Advise for writing the perfect job specification

Your job specification is a candidates first impression of your company so the first paragraph should be a brief desciption of the company and a description of how the vacent role fits into the organisation.

(The more informaition that you give in the job specification- the more potential employees can prepare and relate back their previous expereinces and the more suitable candidates will apply)

Overview of responsibilties

Outline as many duties as possible and where possible give a % of time spent of that task or an hourly value to duties. For example:

The role will be office based for 80% of the working week:

General responsibilities

This should be an outline of addition key duties that the sucessful applicant will be expected to undertake. For example:

Demonstrate effective time mangement
Any necessary administration
Ad hoc duties to meet the needs of the business
Etc

Person Specification

Keep it clear and Relevent to the advertised role. Clearly mark which are Essential attributes and which are Desirable – This will also help when it comes to short listing stage For example:

E   Excellent organizational skills
E   Good sense of business
D   Full UK Driving License

Salary Guide

Try and be as specific as possible if you want to pay £15,000 per annum but put a guide of £12,000- £16,000 per annum you will be sure to have inexperienced candidates that would be delighted to work for £12,000 apply as well as candidates realistically looking for £17-18k that hope you will stretch your budget.

Remember: if you advertise the role at £15,000 but a candidate on a highly salary applies- they have much less room to negotiate with you