Know What You're Looking For

Before creating a job description, find out what the candidate would need to do to be successful on the job.

 

The traditional job description recruiters see often defines what the candidate needs to have, not what the candidate needs to do. If you begin the assignment with this job description as the baseline, you'll attract fewer top candidates and have difficulty reaching consensus with the hiring manager.

The remedy? Before you post the ad and begin the sourcing process, go back to the hiring manager and ask, "What does the person taking this job need to do to be successful?"

Get three to five performance objectives that need to be achieved in the first 30 to 90 days, maybe even six months. Include things like learn the product line, prepare a market report analyzing the competition, upgrade the Web site or deliver a prototype in three months. One helpful backdoor route to creating this performance profile is to take each item in the traditional job description and ask the hiring manager what the person is expected to do with that skill or trait. For example, three years of SQL Server experience might convert to building an online database to manage customer inquiries.

Once you have five to six deliverables, prioritize them with the hiring manager. This will become the basis of your sourcing and advertising plan. With these details in your job ads, you'll find more top candidates and gain agreement with the hiring manager more quickly.

The best candidates will respond to advertising that describes what they'll do rather than what they need to have. I talk with top candidates every day. Whether they are actively looking for a job or just checking things out, these top performers always look for the same things: What they'll be learning, doing and becoming in the new job. If you want to attract this type of person, you must include this information in the ad.

When you include a skill, it's important to describe how they'll use it. Then add a great title to attract their attention. We recently posted a job on Monster.com for an HR director titled "HR Wizard Required." The copy started off with, "Apply your magic with a company that needs to accomplish three years of rebuilding in six months. Use your systems and employee relations experience to quickly transform us from the stone ages to the modern world." Some very talented people applied. They'll apply to your ads too, if you emphasize the doing and not the having.