Client Advice

Writing a high quality job description and person specification is an integral and crucial part of any recruitment process. Get it wrong and it can cost you time and money. TransComm Recruitment has provided an easy to follow guide to good practice when it comes to recruiting staff. Following these simple rules will enable busy Company Recruiters and Managers to achieve the results they want: a successful selection for both the organisation and the individual.

Service Level Agreement

Easy to say - hard to achieve. We work best once we instinctively know if a candidate will fit your culture and needs. A devoted account manager is committed to your long term business and works hard to gain that depth of understanding via face to face meetings particularly in the early stages of client relationships. At this initial meeting service levels will be agreed upon including what is demanded of both parties from each other during the recruitment campaign, CV/interview notes submittal times, feedback times, fee structure and rebate.

Defining requirements

Our account manager works with you to develop the candidate profile. Really understanding your needs is vital so that we don’t waste your time on the wrong candidates. We follow a thoroughly tested methodology, We send you a candidate profile before we begin any work (TCR will discuss the job specification with you, outlining any problem areas, essential and desirable skills. A job specification service is available at no cost).

Matching mutual expectations

We aim to find candidates with the right skills, experience and abilities who also have realistic expectations about the role - this improves staff retention and performance. In all cases we run separate advertising campaigns as part of our fee - this ensures we always match your specification.

Candidate screening

You will have an Account Manager and a resourcing team assigned to your recruitment project. Typically your team will scrutinise between 50 - 100 candidates for each position, (more in some cases). We short list 10. Conduct in depth and structured interviews arriving at a final selection of 3 to 5. All candidates are expected to go through a rigorous interview process prior to their CV submittal. Each candidate will be interviewed and fully referenced before we submit them to you. They are also set a number of questions about you and also the role we have outlined to them, ensuring they have thoroughly researched before we even submit them, each candidate then fully understands the role and the organization. You will receive a full CV and an Interview Cover sheet outlining everything you need to know about the candidate.

Candidate submission & Interview Stage

Because of the cost implications of delay - we work very hard to get it right first time and are confident at the submission stage that you will be delighted with the candidates we propose. We operate a "Zero tolerance" policy during your initial interview stage and will not rearrange any candidate interviews that have already been arranged. (Unless you ask us to do so) This has worked and we have been able to save our client's time and money, essential to you in this current climate. We keep regular contact with all candidates placed with you for the first three months and update you with their thoughts on the role and their progress with your organisation .

Aftercare

It's important to both of us that you end up with an improved selection process with better levels of staff retention. We aim to be a long term business partner and we work with all our clients to monitor and improve staff retention levels.

Job Description

Purpose/Objective

The job title
Geographical location. (Or office or home based work)
Start date
Salary or grade of position
The department or division the candidate will operate in.
Work relationships – who the postholder will report to and who they are responsible for, if applicable.
Brief summary of the job function or main purpose and objective of the job.

Duties & Responsibilities

Principal activities/duties and responsibilities that the employee will be expected to undertake with indication of % of time spent.
Occasional duties with indication of % of time spent.
Special working conditions, if any (e.g. shift or weekend working, call out arrangements, periods when leave cannot be taken, etc.
Purpose and frequency of contact with others, if applicable.
Dimensions and limits of authority.

Remember

Always avoid jargon and unexplained acronyms and abbreviations.
Do not use an old job description. A job description must reflect the present requirements of the post. As duties and responsibilities change and develop the job description must be reviewed. Remember that any change to a job description may be a change to the terms of contract with current employees.
Avoid ambiguity about responsibility and be clear about the post-holder's accountability for results and resources.

Person Specification

A person specification allows you to define the skills, experience and competencies required to carry out the activities outlined in the job description. The criteria set out in it should be the only criteria against which applicants are assessed at the short listing, test and interview states.

It is generally useful to split the person specification into essential and desirable skills, experience and behavioural competencies. A good format is to identify essential and desirable criteria in the following four categories:

Education, qualifications and training
Experience
Work based competencies (i.e. what work based experience does the candidate need to be able to do the job, such as use Excel, deliver training, drive a folk lift truck or HGV Class 1 Licence, etc.)
Behavioural competencies (such as the ability to influence people, identify problems and work together with a team to find solutions, demonstrate personal drive, ability to work alone, to communicate effectively orally and in written reports etc.)

Do….

Give as much information as possible to allow candidates to make an informed and rational decision about their suitability for a post. Given adequate information, most people will be able to assess for themselves if they are able to work effectively in a particular political, religious or security sensitive context.
Always give thought to the lead-time to get someone into post. Recruiting to a demanding person specification within a limited time frame will probably reduce the chance of success and increase the risk of a panic employment situation.
Consider any legal requirements i.e. work and travel permissions that might prevent a candidate from working in a specific country.
Provide relevant details of climate/security/isolation that candidates need to consider prior to applying for a post.

Don’t….

Be careful not to overstate the qualifications and competencies required – everyone wants to recruit the best candidate. But high standards need to be balanced by being realistic. Dissatisfaction can result in resignation if an individual’s talent is not being fully utilised. This will cost you extra time and money.

Qualifications / Training

Again it is essential to split the qualifications into essential and Desirable.
There are a wide variety of educational, vocational and professional qualifications. For some roles a particular qualification is essential, while for others there may be a number of qualifications that may be appropriate. You may even find that experience may be of just as much importance as a formal qualification.
Where qualifications are deemed essential these should reflect the minimum basic educational requirements necessary to carry out the job to an acceptable standard.

Previous Experience

You must specify the experience applicants are required to have to carry out the role. Again you can split this into essential and Desirable. But remember: stipulating length of experience required should be used with caution because quality of experience is more important than length of experience.
Also experience can sometimes be transferable from one area of work to another, in which case skills may be more important than a narrow definition of experience.