How to Write a Job Description Aligning to Company Goals

3. Identify key responsibilities

It is important to have a detailed job spec which states the specific responsibilities of a role.

Giving any potential candidates the relevant knowledge and understanding of the business objectives will help to eliminate anyone who doesn’t meet the specific requirements, saving you time and money. A clear job spec can also be a tool used to measure performance once an employee joins the business and allows you to see how they have developed the role over time.

This job spec should include:

·       The purpose of the job

·       The title and duties of the job

·       The qualifications needed – this can include skills and training or education needed

·       Any special requirements – such as travel, availability outside of office hours

·       Salary and benefits

·       Personality characteristics required

·       Whether the role offers hybrid working or is office-based

·       Who does the role report to

·       Job location

·       Term of employment

·       Start date

As well as detailing the duties, it could be helpful to explain how each of the responsibilities contributes to achieving company goals. Having an understanding of the purpose of a role allows an employee to understand why they are doing it and how it adds value.

See here for a good example of how to write a job description. 

4. Set performance metrics

Performance metrics are data used to track processes and performance within a business. Ensuring each employee has set performance goals to achieve helps to ensure the business will reach its company goals. This data will allow you to see areas needing improvement or adjustment, enabling you to make quick changes. It should also highlight areas of strength, areas which need more investment or streamlining and potential avenues to increase profitability.

 You can measure an employee’s performance by the quality, quantity, efficiency, and productivity of their work. Key performance indicators (KPIs) can be a good way to assess performance and focus an employee on what they need to achieve. This doesn’t need to be just financial targets and could include the number of calls made a day, or the number of new clients met. This will be relevant to the particular role but should measure an employee’s progress and determine if the work is making an impact.

5. Emphasise soft skills and competencies

Soft skills are also important when ensuring you hire the right person for the job. These are things such as communication, flexibility, decision-making, collaboration, teamwork, time management, creativity, etc. Although harder to quantify than hard skills, they are all very necessary for building a strong and positive company culture and ensuring employees work well as a team.

6. Showcase growth opportunities

Highlighting potential career advancement prospects within the company will help you attract driven and ambitious people. Having a goal to work towards should inspire and motivate talent, and promoting internally has great advantages - the time spent on recruitment can be extensive, in addition to the cost and knowledge lost.

Turnover is never good for morale, so nurturing and developing current talent rather than recruiting externally can be beneficial, even if it involves putting staff on training programmes or facilitating mentoring initiatives.

7. Use clear and engaging language

Any job spec is representative of a business, and so you want it to reflect well and make a candidate feel excited by the opportunity.

Good tips are:

• Write a job description in a clear, concise and engaging manner
• Avoid jargon and jumbled sentences that may confuse potential candidates
• Include a paragraph outlining what the company does and the main purpose of the role
• Clearly state the salary and experience required
• Bullet point the duties so they can easily be read

8. Encourage cultural fit

A job spec should highlight the company culture to attract people with similar characteristics and values. This should ensure potential new hires fit in with the work environment, creating a positive team spirit. You could either incorporate a paragraph describing the cultural fit in the business or include it in the job spec, for example, when discussing the benefits.

•  We host monthly socials / team building events / charity days (we are a fun place to work!)
• We offer flexible working (we are respectful of the work-life balance and understand people have commitments outside of the workplace)
• We hold weekly catch-up meetings (we are always communicating and like to stay in touch)
• You get a buddy on arrival (we will support you when you arrive in our company and help you to integrate into the business)
• We provide a mentor programme (personal development is important, and we will set you up for success)

These all will help to create a picture for a future employee of what it would be like to work for you.

An Attractive Job Description is Crucial

An effective job description should give the candidate a good understanding of the duties, company culture, company goals, and growth opportunities and clearly outline the skills and qualifications required.

Aligning a job description with company goals will help to ensure you are recruiting the right person and allow the employee to understand how their role can positively impact the team and business as a whole. Your employees will be the driving force to achieving success, so understanding what they are working towards and why should give everyone a clear direction and purpose to support them in meeting these goals.

We encourage you to apply these strategies in your own recruitment efforts and/or work with a recruitment agency for help.  

About the author:

Auria Heanley is co-founder of Oriel Partners, a boutique PA and administrative recruitment consultancy based in Central London. She is extremely passionate about providing the highest quality of service to both clients and candidates. The team at Oriel Partners spends a long time getting to know all of their clients so they can partner with them for the long term. They help clients put together attractive and accurate job specs to ensure their clients attract and retain the best talent!