Jonathan Spratt's Posts - RecruitingBlogs2024-03-29T00:12:43ZJonathan Spratthttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/JonathanSpratthttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/705858207?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=2u2zc5dv1yen0&xn_auth=noHow to Build Smart Job Descriptionstag:recruitingblogs.com,2019-05-21:502551:BlogPost:21069672019-05-21T20:41:05.000ZJonathan Spratthttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/JonathanSpratt
<p><a id="intro" name="intro" rel="noopener" target="_blank"></a><strong>The world of work has changed.</strong></p>
<p>As a busy HR professional, think about all the technology you use every day that was unfathomable not so long ago.</p>
<p>You post jobs online; track and analyze candidates with AI; measure the pulse of your organization; provide real-time feedback to employees – all in a bid to be more productive, strategic and stay ahead of the huge demands on your shoulders.</p>
<p>But…</p>
<p><a id="intro" target="_blank" rel="noopener" name="intro"></a><strong>The world of work has changed.</strong></p>
<p>As a busy HR professional, think about all the technology you use every day that was unfathomable not so long ago.</p>
<p>You post jobs online; track and analyze candidates with AI; measure the pulse of your organization; provide real-time feedback to employees – all in a bid to be more productive, strategic and stay ahead of the huge demands on your shoulders.</p>
<p>But here’s something to think about: what’s the one thing that you work on for every job and employee, but you’re probably doing the same way your company did it 20 years ago?</p>
<p>Job descriptions. </p>
<h2><strong>The Sad State of Job Descriptions Today</strong></h2>
<p>Even within HR, a lot of people throw around the terms “job descriptions” and “job posts” interchangeably, because job descriptions are seen merely as a document to advertise open positions.</p>
<p>But in many organizations, once the job is advertised and candidates are sourced, there’s no connection between the job description and the questions that candidates get asked on interviews.</p>
<p>Post-interview, the job description you worked so hard on is stuffed into a filing cabinet until the next rushed request comes barrelling towards you.</p>
<p><strong>Bottom line: In many companies, job descriptions are isolated documents, created through antiquated processes, that bear no impact on an employee after they’ve gone through the hiring process. </strong></p>
<p>But there’s a smarter way to build job descriptions, and use them as a tool that fosters better HR programs… instead of a necessary, time-crunched nuisance.</p>
<p>Consider the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>You’re already using technology for almost everything you do.</li>
<li>You want to spend your time strategically, so you have the freedom to work on projects that make a lasting impact.</li>
<li>You’re looking to build better processes for your company and get the recognition that you deserve for doing so.</li>
</ul>
<p>Given all that, isn't it time to re-think on how you’re doing<span> </span><em>your</em><span> </span>job descriptions?</p>
<p>A new wave of forward-thinking organizations think so. That’s why they’re turning to<span> </span><strong><em>Smart Job Descriptions.</em></strong><br/> </p>
<p><img alt="Smart Job Description Logo" src="https://content.cdntwrk.com/files/aHViPTY1MjE0JmNtZD1pdGVtZWRpdG9yaW1hZ2UmZmlsZW5hbWU9aXRlbWVkaXRvcmltYWdlXzVjYmRlMTE3NzM5YWIucG5nJnZlcnNpb249MDAwMCZzaWc9ODc1YjAxZDM0MjIwMWZhNDVjNjg5ZTA2N2M2MjA5M2U%253D" class="large"/></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<h2><a id="smart-job-description" target="_blank" rel="noopener" name="smart-job-description"></a><strong>What is a Smart Job Description?</strong></h2>
<p>A Smart Job Description is the evolution of a traditional job description – which, let’s face it, hasn’t really changed with the times until now.</p>
<p>There are 3 main components that turn a regular old job description into a Smart Job Description.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><a id="technology" target="_blank" rel="noopener" name="technology"></a><strong>1. Smart Job Descriptions Incorporate Technology to Map Skills & Behaviors to Jobs</strong></p>
<p>Think about a traditional job description and what’s on it. You’ve got some notes about the company, what the role generally entails, some regular tasks, and things like required education and experience.</p>
<p>What’s missing?</p>
<p>The demonstrated, measurable skills and behaviors that someone needs to have to excel in the role.</p>
<p>These skills and behaviors actually have a name: competencies.<span> </span><em>[<a href="https://content.cdntwrk.com/files/aHViPTY1MjE0JmNtZD1pdGVtZWRpdG9yaW1hZ2UmZmlsZW5hbWU9aXRlbWVkaXRvcmltYWdlXzVjYmRkOTc2YjI1YmUuUE5HJnZlcnNpb249MDAwMCZzaWc9MTUzN2U0OGViNmVjODU1OGRiM2I2OWNhYWY2OWM3NTg%253D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">see an example competency</a>]</em></p>
<p>Competencies are built through extensive job analysis, research and a structured development process. They consist of leveled indicators to differentiate between basic, intermediate and advanced performance.</p>
<p>Why are the smartest companies using them?</p>
