As the economy slowly recovers from layoffs and hiring freezes, the competition is heating up to fill vacancies with the best-qualified applicants.  For many management and HR teams, long spells of labor-pool lethargy have left them feeling out of practice.  If you need time to reacclimate to the hiring process, you’re not alone.  The good news is, there’s no better time to review current recruitment strategies and revisit ways to attract the best and brightest candidates.  One way to do that is through effectively written job descriptions.

As you probably know, an effective job description should clearly and thoroughly outline the responsibilities, outcomes, and expectations of the position.  It may be less obvious that certain information should not be included in a job description.  Job descriptions should not contain errors or potentially misleading statements that could upset employees or pose potential legal troubles.  Job descriptions should “speak” honestly to candidates without sugarcoating or exaggerating.

To make sure your job descriptions aren’t saying more than you mean, be careful to avoid these common wording mistakes:

• Overly fancy job titles. To prevent misunderstandings, it’s important to use plain English in job descriptions, especially in job titles.  While it may be tempting to make job titles more attractive with flowery language, at the end of the day, that “director of waste management” posting is really looking for a janitor.  This seemingly innocent reinvention could mislead candidates, waste your time and theirs, or worse, affect the position’s overtime eligibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

• Promises of advancement. Job descriptions should explain the available position, not flaunt future advancement opportunities.  This includes avoiding language such as, “This position is the first step toward [a higher position],” as this may imply an employment contract or a future promise of advancement.  To avoid this potential pitfall, keep the job description simple and focused on the position at hand.

• Excessive physical requirements. Every job has some sort of physical requirement.  An office worker may occasionally move boxes of copy paper, while a warehouse worker may regularly carry heavy loads of inventory.  The problem is, few businesses know the realistic lifting limit for these jobs.  Instead, an arbitrary figure, such as 50 pounds, is often used in the job description, even if the job requires no lifting at all.  This may seem like a safe bet, but a candidate who can’t fulfill that requirement won’t see it that way.  Suddenly this safe bet can open the door for missed applicants and for discrimination lawsuits, so be certain any physical requirement in a job description is reasonably accurate.

If your job descriptions are sending the wrong message, let us “translate” for you!  YES! Your Human Resources Solution is a full-service HR consulting firm that can provide support to your recruitment and selection processes.  Through training programs and easy-to-follow outlines, we’ll help your business craft effective job descriptions to attract top-notch candidates.  We also offer guidelines for interviewing and selecting the right candidates, and we are available to assist management teams during the selection process.  At YES!, Orange County’s one-stop HR solution, we’ll support your business from recruitment and retention through growth and transition.  Visit our Services Page to see how we’ve helped YES! clients flourish and grow toward their vision for the future.  We’d love to help make your vision a reality!