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job description is more than the description of a job; hiring a person is more than filling a void in your company.
In the past few years, I have found it interesting how some hiring managers adopt another company’s job description so quickly—with seemingly little thought, effort, or teamwork, involved. They, seemingly, fail to identify the total needs of their company.
When we prepare to hire someone, it’s an opportunity to analyze that department and the related culture, structure, processes, systems, and protocols that this new hire must adopt. The perfect time to do this is while drafting the job description with that department’s team, who should be involved in the process. Job description development is a great time for reviewing strategies, planning, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, and developing buy-in with your team. With team-buy-in comes shared ownership in the new person’s success and the team’s success as well.
I digress somewhat here, but, ultimately, you’ll end up with a better job description and—most likely—a better understanding of the department and the soon-to-be-filled job. Occasionally, you’ll find that the right person is right under your nose, or perhaps that the position is not needed, and that the duties can be absorbed by the rest of the team. Or perhaps another person is needed, but the new job is different than originally anticipated. There are many possible scenarios.
Once you have the fundamentals of the position’s duties and contributions in the flow of the business, it’s important to identify the priorities and objectives of this position. What skills and experience must you “import” into your company with this person, and what skills and knowledge can you provide when they arrive? In sports, the old adage is, “you can’t teach speed.” So you recruit a quick athlete and teach them what they need to know about the game. The same goes for business. What can your company teach someone? And what must the candidate bring in with them?
Know the “must haves” and the “would likes.” Be clear here and be sure to communicate that in the job description.
Examples:
- Must have grower accounting experience
- Would like bilingual (English/Spanish)
- Strongly preferred expert presentation skills using PowerPoint
Once you have your formal/HR job description, keep in mind that the description is not a job advertisement. Nowadays, with such low unemployment and strong demand, the competition for many jobs exceeds supply. The demand for good people exceeds the supply of good people.
To that end, how you present your company—the culture, mission, values, environment, compensation, benefits, perks, and intangibles—can have a large impact on whether you attract people—the right people—or not.
“Why is this a great place to work?”—That is the question that you need to ask and answer. More so, why do people stay here? Can you grow here professionally? Can one have a work-life balance here? Before some of you laugh at this “warm and fuzzy” stuff, I encourage you to look around. The world is changing, and new generations have different views, expectations, values, ideas, and tolerances. This even includes the smaller rural farming communities where hard work and myopic dedication to ag has been the norm.
There is help! Hire a company like JoeProduce.com to market the job; we have professional writers who can help you with your job marketing campaigns.
Need more support than job marketing? Our Professional Search Consultants (a.k.a. Recruiters) help our clients at every stage, including developing the job description and clearly identifying other characteristics of the person who is going to fit into your organization and culture. Joe Produce Search, for example, will find that special person and recruit them for you.