<p>Because competencies<span> </span><strong>unify all HR processes across the entire employee lifecycle according to one common, measurable framework.</strong><span> </span>And they’re an extremely valuable tool to align employees with the organization and their specific role.</p>
<h3>Mapping Skills & Behaviors the Modern Way</h3>
<p>In the past, the intensiveness of the competency profiling process -- that is, identifying the relevant competencies for a job and mapping them at the appropriate level – has been a barrier for some organizations.</p>
<p>Here’s where Smart Job Descriptions shine. In HRSG’s CompetencyCore<span> </span><a href="http://www.hrsg.ca/job-description-software" target="_blank" rel="noopener">job description software</a>, the technology does all the work for you. The advanced, embedded AI suggests the top competencies associated with the job description.</p>
<p>It’s finally possible to map and verify the competencies in minutes, rather than months… and most importantly, reap the rewards of a unified HR system to grow, shape and inspire the people who drive your organization forward.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a id="smarter" target="_blank" rel="noopener" name="smarter"></a><strong>2. Smart Job Descriptions Allow You to Work Smarter, Saving Time and Energy in the Long Run</strong></p>
<p>What does your typical process look like for creating and getting input on job descriptions?</p>
<p>If you’re like most, you might spend time cobbling together bits and pieces from various existing documents or examples you can find on the internet. You email back and forth with a couple of managers. You finish a draft, send it off for approval, and the first manager sends back the doc with notes and comments. You work them in and send it to the hiring manager for sign-off before getting it out.</p>
<p>The hiring manager is super busy too, so it takes several days for them to read it and offer comments. They finally do, so you make the edits.</p>
<p>By this point you’re on (at least) version 3 of the document. It’s ready to go! Until the other manager weighs in via email with their feedback on version 1 – and they’ve got lots of it.</p>
<p>It’s exhausting. And all that work for a document that’s never going to be used again.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2><strong><a id="smarter" target="_blank" rel="noopener" name="smarter"></a>The Smarter Way to Manage Job Descriptions</strong></h2>
<p>Everybody wants to spend their time at work intelligently.</p>
<p>Smart job description technology puts the tools in your hands to do so.</p>
<p>We’ve already talked about mapping the desired skills and behaviors to your job descriptions with the click of a mouse.</p>
<p>Beyond that, smart job description technology (only available in CompetencyCore) completely simplifies your job description creation and management process, and adds value in the long run.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hrsg.ca/hr-management-software" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CompetencyCore</a><span> </span>creates a system of interconnected and reusable data, called libraries. So your competencies, for example, are library items, but so are things like responsibilities, education and certifications. Once you’ve set things up, being able to draw on these connected pieces of data save so much time and energy in creating your job description drafts, and help standardize your entire organization’s job descriptions.</p>
<p>With the job description draft set up, dispatch it within the system to your key stakeholders for input and validation. They spend a few minutes going through it and marking whether they agree or disagree with the individual items. If you’re not on the same page, their feedback is captured on the job description – again, all within the system.</p>
<p>This way, you capture everyone’s input, all in one place.</p>
<p>Everyone’s using the same platform.</p>
<p>Everything is easy to validate.</p>
<p>With your final version ready to go, you can export your job description to create your job post, and even better, it’s ready to use to support other HR practices.</p>
<p>Smart, right? </p>
<p><a id="power" target="_blank" rel="noopener" name="power"></a><strong>3. Smart Job Descriptions Can Power Your Entire Employee Lifecycle.</strong></p>
<p>What if a job description were more than just a job description?</p>
<p>What if it became a tool to actually<span> </span><em>help</em><span> </span>you,<span> </span><em>help</em><span> </span>your people, and<span> </span><em>help</em><span> </span>your organization?</p>
<p>Mapping skills and behaviors (<a href="https://www.hrsg.ca/competencies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">competencies</a>) to your job descriptions opens up a new world of possibilities for your job descriptions and HR programs.</p>
<p>And having tools that enable you to actually use job descriptions for something other than job post makes that investment in upfront time pay-off in the long run.</p>
<p>With Smart Job Descriptions, you can:</p>
<p><strong><em>i. Bring real structure to your hiring and selection process.</em></strong><span> </span>Carry out structured, behavioral interviews, using the “STAR” method (asking the candidate to describe the situation, task, action, and result) to assess candidate-job fit.</p>
<p>Because the interview is based directly on the required skills and behaviors, it keeps interviews more objective and planted in reality. Most importantly, hiring decisions are made based on consistent and standardized criteria.</p>
