Tying into what was covered in this week’s readings, job description accuracy is critical in successfully hiring the right candidates. From the potential employee’s perspective, job description accuracy may sway them to apply or not. Carefully describing candidate experience the business is seeking, explaining aspects of the job, and touching on what responsibilities the candidate could be given, all provide insight towards how one might envision themselves fitting into the job. There’s risk directed towards the employer as “employees should be encouraged to ask HR for a job description review if there appear to be inconsistencies between what the job description says and what they do” (Tyler, 2018). Ensuring job descriptions are accurate reduces liabilities and helps bring the best candidates in. If descriptions are too vague too many unfit candidates might apply for a job, they’re unqualified for. Too demanding of credentials and potential candidates could be scared away.  Chances are this is one of many jobs a candidate is reviewing, a good description helps candidates more easily apply to the best jobs.  

I recall when I switched jobs internally, the hiring manager was looking for a very specific grade level engineer, which I’d only just moved up to months before. My experience on paper was great but I lacked a few skills they were seeking. I got to chatting with the existing engineer and determined that he learned the skills his manager was seeking in a candidate on the job, and I would have no problem doing the same. This on-the-job training has now opened more options down the road that I would not have had if I were not given this opportunity. I’m grateful that the hiring manager realized that not all skills he was looking needed to be brought into the position but could be trained on the job the way they wanted. Going forward our team has adjusted the job descriptions to better reflect candidates’ willingness to learn on the job, in addition to the skills they bring up front.

Tyler, K. (2018, April 10). Job Worth Doing: Update Descriptions. SHRM. Retrieved July 14, 2022, from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/Pages/0113-job-descriptions.aspx