Companies need to create a compelling first impression on potential candidates when they post a job to hire talents. They create attractive job specifications and accompanying job descriptions to attract and evaluate the best talents. It is where they highlight the company’s needs and expectations from a prospective candidate and encourage CVs that best fit the organization.
Otherwise, an incomplete or unsatisfactory job specification will attract unsuitable candidates for your company, delaying the recruitment process. In this guide, we will dive deeper into what is job requirements, why you need them, and how to improve a job specification to attract the best talent.
What is a Job Specification?
Job specification is the essential part of the hiring process that describes the skills, knowledge, and abilities needed in candidates submitting their CVs for a specific vacancy. In short, it is the minimum acceptable qualification (technical and non-technical) required to perform the job successfully.
The primary objective of job requirements is to find the best talent for a particular position in the company. For example, as an HR, you are recruiting a marketing manager in the service industry. You need to clarify all your requirements, like specific qualifications, years of experience, skills and knowledge, and personality traits. You can proceed with the recruitment process when a candidate meets all these specifications. You can look into a few job specification examples before writing yours to better understand how other employers attract talent.
Here’s an example of how to write and what is a job specification for you.
What is a Job specification for Digital Marketing Manager in Dubai
Educational Qualification
- BS/MS degree in marketing or a related field
Work Experience
- 2-3 years of proven working experience in digital marketing
Skills and Knowledge
- Good communication skill
- Team handling experience is a must
- Highly creative with identifying target audiences
- Experienced in devising digital campaigns
- Experience in leading and managing SEO/SEM, marketing database, email, social media, and display advertising campaigns
- Experience in optimizing landing pages and user funnels
- Experience with A/B and multivariate experiments
- Solid knowledge of website analytics tools
- Problem-solving attitude and highly committed to work
- Must be creative
Personality traits and characteristics
- Candidate should be confident, have a pleasant personality, and have a friendly nature.
- Should be able to handle the work pressure and team
- Should be comfortable dealing with clients in high-profile situations
What does a Job Specification Include?
Nearly 86% of recruiters and 62% of employers say that the current job market has turned out to be entirely candidate-driven. It means you must keep the current trends in mind and optimize your hiring process.
The elements of the job specification are listed below.
Educational Qualification
This section of your job requirements will cover the desired education of any candidate applying for the post. For example, “graduate”, “post-graduate”, or a particular specialization. You can also provide notes regarding over-qualifications, like “graduates should not apply”.
Experience
Your position description must clearly describe the required experience of a candidate in a domain to perform the role. It may include details like experience in which industry, years of experience, job position, etc.
Skills and knowledge
It contains the necessary skills like communication, team management, leadership quality, time management, attention to detail, and more for the specified job role. Similarly, it must also include the essential knowledge you are looking for, like market knowledge, domain knowledge, and technical knowledge based on the profile.
Personality traits and characteristics
This includes situational-based traits and characteristics like how a person should handle complex situations in an organization or the generic behavior of the candidate required for the post. You must also emphasize emotional intelligence in this part of the position description.
Difference between Job Description and Job Specification in HRM
A job description and specification are the two primary documents that come immediately after a job posting. The difference between the two lies in their purposes. While the job description explains the essential needs of a job, the position description states the minimum qualifications required to fit the role.
Both are an integral part of HRM (Human Resource Management) as it is required to post a job vacancy for every position in your company.
A job description lists the job title, tasks, duties, roles and responsibilities, salary range, working hours, and other details concerning a specific job. In contrast, job specification lists a candidate’s required qualifications, experience, skills, and abilities to perform the job efficiently. In short, the job description defines more about the job, while the other defines more about the job applicants.
What is the Importance of Job Specification?
Online job boards account for 60% of the total job post channels; professional social networks account for 56%, and word of mouth 50%. Whatever medium you choose to post your job vacancy, it is essential to have a well-written description of the position. Let’s see why!
- It highlights all details required by a candidate to perform the role at its best
- It gives the recruiters a threshold or a framework to identify the best talents
- It helps screen resumes and saves recruiters time by choosing candidates closest to the description of the position
- It is a benchmark for managers to evaluate employees and offer them the necessary training
Tips and Tricks to Improve a Job Specification
By now, you already know what is a job specification and how to write a job specification. Here we will discuss a few tips and tricks to improve any ordinary job specification.
Be specific
While creating a description of the position, explain the position’s requirements best so that candidates can understand their roles and responsibilities.
Use adjectives thoughtfully
Adjectives make a compliment more emphasizing, and the same goes when used in the description of the position but in a proper way and tone. For example, you can use adjectives like “deadline-driven”, “fast-paced”, etc., to explain or describe the work.
Focus on job objectives
It is essential to focus on the job information, not unnecessary content. By describing the job, role objectives, and results, you inform the candidate about the suitability of the role.
State additional responsibilities
You can put additional responsibilities only on your job specification other than the essential functionalities of the job. It ensures the candidate stays prepared for new opportunities.
Update them regularly
Updating your job specification regularly is essential to ensure clarity and eliminate legal issues. The responsibilities of a particular job may change occasionally; therefore, you need to keep the job specification updated to avoid any misunderstanding later.
What to avoid?
It would help if you avoided a few things while writing a job specification like
- Terms that refer to different interpretations
- Words that are doubtful. For example, “youthful.”
- No vague or general wording
- No inclusion of insulting terms about the person who previously held the role
- No description of duties for the future
How 6 Pence Helps in Improving Your Recruitment Process
Recruitment in an organization is the most challenging task and a wrong selection can harm your company’s image and performance. After analyzing the role and understanding the major requirements, it urges the need for a good job description and specification. It not only helps the candidate to know if they are suitable for the post but helps the recruiting team to have a stable benchmark for talent selection.
If you are looking to hire qualified professionals and close open positions fast, contact 6 Pence, as it is the best staffing agency in Manama. We are one of the leading staffing and recruitment outsourcing agencies in Dubai, Oman, Iraq, and Bahrain. Our talented recruiters, diverse candidate pool, and streamlined hiring process will help you find the right talents in no time!
For further details, visit our website today!
Also Read: How to Write a Professional Summary For Resume to Impress Interviewers?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a job specification in HRM?
Job specification in HRM is the list of qualifications, experience, skills and knowledge, and personality traits and characteristics required in a candidate to fit the job role.
What are the advantages of job specification?
Job specification has numerous advantages, and the most notable one is it allows the recruitment team to choose the right fit for the company.
Difference between job specification and job description.
A job description defines the job, including the role, duties, salary range, working hours, etc.. In contrast, a job specification defines the requirements of a candidate, including their qualification, experience, skills and knowledge.
What are the important contents of job specifications?
A job specification must clearly state the qualification, experience, skills and knowledge, and personality traits required for the job role.
