So you have been following our series on how to hire and manage and decided that you want
to hire a full time employee to fill a position.
Great!
The first step is to write a job description which is the topic of today’s article.
So let’s get started!
Step 1: Make a list of the position’s duties and responsibilities.
One of the mistakes that small business owners often make when writing a job description,
is not outlining in detail what the day to day of the new employee will look like.
This makes it hard to identify the right candidate for the job, and makes it less likely that
your job posting will attract people with the specific talents you require.
So think about what the day to day responsibilities of the new employee will be and then put those
responsibilities down in a list.
Step 2: List the skills and experience needed to get the job done.
To make this list the most effective for your job description, you want to order it from
most important to least important.
An easy way to do this is to separate the skills and experience that an employee has
to have to even be considered for the position, from those that would be nice to have, but
not absolutely necessary.
Step 3: List any other important factors such as the type of personality you are looking
for, and how they will be working (9-5, heavy supervision, flexible work hours etc)
Here are some questions to ask:
* Will this person be working independently or as part of a team?
* What are the personalities of the people on the team currently and does this person
fit?
* How much flexibility do they have in how the job is done?
* Do you need someone who can simply follow instructions or someone that can operate with
little supervision?
* How does doing this job in your company differ from doing a similar job at other companies?
Step 4: Decide How Much To Offer
Studies have shown that as long as you are paying a fair salary, money is not a good
motivation tool for employees.
So the best idea when writing a job description is to offer a fair salary, but find another
way to motivate your employees.
For more on the problems with using money to motivate and what you should use instead,
see the video by dan pink which I have included in the resources link below this video.
So how do you come up with a fair salary?
The first thing you want to think about here is how much experience you need the person
to have.
Are you willing to pay extra to get someone who can come in and hit the ground running?
Would you rather pay a lower salary and train someone with less experience?
Once you have thought about this you want to see what data is publically available that
can help you get an idea of how much your perfect candidate may require in compensation.
Brad Farris from Enmast.com has a great video on exactly how to do this, as well as some
other great tips on writing a job description, which I have included in the resources link
below this video.
Here is my summary of that video, which uses an interactive project manager in Chicago
as an example :
* Search Google for “Interactive Project Manager Salary Range + Chicago”.
Look for industry salary surveys.
* What are the trade associations that these types of people might be a member of.
Search for their name + salary data.
* Talk to other business owners and ask them what they are paying for jobs like this.
Be sure you talk about the specific duties of the person so you make sure you are comparing
apples to apples.
* Go to the advanced search on Careerbuilder.com, search for the job title there and then select
“show only those with salary info” * Use the cost of living calculator in the
resources link below this video to adjust the salary levels you find for similar positions
to your location.
Two things I would add to this are:
* Make sure the salary you are offering is fair within the context of what you are paying
other people in your organization, to both the potential hire and existing employees.
* If there are competitors that you know have similar positions, you may be able to see
what they are paying using Glassdoor.com.
From this you should be able to come up with a salary range.
You want this to be a fairly wide range so you get a nice mixture and can see what applicants
look like on both the high and low end of the range.
Step 5: Write the job description.
Here is how it should be broken down:
Job Title: Be as specific as possible with the title.
For example, let’s say you are a plumbing supply company that sells to businesses in
the North East and are seeking a sales manager.
A bad job description title for this role would be “Sales Manager”.
A better title would be “North East Regional B2B Sales Manager - Plumbing Supplies”.
About Us: Clearly and concisely outline what your company does and why someone would want
to work there.
Some things you may want to consider including here are:
* What your company does and how big it is * Your mission statement
* Any impressive stats relating to growth * What your company values are.
This section should be 3 to 5 sentences max.
Position Details: Here is a quote which is also from Brad Farris at Enmast.com and I
think its a great overview of what you want the end result of your job description to
look like.
“Write a compelling job posting highlighting the challenges and opportunities that a successful
candidate would face.
Position the job as hard work, but rewarding — then sell the opportunity with your company.
Positioning the job this way attracts more engaged candidates who want to make a difference,
exactly the kind of people who make great employees.”
Here are some other things to consider including from another great article on the topic from
Jobscore.com.
I have included the full article in the resources link below this video.
You can read the full article here.
* Why is the job open?
* Opportunity: Are you going to train this person?
Do they get to work with a great boss?
Will they develop leading edge skills?
Is this a growth area of the company?
* Lifestyle: How many hours will they need to work?
Will they have to travel?
Will they get to hire or manage other people?
* Team style: What are the common attributes of the top performers on your team?
Next list out the required skills for the position: Go back to the list you made in
step 2 and list the top 3 to 5 skills that the candidate must possess to even be considered
for the job here.
Bonus Skills: The things from step 2 which are not required but would be a nice bonus
if the candidate possessed them.
And finally the further instructions section: Let them know how you would like them to apply.
Another tip from Brad Farris that I like for this section is to ask for a cover letter
which addresses some specific point.
