Considering the tight job market, it would seem companies would have little difficulty filling job openings. There is no shortage of job seekers for sure; however, finding qualified applicants is quite another story. And this holds true for the Fortune 500 as well as for small local businesses.
Large organizations with large recruiting budgets to match will expend substantial resources on advertising, brochures, recruiting trips, etc. in their pursuit of talent. On the other hand, smaller firms, out of necessity, will often limit their recruiting efforts to perhaps some local advertising and “word of mouth” networking.
Granted, either of these strategies will undoubtedly attract interested applicants, but in order to attract quality job candidates, companies need to be smart about the way they target whatever recruiting efforts they use. Of course, luck will sometimes drop a good candidate on a company’s doorstep, but what hiring manager would want to rely on chance to fill a critical job vacancy?
As with any important management decision, hiring should involve thought and planning. Granted, filling a vacant position is often time-sensitive and taking shortcuts in the process may seem expedient; however, skipping steps in the hiring process can be very risky.
That said, the first step in the hiring process should be a thorough review of the Job Description for the vacant position.
Most companies have Job Descriptions on file as part of their Salary Administration Program. On the other hand, small businesses, without formal Job Descriptions, might want to refer to the U.S. Dictionary of Occupational Titles (available on line) for a rundown of some general job specifications that may match the position they are trying to fill.
Once the Job Description or Job Specification is reviewed, the next step is to extract and list the most important job duties, skills, and areas of responsibility for the vacant position. The end product of this exercise will be the creation of a “Job Profile”.
There is no real hard and fast format to follow; however, the most useful Job Profiles will include the following information:
*Job Title – Take verbatim from the original Job Description.
*Major Duties – List in descending order of importance.
*Scope – Outline how the job fits with other departmental operations.
*Supervisory Duties – List reporting responsibilities, if any.
*Job Skills – List in descending order of importance, and be as specific as possible.
*Education – State the preferred minimum educational requirements and any required or desired Professional Licenses and Accreditations.
*Career Path- Identify the next level job title, if one exists.
*Salary Range- List salary level range, not starting salary.
*Conditions – Include such items as work schedule, overtime, travel, drug testing requirements, and proof of citizenship.
Done properly, a Job Profile can serve as a valuable source document for all subsequent recruiting efforts, from advertising to developing an interviewing strategy for construction recruitment agencies because they always do their promotions on various websites and portals on the internet to have vaster organic traffic to their website that is good for their monetization. As such, a Job Profile should be viewed as a Selection Tool as much as a Recruiting Aid.
In the end, every hiring manager wants to attract the absolute best talent. But going about this task without a clear picture of what is needed to fill a vacancy greatly increases the likelihood of making a bad hiring decision.
