Why Are Accurate Job Descriptions So Important?

Job descriptions are critical to attract and keep the right person for your company.  If you don’t get your job descriptions written correctly, you will have unmotivated employees who will leave you quickly.  It’s important that your new employee is actually getting the job they expect after possibly uprooting their lives to work for you.  

At Kmet Consulting, we offer human resources consulting services in the MidWest area that can help you with your job description writing.  Having a great job description can help you attract the right fit for the job, while eliminating candidates that you clearly don’t want to interview.  If their resumes don’t match what you are looking for, you can focus on candidates that have the skills that you want.  Here’s some further ideas on why job descriptions are important, and some quick tips to help you write them.  If we can help you with your next job description, give us a call!



Job descriptions define your expectations

An accurate job description should list all of the duties, responsibilities, and requirements associated with the job. The job description should set the standards and help encourage the employee to ask the right questions about the job in the interview. An accurate job description can help start a conversation in a job interview that leads to determining if this potential employee is the right fit for your company. According to HubSpot, a little over 40 percent of all American workers quit their job within the first 6 months. These numbers don’t lie, so it is very important that you clearly define the expectations of the job in your job description.

Clear job descriptions keep you out of legal issues

If you hire an employee who becomes disgruntled and leaves…if your job description is not clearly written, there is a chance that the employee can cause you some legal trouble. They may claim that “this is not the job I was hired for”, and try to sue you. If your job description clearly lays out all duties, and you have a system in place to document performance against clearly defined performance indicators, then you should be covered!

Job Descriptions form the foundation for the interview

Your interviewing process will benefit from a clearly written job description. You can focus your questions on exploring whether the candidate has the background or experience to accomplish the job, whether they truly understand the skills you expect the candidate to have, or to gauge an understanding of what your expectations are. Contact us – we can help you build great interview questions as well!






How to Write an Accurate Job Description


1. Perform a job analysis.


Meet with the person who will be responsible for overseeing this position and get their thoughts on what the person who fills this position would actually be doing. You may also ask coworkers, people who would be working with whoever fills this position, about their thoughts on the tasks this person would perform. Gather as much information as possible to accurately create a job description.

2. List all of the needed information.


Accurate job descriptions will typically list the following:

  • Job title
  • Job responsibilities
  • Job duties (Give specific examples)
  • Required skills and knowledge to perform this job
  • Required education level
  • Whether or not any physical lifting is involved, if so, how much
  • A description of the work environment
  • The salary range for the job & any overtime required
  • A description of the reporting structure (who they are reporting to)
  • Work location and Schedule

3. Be upfront about the possibility of change.


If you feel that the responsibilities and duties of the job being described will change over time, be honest about that and let the potential employee know that upfront. You may even add a disclaimer to the job description. For example, “Job duties and responsibilities are subject to change” or "duties as required." This way the potential employee at least has an idea of what they are getting into.



Kmet Consulting is Here for You!


If you are having trouble coming up with the most accurate job description for an open position within your organization, call our HR consulting company. Your business is our passion. We have experience working with many different types of companies on various issues. We are here to help. If you have any HR related questions, call us at 877-783-5638.









877-783-5638


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