Why Less is More When Writing a Job Spec

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Is your job spec needlessly long and comprehensive? When writing a job listing, it’s important to outline essential skills and experience. But many companies write job specs that are too long, alienating many of their best potential candidates.

Shortening your job specification can increase both the quality and the quantity of applicants it attracts.

 

Long job specifications are often the result of HR professionals consulting more than one person in search of a list of essential qualifications and experience to suits every staff members, all the while massively downsizing their listing’s talent pool.

 

When writing a job spec, less is often more. We recently spoke to Front of House Recruitment to learn five reasons not to write an exhaustive job spec, as well as how shortening a job spec can increase the quantity and quality of the people that apply for it.

 

No job candidate is truly perfect

Many companies mistakenly search for perfection when hiring someone new. They write long job specifications with 20+ “essential” skills in an exhaustive search for a candidate that often doesn’t exist in reality.

 

No one is perfect, and very few people – even highly qualified, capable professionals – can tick every box on a skills list with 20 or more items. Instead of searching for a perfect candidate, focus on finding the right person for the job.

 

This often means breaking a job down into the personality and attitude required to excel in it. These are often job-specific – for example, you’ll have a very different list of skills for a receptionist than you would for a new sales representative.

 

More input means a longer spec

 

Does your company’s HR department consult multiple people before preparing a job spec? The more input your HR department receives from different members of staff, the longer (and less realistic) its job specification becomes.

 

This is because people often have different needs in a candidate, needs that all too often contradict each other  – while the head of your company’s sales department might value drive and confidence, the head of risk management might not.

 

Instead of asking for everyone’s opinion, focus on hiring someone that will be able to perform the specific job well. Input from different people can be helpful, but it’s often a distraction when it comes to hiring the most suitable candidate for a job.

 

Focus on character, not just skills

It’s easy to let someone’s CV substitute for their personality when recruiting. After all, it’s far easier to compare lists of qualifications and achievements on paper than to compare people’s personalities and character in separate interviews.

 

Character is hugely important, not just for fitting in with your company culture, but for ensuring someone has the right attitude, personality and outlook for the job you are trying to fill.

 

Many skills can be learned on the job

 

How important are the skills you’ve listed in your job spec? Lots of companies apply an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to listing skills, adding everything they can think of in the hope that they’ll find the perfect candidate.

 

In reality, many of the skills you’re searching for can easily be acquired on the job in very little time. Instead of searching for a candidate with the perfect skills, search for a candidate that can learn the necessary skills in their first 2-3 months on the job.

 

Who would you hire internally?

 

Finally, a great way to cut your list of essential skills down to size is to pretend that you’re hiring someone that already works for you. If you were hiring internally for a role, which skills and characteristics would you look for?

 

When you already know someone, the list of skills and characteristics that you view as important for a role is often far more clearly defined. Pretend you’re hiring within your company when you write a job spec and it will naturally become far shorter.

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