When a recruiter comes to us for a quote, one of the first things we ask them for is a job description for the position they are trying to fill.  But even if you don't have a back-office asking you for one, you should get a job description for all of your job orders, especially for contract placements.  

Job descriptions allow you to:

1. Determine the workers' compensation rate, which is needed to calculate the bill rate on contracting job orders.
2. Find the right candidate with the right skills right out of the gate, allowing you to make the placement more quickly and improve your reputation with your client.
3. Provide an accurate description to the candidate, which can help prevent fall-offs during the selection process and allow them to be more successful in the position if they are selected.
4. Better sell the candidate to the client  - and vice versa - because you can show how the candidate's skills specifically match up to job requirements.

More importantly, getting job descriptions could become the law, at least in one state.  The Massachusetts House of Represenatives is considering the Reform Employment Agency Law, which would, among other things, require staffing agencies to provide contract employees with a job description

If you have trouble getting job descriptions or are not sure what they should include, check out our next blog post where we will tackle those two issues.

Debbie Fledderjohann is the President of Top Echelon Contracting, Inc.