<p><strong><em>ii. Set expectations from day one.</em></strong><span> </span>Once your new hire is onboard, have them sign off on their job description in CompetencyCore, so there’s a recorded, clear understanding of expectations on all sides.</p>
<p><strong><em>iii. Perform regular assessments throughout an employees’ tenure.</em></strong><span> </span>Later on in the employee’s career, HR or department managers can carry out assessments — again, all linked back to that original job description and those competencies required from the role. This may take the form of self-assessment, supervisor assessment, or the ever-popular 360 assessment, often used in leadership roles.</p>
<p><strong><em>iv. Map and assign learning resources to continue employees’ development programs.</em></strong><span> </span>If gaps are identified, the organization can provide employees with learning resources pre-mapped to competencies to develop and strengthen those gaps.</p>
<p><strong><em>v. Allow your people to build career paths.<span> </span></em></strong>One of the most powerful motivators to keep top employees engaged is opportunities for growth. With your competencies mapped to every job, there’s total transparency on exactly what skills and behaviors, at what levels, your people need to demonstrate in order to take their next step (or even reach their dream job). </p>
<p>CompetencyCore by HRSG empowers you, the busy HR professional, to put these programs into place at your organization with the confidence that you’re setting things up the smart way.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2> <a id="get-started" target="_blank" rel="noopener" name="get-started"></a><strong>How to Build Smart Job Descriptions?</strong></h2>
<p>There’s only one way to build Smart Job Descriptions, and that’s with HRSG’s CompetencyCore software.</p>
<p>CompetencyCore incorporates our leading<span> </span><strong><em>Smart JD Technology</em></strong><span> </span>to help you elevate your process and empower your people.<a href="https://www.hrsg.ca/hr-management-software" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Check it out here.</a></p>What's the Real Value of a Job Description?tag:recruitingblogs.com,2019-04-08:502551:BlogPost:21040802019-04-08T15:00:00.000ZJonathan Spratthttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/JonathanSpratt
<p class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1800041199?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1800041199?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a></p>
<p class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure"></p>
<p class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" id="a212">Here’s a silly little riddle: What does almost every job in the world have in common?</p>
<p class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="6857">They all have a job description attached to them.…</p>
<p class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1800041199?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1800041199?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure"></p>
<p id="a212" class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure">Here’s a silly little riddle: What does almost every job in the world have in common?</p>
<p id="6857" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">They all have a job description attached to them.</p>
<p id="d1eb" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">They’re undoubtedly a crucial piece of the talent attraction and selection process. It seems counter-productive, then, that job descriptions are pretty much an afterthought within the realm of HR and talent management.</p>
<p id="11dd" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">Think about it from the employee’s perspective. Here’s how it works in many organizations: a job description captures a job seeker’s interest, the person applies, and maybe gets an interview. If they get hired, that job description is then filed away into a drawer for all eternity, never to be looked at again.</p>
<p id="ae61" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">On the employer side, job descriptions are a tedious task — bogging down HR specialists when they’d rather be focusing on strategic initiatives. They’re a time-sink and a productivity black hole. And that’s not even considering the time spent getting input from C-suite stakeholders and the like. Straight up: without a solid process or systems in place, it’s painful.</p>
<p id="f966" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">Worst of all, a lot of organizations are overlooking the ongoing uses that job descriptions, done correctly, can provide.</p>
<p id="6ebc" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">How Can We Bring Job Descriptions into the Modern Age?</strong></p>
<p id="e29f" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">Smarter organizations are beginning to see the value in the job description becoming a central piece of their employee lifecycles, using cloud-based job description software to help the “JD” power other parts of their talent management process. And it all starts with<span> </span><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">competencies.<span> </span></em></strong>Here are just a few ways that this manifests itself.</p>
<ul class="postList">
