job requirements. 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.
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