Want to hire Top Talent? Stop using boring Job Descriptions

Every Hiring Manager and Recruiter wants to hire top performers. Yet the criteria most people use to define work, write ads, filter resumes and interview candidates are based on misleading, boring and inadequate job descriptions.

Traditional Job Descriptions that list generic experience, skills and education are misleading, do not define the job at all and are the primary reason companies can’t find top people. Companies overlook the importance of job descriptions. If the ad isn’t interesting and compelling, top performers will simply not consider the job. 

Would you rather hire the person with all of the listed skills and experiences or the one who can deliver the desired results?

Top performance is about strong achievemens, the execution of the job and the results, not about qualifications and requirements. To target top performers, change your focus to doing rather than having. The best performers can achieve the same results with less overall experience and you don’t want to exclude high potential candidates who maybe lack some experience. If you focus on hiring the listed skills, this is a hunt for average performers.

Have a look at your current top performers, or internal moves. The selection process between outside hiring and internal moves is fundamentally different. Internally we look at past performance, attitude, work habits, team skills, ability to learn, commitment and potential. A person we don’t know is assessed on experience, skills, academics, personal presentation in the interview process - poor predictors of future success. So, how can we install a better sourcing process and better predict future success for external hires?

Any good hiring process starts with a deeper and better understanding of the job and needed results upfront. Hiring Managers and Recruiters need to clarify and describe needed performance and outcome for each job. Describing performance objectives starts by asking what person in the job needs to do to be successful, not what the person needs to have. Define the needed results, specific key objectives, subobjectives in priority order, measurable performance objectives, context and the environment (team, culture). Replace every skill or requirement and describe how each skill will be used on the job to deliver results. 

How to attract top performers?

High potential people and top performers are selective and they will only consider true opportunities. They won’t apply if the job is about doing the same. Even if they are not looking, most top people are open-minded to explore something if it were better. They make a strategic decision based on interesting challenges and growth opportunities. Ads based on a list of skills exclude top people from applying who might have a slightly different background. Those who meet the list of skills won’t apply because the job appears boring.

If you want to get top performers interested, your job descriptions must describe specific performance objectives. It makes sense to define hiring success in similar way as a series of OKRs (objectives and key results) and include them in the job description. What are the challenges, what will the person be doing? What are the expected results? What impact can be made?

How to create better job ads

There is a reason they are called Job Description. Great ads focus on motivating needs, a challenge or growth opportunity:

Have a clear and compelling title, + a sub-title that stands out

Focus on what the candidate will do, learn and become

Describe the most critical skills in the context of how they are used.

Instead of ‘5 years of experience’ better describe the specific challenge one will face. Or instead of “strong communication skills” say “successful completion of the project requires cooperation and clear communication with different departments and a variety of stakeholders”

If you want to hire top performers, you have to find and attract them first. That is why great sourcing is key in every process. All companies have access to the same tools, it is how you use them. Stand out from the rest, make and share good content, and make a difference to the people you want to attract.