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Hiring Managers: Writing a Compelling Position Description

Are you needing to recruit new staff in 2017? It can be a daunting thing for a new hiring manager and one that we love assisting with.

A detailed position description is the perfect way to tell us exactly what you are looking for. It helps us understand the expertise and experience that you are after. It also tells us the type of person that would fit into your team seamlessly.

When working with a recruiter, it is important that you are able to articulate what is unique or special about your company. Think why a candidate should want to work for you!

This is the information we, as recruiters, look for in a position description.

What skills and experience do you need for this role?
What technical expertise do you require for this role?
What soft skills are required in the role?
What are the behavioural competencies or personal attributes that are required for this role?
What criteria are you judging the candidates on?
How do you measure an employee’s performance?
In which division/department does the role work?
Who does the role report to?
Is the role full time, part time, flexible?
What qualifications does the role require?
Is there any additional information or requirements? Think about what it might be advantageous for a candidate to know. For example is there a particular skill that would be looked on favourably?

You may have a HR resource that can help you with a template that has been used for recruiting other similar roles.

How to begin

Ask an outgoing employee to assist you pulling together a list of duties and responsibilities. This will give a good insight into the day to day responsibilities of their role.

If it is a newly created role, then at a minimum you need to:

define the reporting line
consider the level of expertise it requires
list the tasks you want the role to perform

This may have already been considered if you submitted a business case to support the creation of the new role.

Format of the Position Description.

We suggest your position description needs to include

a Position Summary,
details of the Key Responsibilities
the Key Selection Criteria

The Position Summary should include what the division/department of the company does and what the role is expected to do. This should be a general statement about the purpose of the role, who they work with and for and the goals of the role.

The Key Responsibilities should include a dot point list of the actual tasks they are expected to undertake on a regular basis.

The Key Selection Criteria should include information such as:

What sort of person are you looking for?

How many years’ experience do they need to have?

What is the skillset that you are wanting to attract to your team?

At Legal People we are well versed in turning your position description into an attractive, compelling, 'clickable' job advertisement. We take the information you feed us and make it attractive to Legal Industry candidates. Our many years of experience working in partnership, particularly with our law firm clients, makes this easier. This is because we know why they are great firms to work for! We understand their culture and know what is unique about them and about their future plans

Generally in our advertisement we will include:

The Job Title
About the Firm
About the Role
The Key selection criteria
What’s in it for the candidate
How to apply

This information is then distributed via our website and our many other proprietary channels. We don’t just wait for people to apply. Using our vast network of contacts and relationships we often already have people in mind as we're talking to you about the role!

If you are looking for a Legal Recruiter in Melbourne, Australia, then get in touch with us here at Legal People. We are specialists in the Legal Industry and recruit Lawyers, Support staff and HR professionals. If you enjoyed reading this article, you can follow our Company Page on LinkedIn for regular updates. These are specific to the Melbourne Legal Industry and career advice for legal professionals.

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