Planning the Position:
Creating the Job
Description
There is always a strong return on investment for carefully
thinking through the requirements of a position in a methodical
manner. Successful organizations declare that much more time is
spent planning and envisioning their positions, and the people to
put in them, than on executing the search.
The 10/90 rule is sometimes cited such that 90% of the time
required to fill the position should be used for planning versus
only 10% in execution. While this may seem extreme, the point is
that the clearer and more vivid the position description, the
greater the chance that suitable candidates can be recognized
when they are put in front of those involved in the sourcing,
interviewing and assessment processes.
When hiring for junior positions, some organizations recruit
solely on attitude and personality believing that everything
else can be learned. That may be fine when the stakes are low
but management
level positions require specific experience, technical skills,
actionable relationships and much more than just a pleasing personality.
The Position
Description:
Step 1:
Results
Expected
The first step to creating a Job Description is to list all of
the business results expected from the position. These outputs
are what we are purchasing as hiring managers just as if we were buying a basket of them in a marketplace.
Focus on what the
position will deliver to your organization rather than just the
activities and be clear about the quality and quantity
of each desired.
Think carefully about which of these deliverables are
absolute requirements and which are strongly preferred but not
essential.
Separate the required from
the preferred with suitable titles and
both lists together should not be more than a page in length. Each list is
then ordered by priority under section titles such as Position
Responsibilities, Basic Functions or something similar.
Step 2:
Competencies Required
Second, list all of the specific skills and experience required to get
the business outputs specified above. Years of experience,
people managed and sales revenues obtained are examples. Along with these are
commonly desired attributes such as trustworthiness,
hard-working, a positive mind-set, discipline, enthusiasm,
open-mindedness, intelligence, career motivated and nice.
Create this itemized list by visualizing in your mind exactly
what abilities, experience, talent and training/education
candidates
will need to achieve their targets.
Again separate this list
into qualities that are required and those that are preferred
but not essential and organize all of them in order of priority. The title of this section should be
Experience & Skills, Abilities & Background or something
similar and should be less than one and a half pages.
Step 3:
Activities
of the Position
Next, the hiring manager should
visualize in his mind what the person will
be doing on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to produce
the required deliverables and write a clear description.
The result
of the above 3 steps should be the basic layout of a usable job
description that can be pasted into your organization's standard template.
This analytical process is critical to building clear pictures
of what the ideal person will look like in the minds of everyone
involved in the search process. The position description should
be created before individual candidates are considered.
Because senior candidates are typically highly charming and
strong-willed people, they can interject themselves into the
minds of hiring managers unless the position requirements are
set forth ahead of time.
The Lois Lane Syndrome
Be honest with yourself that a single person can do all that you
think is required. Sometimes different hiring managers involved
in a process will have opposing views of what are absolute
requirements. For instance, a world-class sales manager who is
also meticulous about contractual details might be too much to
ask for in one person, as is a Chief Fraud Manager with a
gregarious personality.
In many instances,
expectations have to be mitigated or more than one person hired to do all that is required.
Supermen who can do it all are difficult to source in
the real world.
Hiring
Leaders
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Executive Search
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region with specific focus on Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos.
We are
proactive and well known in our sectors of focus. Regional
Managers use us to help bridge the gap between local environments and
the world-class requirements of multinational corporations.
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Asia
CEO Forum
Asia
CEO Forum presented by PLDT ALPHA Enterprise is the largest
regular business event in Philippines and considered one of the
most important in the Southeast Asia region. The forum serves as a
hub for the spreading of ideas that help executive managers
overseeing enterprises across the Asia Pacific region.
Attendees are both expatriate and Asian management personnel
overseeing multinational and regional organizations. Held in
Philippines, presenters are leaders in their industries and
engaged in momentous pursuits of significance to the entire
region.
Asia
CEO Forum is operated as a CSR (Corporate Social
Responsibility) activity of Chalre Associates, one of Southeast
Asia's most prominent senior management executive search firms, to
promote Philippines as a premier business destination in the Asia
region.
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Asia
CEO Awards
Asia
CEO Awards presented by Aseana City represents the
grandest alliance of local and international business people ever
created to promote Philippines on the world stage. As one of the
largest events of its kind in the Asia Pacific region, it is
considered a must-attend occasion for business leaders active in
Southeast Asia.
The star-studded Board of Judges of Asia CEO Awards give
away 10 awards to many of the most accomplished leadership teams
and individuals currently operating in Philippines and the region.
The awards recognize extraordinary leaders who have demonstrated
outstanding achievement for their organizations and contributions
to others.
As one of the fastest growing nations on the planet, the world's
business leaders have their eyes on Philippines like never before.
The annual gala was established as a natural outgrowth of Asia
CEO Forum, the largest regular networking event for the
business community in Philippines.
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SPECIAL DOWNLOADS:
Media organizations
throughout the world call upon the Principals of Chalre Associates for thought leadership.
Below are some examples of published material written by our
consultants or international journalists who refer to them. For a complete list of published work,
Click Here.
Getting Ready For The
Deluge: Outsourcing in Philippines
by
Chalre Associates senior staff
Download
[PDF
file, 62KB]
The
Economist Intelligence Unit of the Economist magazine
asked Chalre Associates' Chairman, Richard Mills,
to write a chapter about the Philippine outsourcing sector
in its annual Business Guide Book. The material
provides a Executive Briefing on the progress and major
issues facing this industry that is certainly one of most
significant growth stories in the world.
more
Asia Pacific Mining
Conference 2007 - Report
by
Chalre Associates senior staff
Download
[PDF
file, 28KB]
The 7th Asia Pacific Mining Conference put on by the Asean
Federation of Mining Associations was perhaps the largest
such event in the region. Richard Mills, Chairman of Chalre Associates
gave this report on what was said by the prominent mining
people who presented.
more
The
State of BPO in Philippines: Dan Reyes Speaks
by
Chalre Associates senior staff
Download
[PDF
file, 31KB]
Richard
Mills, Chairman of Chalre Associates,
interviewed Dan Reyes of Sitel for ComputerWorld (US) recently to get
his views on the state of the BPO industry in Philippines. Dan
presented US readers with compelling information to support his view
that Philippines is currently seen as the "Number 1" option by global
companies sending BPO work to offshore destinations.
Dan Reyes is easily one of most experienced Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) managers in the Asia Pacific region and the world. He
is head of the extremely successful Philippine operations of Sitel, the
world's largest call center organization. Among other things, he is a
founder and former president of the Business Processing Association of
the Philippines. more