Use a title that accurately signals the level and main function.
Free recruitment planning template
Write a clear and useful job description
Define why the role exists, what success requires and the exact employment and application terms before you invite candidates.
Define the role before recruiting
Job Description Builder
Answer the eight questions to create a clear recruitment brief and a practical first draft of the job description.
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Choose a complete example, then edit it to fit your situation.
Explain the result the role creates for the organisation, customers or suppliers.
Separate genuinely essential requirements from those that are merely desirable.
Describe observable abilities and behaviours rather than vague personality labels.
Include hours, location, reporting line, pay range, targets and holiday where appropriate.
Clarify whether the role is permanent or temporary and full-time or part-time.
Give a date, time and time zone where necessary.
State the documents, channel, contact and expected selection process.
Begin with the work
The job description should support a fair selection decision
A recruiter cannot consistently identify suitable candidates when the role itself is unclear. Define the result the post creates, then identify the experience, abilities and working behaviours that are genuinely necessary to create that result.
Write requirements that can be evidenced. “Good communicator” is open to interpretation; “writes accurate client updates and explains technical information in plain language” gives applicants and interviewers a clearer standard.
Include the practical terms that affect whether someone can accept the role: working hours, location, reporting line, salary range, contract type and application process. Hiding important terms wastes time for candidates and employers.
A stronger recruitment brief
Separate purpose, evidence and terms
Purpose and outcomes
Explain why the role exists and the results it should create for the organisation and its customers.
Selection evidence
Connect each essential requirement with evidence the application or interview can reasonably test.
Accurate terms
Confirm approved pay, hours, location, contract and deadlines before publishing the vacancy.
From description to selection
Use the same standards throughout recruitment
Once the role is approved, turn its essential outcomes and behaviours into selection criteria. Ask every candidate comparable questions and record evidence against the same standard.
Review the description after appointment. If successful performance depends on an important responsibility that never appeared in the document, update the role before the next recruitment exercise.
Common questions
Job description FAQs
It should explain the title, purpose, main outcomes, essential requirements, observable skills and behaviours, working terms, contract, application deadline and application process.
No. Inflated requirements can exclude capable applicants and distract from the work. Mark a requirement essential only when the person could not perform the role safely or effectively without it.
Describe the organisational or customer result the role exists to produce. Avoid simply restating a list of activities.
Yes. Choose one of the three role examples, then replace every assumption with the facts and employment terms approved by your organisation.
No. It is a planning and writing aid. Check current employment, equality, immigration and data-protection requirements with an appropriately qualified adviser.