<li id="2a1c" class="graf graf--li graf-after--p">Companies can map<span> </span><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--li-em">competencies</em></strong><span> </span>on to their job descriptions in order to accurately define the skills and behaviors needed in this role. Those competencies can include<span> </span><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--li-em">core competencies<span> </span></em></strong>(values shared organization-wide);<span> </span><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--li-em">behavioral competencies<span> </span></em></strong>(the inherent behaviors their employees need to display)<strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--li-em"><span> </span>and technical competencies<span> </span></em></strong>(the actual, technical skills their employees need to thrive).</li>
<li id="d279" class="graf graf--li graf-after--li">With those competencies mapped to the job descriptions (the right <a href="https://www.hrsg.ca/job-description-software" class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">job description software</a> comes in super handy for this), the hiring person can carry out a structured interview, using the<span> </span><a href="https://www.themuse.com/advice/star-interview-method" class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">“STAR” method</a><span> </span>(asking the candidate to describe the situation, task, action, and result) to demonstrate the competency. This level of structure keeps things more objective, organization-wide, and keeps interviews planted in reality.</li>
<li id="abe3" class="graf graf--li graf-after--li">Later on in the employee’s stint, HR or department managers can carry out<span> </span><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--li-em">assessments</em></strong> — again, all linked back to that original job description, and those competencies required from the role. This may take the form of self-assessment, supervisor assessment, the ever-popular 360 assessment, or even some form of testing (depending on industry.)</li>
<li id="fd5a" class="graf graf--li graf-after--li">If gaps are spotted, the organization can provide employees with learning resources to<span> </span><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--li-em">develop and strengthen<span> </span></em></strong>those gaps that were identified.</li>
</ul>
<p id="608e" class="graf graf--p graf-after--li"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The benefits of a modern approach to job descriptions</strong></p>
<p id="c834" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">The list above obviously mostly speaks to the benefits that this approach has for the company, the departmental managers, and those HR specialists. But this kind of approach also has significant benefits to the employee as well.</p>
<p id="602e" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">An employee within this system has a sense of purpose, and alignment. They know exactly what they need to do to reach that next level in their role (and increasingly-popular career pathing programs can provide huge incentive for the best talent to stick around.) There’s a system that they can wrap their head around; and once again, it all revolves back around that initial job description that they were essentially hired on.</p>
<p id="2b75" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The One Unchanged Thing in Modern Work</strong></p>
<p id="6a4d" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">As a thought exercise, let’s think about the changes to the world of work over the past 30 years. In the late 80s, many desks in a typical workplace wouldn’t even have computers on them. Putting out a job ad often meant working with your local newspaper to place a classified ad. HR departments certainly didn’t have the prominence or cachet that they have in the modern era.</p>
<p id="ffeb" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p">Yet job descriptions… yep, in most organizations, they’re pretty much the exact same now as they were back then.</p>
<p id="f02c" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p graf--trailing">Why?</p>The Top 8 Do's and Don'ts of Effective Job Descriptionstag:recruitingblogs.com,2019-02-01:502551:BlogPost:20994122019-02-01T20:30:00.000ZJonathan Spratthttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/JonathanSpratt
<p>Infographic: HRSG, creators of the leading <a href="https://www.hrsg.ca/job-description-software">job description software</a> offers our top 8 tips to building effective job descriptions. What do you think? Leave your comments below the infographic to tell us if this aligns with your experience in building job descriptions!…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/940583821?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/940583821?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a></p>
<p>Infographic: HRSG, creators of the leading <a href="https://www.hrsg.ca/job-description-software">job description software</a> offers our top 8 tips to building effective job descriptions. What do you think? Leave your comments below the infographic to tell us if this aligns with your experience in building job descriptions!</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/940583821?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/940583821?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>