Candidates are coming through the door.

They’ve seen your job adverts and other marketing collateral, and are interested in the role.

Fantastic, what now?

Well you’ll start by sending them the job description.

This will give them all the details they need about the role.

But you soon find some of the best talent is dropping out of the recruitment process.

It might be your job descriptions.

Ensuring your job descriptions are as good as they can be will enable you to retain more talent, free up more of your time and increase your recruitment ROI.

Here at InfraView we know all about not only how IT solutions providers work, but also what candidates are looking for in today’s cloud jobs market.

If you’re in need of quick, personalised advice you can give us a call on 020 3617 1040 and one of our team can give their insight.

But for now, let’s learn more about what you need to know about job descriptions.

What to include in a great job descriptions

Your job description is an important tool in your search for top cloud talent.

But what should you include to get maximum impact?

Our Co-Founder Tim Davey has the answers you need:

“Job descriptions and job adverts are different.

Job adverts are a sales tool to sell an opportunity.

Job descriptions are used to explain in detail a role and its responsibilities.

When writing a job description, it’s important to involve others already in the role.

Ultimately you’re defining and setting boundaries for what makes up a good candidate’s characteristics, which will involve both people working in the role currently and also those in surrounding roles that this role will influence and impact.

It’s also an opportunity to influence not only skills and knowledge, but also the mindset and attitude that you’re looking for. Remember to focus on all of these key areas to ensure the candidate you hire is the right fit for your business.

On top of this, it’s also important to remember the following ideas:

1. The format

Instead of using lots of wordy sentences and long blocks of text, use short, concise bullet points. This will make the document easier to read and so the information will become easier to digest.

2. The content

Remember there are key areas of content you need to include. Title, salary, location etc.

3. Avoid copy and paste 

If you use copy and paste across your job descriptions your documentation will become too generic

4. Diversity & inclusion

You must be aware of avoiding any unconscious bias in your documentation.

5. Define the role clearly

In order for all parties to get the maximum return from a job description, it’s very important you define clearly what the role is and how it will be measured.

6. Culture & values

You want to make all facets of the role clear, and this means including information on your culture and values. You should be looking to shape your culture and values at every opportunity

7. Proof-read

Whilst mistakes are forgivable, it doesn’t set the best impression to a potential candidate. Remember to proof-read your job description, and ask others to peer review the document.

If you get your job description right, it will shape the entire development of the role and the individual moving forward.”

What top candidates look for in job descriptions

On top of knowing what you want to get out of the job description as a business, it’s also crucial to be aware of what top candidates look for in job descriptions.

Individuals have different motivations, but similar trends across the industry can be seen.

Will Martin tells us all about what top candidates look for in job descriptions:

“So you’ve drawn the candidate in with your job advert.

Now they want to take a closer look at exactly what the job entails and the job description itself.

There are a number of things that a candidate will be very interested in:

1. Duties and responsibilities

Top candidates want to know what they will be doing on a day-to-day basis.

There are obviously job-specific skills which are vitally important. This could include whether they need a certain level of experience within the Managed Services and IT Solutions Provider space. For example with some support functions experience within the MSP world is highly desirable and preferred by a lot of our clients. 

You might want to include that kind of information not only for the candidate but also to ensure you are receiving relevant applications through your job adverts. This is an excellent way of measuring marketing success and where you can make improvements.

2. The scope of the role

A candidate applying for cloud jobs wants to know where the role fits within the structure of the business.

Who will they report into?

Will they be mentoring or supervising any other members of the team?

Will they be bringing through junior members of the team?

Will they be managing any aspect of the team around them?

Putting this information into the job description in a clear and concise way will allow the candidate to quickly gauge whether the role is right for them. This will mean less wasted time in the recruitment process and so a better return on investment on your time, effort and money.

3. Progression opportunities

Most candidates want a role where they can develop themselves both professionally and personally.

You want to be specific here.

What are the short, medium and long-term progression prospects within this role?

Will there be an opportunity to become a team lead in the future?

If a candidate is joining a company as a support engineer, what time scales and progression opportunities are there into project engineering and beyond that within the project lifecycle?

Laying out clearly these progression opportunities will again mean a candidate can assess whether they want to proceed with their application.

4. Training and development

A lot of candidates are really keen on improving their knowledge base and skill sets, enabling them to become the best version of themselves professionally.

This makes the training and development side of the role a crucial aspect to your job descriptions.

Many of our clients are offering extensive training and development programmes and opportunities in order to secure the very best Cloud & IT Infrastructure talent on the market.

Include as much detail as possible around training and development within your business.

5. Full package details

Candidates of course want to know about the salary and benefits

Sometimes it’s a good idea to put the full package details into the job description.

There’s nothing worse than reading that the role offers a “great salary package” and then having to ask the question.

If it’s great, show it off!

Let the readers know all about it.

The full package details are an additional sell for joining your business and it also avoids candidates having awkward conversations towards the end of the recruitment process when their salary expectations don’t quite match the package on offer.

By including these key areas in your job descriptions, you’ll be well on your way to securing the best Cloud & IT Infrastructure talent on the market.

Conclusion

In order to get maximum return from your recruitment process, you need to look at each individual section. This of course includes your job descriptions.

Unlike job adverts which are used to sell an opportunity quickly, a job description is an in-depth document detailing key areas such as duties and responsibilities, key skills, training and development and salary and benefits.

Candidates are looking for information on these areas in order to understand more about the role and decide if the business is right for them.

By improving the quality of your job descriptions, you will have a better chance of retaining higher quality candidates.

Need help today?

Give us a call on 020 3617 1040 or email hello@infraview.co.uk