Insight

How to create the perfect job brief

By Charlie Knight |

 

Hiring people into your team can be a difficult and time consuming process. When you are looking to hire, the process should start with building a full job and person specification to increase your chances of attracting the right people and decrease the amount of time you spend searching.

Whether you're using an agency or advertising the role yourself, this blog covers the points that should be included in the perfect job brief.

Job title:

You may have a wacky job title you want to use but if people can’t find it in a search, it will be pointless. Use an industry standard job title (you can always change it later on). A weird job title may put someone off applying or may even deter them from reading the job description at all.

Location:

Make sure you add the location including any travel and whether or not you can work from home. Make sure you’re honest about how much time will be required in each location. You don't want to see a new hire leave because the travel didn't work out.

Salary:

Add the salary range to the role. In my experience you can get up to 80% more responses simply by adding a salary range. In addition you will weed out people who are way over your budget or under qualified for the role.

Benefits:

Include the benefits both tangible and intangible. Sometimes the intangible benefits will make you stand out and give applicants an insight into your company culture.  If you’re a small business and don't have many benefits to offer right now, work with your team to put some together that are low cost but are valued by your team.

Role:

Give clear details about the role and responsibilities. Go into detail to get applicants excited about the position. You'll be surprised how many people are more interested in the role than the salary. Use language that makes the position sound attractive rather than just listing the various duties.

Experience:

List all the things you’re looking for in terms of skills and experience. This will dissuade those who don't meet the criteria from applying and save you time by reducing the number of inappropriate applicants you will need to sift through.

Negotiable:

Make sure that you are clear on what skills and experience are ‘nice to have’ but not essential. Make sure you are realistic when deciding what is essential to a role. Would you be willing to train people in certain areas? If so let them know.

Interview process:

Be clear from the start what your interview process is. Once you have your shortlist, put dates in the diary for each round of interviews. This will help you stick to the schedule and the candidate will have a better experience because of it. If a candidate is not treated well or is kept waiting without any feedback, there’s a good chance they won't be applying to you again.

Create compelling copy:

Re-read the job yourself and ask your team to read over it as well. Does it stand out? Does it make you want to apply? If not, go back and make some changes. The art is in understanding what the role offers the candidate that other roles might not and creating an engaging brief that gets these points across succinctly.

Good luck with your next hire.

Source: Vine 11


Charlie Knight

Written by Charlie Knight

Charlie has 3 years experience in digital marketing, helping B2B technology companies grow their businesses through inbound marketing before joining Vine Resources as Content Marketing Manager. In his spare time, Charlie enjoys travelling and the great outdoors, and he recently hiked from Mexico to Canada for charity.

 

Why Vine Resources?

 

For more than 15 years, we’ve been providing talent solutions for clients from fast growing start-ups to established brands, providing contract resources, permanent hires and project solutions.

 

Looking to hire? Click the button below to book a discovery call.

 

Book a Discovery Call