This will make filtering through the stack of resumes easier, as you can immediately
discard those who do not address that point.
That’s our lesson for today.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them in the comments section
below.
Also be sure to stay tuned for the next lesson in this series, where we will discuss where
to advertise your job posting.
For more great advice on how to start and run a successful business be sure to visit
us at fitsmallbusiness.com today.
Thanks for watching!
Resources: http://embed.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
http://www.enmast.com/2012/02/price-job-complete-guide-finding-pay-employees-2/ http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-living-calculator.aspx
http://blog.jobscore.com/post/27661500671/how-to-write-great-job-descriptions
ask the person to include something for the cover letter so you can weed out those who
can’t follow instructions or are lazy.
http://blog.jobscore.com/post/27661500671/how-to-write-great-job-descriptions
Step 3: Draft The Job Posting
how to pay:
good solid job description.
Be very specific about what the duties and responsibilities are for that job.
Look in google interactive project manager pricing guide (salary survey etc)+ chicago
What are the trade associations for these type of people.
You are looking for salary surveys.
Ask around.
Talk to other business owners what they are paying for jobs like this.
exclude jobs that don't include salary data in the advanced search on career builder.
salary relocation calculator to ge a cost comparison of
http://www.enmast.com/2012/02/price-job-complete-guide-finding-pay-employees-2/
Write a compelling job posting highlighting the challenges and opportunities that a successful
candidate would face.
Position the job as hard work, but rewarding — then sell the opportunity with your company.
Positioning the job this way attracts more engaged candidates who want to make a difference,
exactly the kind of people who make great employees.
Advertising Pick a big job board and buy an ad.
Is there a niche job board in your industry?
Buy one there too.
Word-of-mouth Tell everyone you know.
Put it on your LinkedIn profile, send it out in an email (not just to business contacts;
let friends know too).
Your best leads will come through loose connections.
Where do these candidates congregate?
Go there.
Is there someplace (in person or online) where people in this type of job congregate?
A trade association, online community, meet up or other place?
Get the word out there.
Who do you know?
Don’t be afraid to send the job positing directly to folks who might be good candidates.
Maybe you met them at a trade show or networking.
Even if they aren’t interested they’ll be flattered — and they might know someone…
Tasks in their responses If you ask them to include something special
in their cover letter, ask them to tell you why they are applying to your company or what
drew them to this career.
By doing this, you can easily separate out those who are just sending you canned responses
or those who can’t follow simple directions.
5 phases - 1.
Know what you want, what does success look like?
How are you going to measure their success?
This makes it appeal to top performers because people want to know what it is that will make
them successful.
It sets up the review process right from the beginning.
2.
Advertising to get what you want.
3.
Screening and interviewing 4.
Offers 5.
Onboarding
- How do you know how much to pay for a position?
- Don’t write what you want figure out who your target candidate wants.
Top performers want to learn more earn more or do more.
its an advertisement.
- This is where the challenges and opportunities come in.
Start off with the challenges and opportunity.
Do you want to make a difference in a business where your analysis will help us price more
accurately and increase the bottom line etc.
- indeed.com is the biggest thing one search all jobs.
- carreerbuilder, inddeed, craigslist, simply hired, tools for linked in facebook and google
- share it in linked in and facebook as well as linked in groups.
- put it on your own website.
- decide wether it is an and or an or job.
There is nothing more expensive than hiring the wrong person.
Spend the money upfront.
- You have to remember your key accountabilities 3 to 5 look at the resumes and say are there
any information in this resume that is associated with any of these accountabilities.
- find a tool like newhire that allows you to take an objective look before looking at
a resume.
- don’t drag it out and let them know what the process is going to look like how many
steps there will be how much time they will have to invest.
- There is a balance of power in the recruiting process.
- what makes a good interview.
Prepare relevant questions in advance.
An interview without a writen interview guide has a 50% chance of predicting success so
you should just flip a coin if you don’t.
Actually listen to the answers and ask a followup question from the answer that the candidate
provides.
- be more reserved and get the person to warm you up see how they are able to do it.
- Have a meal with them give them personality assessment and behavioral.
- do they pass the australia test? - the first interview hsould be about what
you are looking for and secondarily about why the person should want to work there.
The second interview is about who you are and who they are.
You want to be as open an honest about all the aspects of the job.
- Often times its good to have a second person speak to them.
- challenge your perceptions in the first interview, what did you like about them from
the first.
- ask what they were making at different jobs so you can establish a salary
- If you are going to write an offer letter then have it reviewed by an attorney.
Sign an at will employment agreement.
- don’t put low ball offers out and then negotiate up.
Give them the offer they can say yes to.
- make sure the team knows that they are coming, make the proper introductions, make sure they
are setup.
- counter offers don’t work well and its a sign that you should be questioning your
decision.
The exception might be if you are hiring someone to negotiate.
-