How to write a successful JD & Post
Part 1 of a 4-part Series on DIY Recruiting:
Recognizing many companies are working with limited budgets to hire additional talent, HIGHFIELD Human Capital is launching a four-part talent recruitment session aimed at in-house recruitment. This is Part 1…
Part 1: Writing a Successful JD & Posting it:
This you:
GM – We are seeking a driven and ambitions senior business leader to join our company to help drive it to new frontiers. Reporting to the President you will be responsible for overseeing a team of 10 inspiritanl(sic) leaders who will help you execute against plan & targets.
VP Brand – We are innovative, driven, entreprenuriel(sic) leaders, seeking our new VP Brand Development. We have just achieved Series B financing of $10M and we are ready to take our business to the next level. In this newly created position, we seek a calculated risk taker…
COO – We are one of the fastest growing CPG companies in North America. Our BRANDS (X,X,X)have now become household names. Reporting to the President, we seek a dynamic, entrepreneurial visionary, who can lead of team of six direct reports to oversee and manage our Canadian operations…
Or my personal favourite:
“…Hello LI friends my company is hiring for the very important and strategic role VP of “x”. This role will oversee a team of five incredibly talented managers and will lead our company into the future. If you or anyone you know is qualified for this position, please follow the link, and apply.” (This is, unfortunately, a real post by an executive, working for a $100MM company, reposted three times on LI over a five-month period).
The above examples are real executive level positions, posted on LI and Indeed (I will not supply the links) that are actively searching for talent. I am posting the snippets here, for you to see (no altering or editing on my end), the lack of effort that goes into most posts.
I get it…budgets are tight, and technology has made it easier than ever to connect with people, but too many mistakes are being made! Far too many companies treat Talent Acquisition as a tactical business practice vs a strategic partner and unfortunately, many posts just seem so indifferent –its almost as if they don’t care if they hire.
Posting should be part of a strategic recruitment mix, not the primary tool to attract talent. However, if you choose to post for your senior level role, then do it right and put effort into it. This article provides eight (8) essential points to help you write a better job description & a better post.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
First/ Understand the Complexity of the Position:
Executive-level roles often come with a high degree of complexity. Consider the strategic importance, scope, and impact of the position will have on the organization. The posting needs to communicate the details of the role clearly, for example, If the role requires specialized expertise, industry knowledge, or a rare skill set, then outline it in detail. White-board the skill set required for the position – hard skills first, then soft skills and what credentials are necessary for the role- with your team, list all cross-functional teams that will interact with the role and ask them to get involved with building out the JD. This piece is quite critical because if the JD lacks clarity, so will the posting and within a week, random candidates will apply tothe position.
Second/ The WHY!! And when its time to work with MARKETING:
This is where many companies fail…they don’t articulate or in some cases even know the “WHY join Us?” part. Honest to god, if I see 10 postings in a day, maybe one actually knows the why – most write some generic BS about being “dynamic”; “growth centric”; “driven” or my personal favourite, “FUN!”. So, once you write out the key drivers for the position, work with marketing or hire an agency, to help you scope the ‘why us?’ component – tell the story of why someone should want to work for your company. Candidates need to see and have a reason to apply. If you are not Apple, Google, or Pepsi…you really need a why.
Third/ Talk about the hiring Manager:
When sculpting the posting, write a 2-3 sentence blurb about the hiring manager – people want to know who they will be reporting to. Now some of you will say ‘Maurizio…this is a good idea in theory, but it is not practical. We do not want our Hiring Manager to be bothered by candidates reaching out directly or recruiters’. Well too bad. People join companies for four reasons: New opportunity; career growth; financial growth and NEW LEADERSHIP. If you are proud of your team and the person leading it, then talk about them; why are they amazing, how long have they lead their team, etc. Candidates want to know about their managers…so tell them about their boss.
Fourth/ Why is the job open:
BE HONEST!!! Write one or two sentences detailing why there is an opening, for example: Due to a recent restructuring; Due to a promotion; Due to an immediate opening (someone quit); Due to significant growth…etc. Speak to the reason why there is an opening as candidates ask. Every time I have gone to market with a search, every single candidate I speak to has asked “why is the job open”.
Fifth/ Proofread It:
If you have a marketing team, have someone on the team proofread the JD for the following reasons: To Determine if it is clear? Does the job make sense? Are there spelling and grammar mistakes. I just read a job posting from a major grocery chain for a strategic BD Director and I have no idea what they are looking for, the JD is quite unclear.
Sixth/ Who; Where; When:
Determine the following: Who in the company will post the job: HR; Sales; Marketing; Ops? Who will be responsible for collecting all the resumes? Where are you going to post the job…LI, indeed? Company website only or all the above? And, When will the link go live – make sure you are ready on posting date to launch the JD as the minute it hits, people will start applying.
Seven/ The How:
How will candidates apply to the role? Post an easy link in the posting and make sure the link works. Last week, a President of a well know Consumer Food company posted a job for a Director of Sales position. Being curious, I clicked the link and…it was broken. I reached out to the President to let him know and he changed it. I clicked it again and this time it sent me to their territory manager posting. I told him again about the error and he took it down. Make it simple to apply and if it must go through an ATS, turn off the part where it asks candidates to upload their resume, then manually enter it - candidates tend to get angry and not complete the process when asked to re-enter their resume. Also, it tends to demonstrate that you are not as “Dynamic and nimble” as you state in the JD.
And Finally…List the comp!!! It is not fair to the candidates or your hiring team if you are looking for a leader with 10 years of Sr. Leadership skills, with a fortune 500 company background to be your next COO, but you tell them later in the interview process that you can only pay them$150,000. You just wasted everyone’s time. While you don’t need to breakdown the compensation to the penny, you should list (bare minimum) the top three components: Salary, bonus, vacation.
That’s it folks…if you choose to post, follow these tips to maximize your exposure.
One more thing, if you are only posting a job to compare external candidates to an internal one and do not intend to hire, don’t post the job – that is a very 1990 business tactic. Candidates talk and once word gets out, good candidates will be reluctant to ever apply again to your company.
HIGHFIELD Human Capital is a boutique search firm with offices in Toronto and Chicago.
Maurizio Calconi is an executive recruiter with over 19 years of experience, 10k interviews and over 500 hundred hires.
We. Build. Companies.
