Traditional Job Descriptions Worthless
Traditional job descriptions fail in hiring top talent!
In trainings, speeches, and engagements with clients, we start by shattering common assumptions about hiring. One of those assumptions is that job descriptions are useful documents in the hiring process. We contend that job descriptions are completely worthless.
“What do you mean, worthless? How can anybody hire with no job description? You’re crazy.”
Allow us to clarify.
We don’t mean that job descriptions have no value as legal or archival documents. Traditional job descriptions are worthless for hiring Top Talent.
Traditional job descriptions do not help you:
· align organizational goals with departmental goals or individual position goals
· create a roadmap for the hiring process
· clarify expectations
· generate a compelling marketing statement that will attract Top 5% Talent
· determine the best Sourcing Strategy to find and attract Top Talent
· assess and verify the quality and depth of candidate’s track record
· manage ongoing performance of a new hire
Traditional job descriptions simply lump together an amalgam of skills, knowledge, abilities, attributes, responsibilities, years of “qualifications” are static traits in isolation; they describe bits and pieces of the athlete, this is not to say they aren’t important skills, but they do not predict whether he will be able to effectively use those traits in the game situation to put the pigskin between the uprights, the puck in the net, or a ball over the outfield wall.
What counts most, in both sports and business, is not what traits you bring to the game, but what you can accomplish by using those traits. The coach cares whether an athlete can deliver results and help the team to win.
That is why coaches rely on scouts. The scout observes the athlete in the game, focusing solely on his or her ability to perform on the job with the rest of the team.
The Success Factor Methodology takes a coach’s perspective on hiring. It moves hiring out of the realm of static traits and into the realm of action and results.
Our research led to the development of the Success Factor Snapshot (SFS), which is the cornerstone of our methodology. This document, which replaces the traditional job description, is a tool that breaks down a position’s requirements in terms of specific, measurable deliverables, benchmarks, and timetables. We have examples, illustrations, FREE audio programs that describe the Success Factor Methodology, specifically building a Success Factor Snapshot in the FREE Resources Section of our Website.
Learn more how a Success Factor Snapshot compares and benchmarks to your current process of using job descriptions by taking advantage of our FREE Hiring Check-up.
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Tags: Hiring Errors, Hiring Failure, job description
Defining The Job | Barry Deutsch August 15, 2009
About the Author
Barry Deutsch is a founding Partner of IMPACT Hiring Solutions, co-author of "You're NOT the Person I Hired", and "This is NOT the Position I Accepted". Barry is an award-winning international speaker, retained executive recruiter, and expert on hiring and retaining top talent, and executive job search.
6 Comments to “Traditional Job Descriptions Worthless”
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By The job coach, August 16, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
Good points. As a job search coach I can’t begin to describe all the problems that arise from poorly crafted job descriptions. They make interviewing and follow up a shell game. Most don’t even have an objective or priority listed for top execs. Keep that flag flying.
Rita Ashley, Job Search Coach
Author: Job Search Debugged
Examiner.com (Seattle Executive Career Advice
By Barry Deutsch, August 17, 2009 @ 12:29 am
We’ve found that the number one problem in hiring that leads to hiring failure is lack of time invested to truly define the expectations, outcomes, deliverables, results, objectives, impact(hence -the title of our first book “You’re Not the Person I Hired“. It is also the number one reason candidates take jobs that should have never taken in the first place since they really didn’t understand what they were accepting (hence-the title of our second book “This is NOT the Position I Accepted“. It’s almost comical that good hiring can take place when hiring managers are not sure what they are hiring and candidates are not sure what they are accepting.
This is why most managerial and executive hiring fails over 50% of the time. Hiring Managers and Candidates fail to achieve their expectations – all because the time investment was never made up front to define the job accurately.
By Michael Marty, August 17, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
I could not agree more! It is unfortunate that most hiring managers and yes even some who call themselves recruiter’s do not take the time in the beginning to truly understand the job and what makes it attractive to the “A” players.
By Barry Deutsch, August 22, 2009 @ 11:36 am
Michael,
Thanks for your comment. Not defining success is the number one reason hiring fails over 50% of the time. The hiring manager doesn’t understand what they are measuring in the candidate, and the candidate doesn’t understand what the job really requires. I think it’s a miracle sometimes that people can get hired and be successful when you look at the disconnect in communication that occurs in the vast majority of interviews.
By Jobseeker, August 18, 2009 @ 11:22 am
Too bad you seem to be the only one in the marketplace with this opinion. Guess you have not looked for a job anytime recently. Bully for you!
In the real world, if the applicant doesn’t have a “skills matrix” that “EXACTLY MATCHES” {this} job description, no one, not the recruiter, not the agent, not the company HR, and certainly not the “hiring manager” will have the time of day to so much as look at a resume or cover letter, let alone speak with a person. If the search terms aren’t precisely as expected, the resume will be rejected.
And none of these matter nearly as much as the person in the group who decides she / he doesn’t like you. It’s all about touchy-feely cliques and having evaluations based on “liking.”
Qualifications do not matter. Qualifications are not important. Qualifications are rejected. Ability to contribute to the team effort is rejected. Ability to raise the level of the team is rejected. The idea that anyone “focuses solely on his or her ability to perform on the job with the rest of the team” is nice fiction but has squat to do with the piecemeal, laundry list approach approved, determined, and enforced by 99.9% of the recruiters in the marketplace.
By Barry Deutsch, August 22, 2009 @ 11:34 am
Dear Jobrants,
You’ve hit the nail on the head regarding the dysfunction of traditional interviews. This approach by hiring managers, human resources, and recruiters to “box check” search terms, job description qualifications, and minute details of experience, education, skills, and knowledge. Layered on top of traditional box checking in hiring is the tendency to make first impressions and judge candidates on “likability”. Both of these problems lead to hiring mistakes by hiring managers over 50% of the time. We document these fundamental flaws in our first book, You’re NOT the Person I Hired.
So, if that’s the traditional method of hiring – box checking and first impressions – how do you overcome it and start getting interviews and offers. You’ve got to break this cycle instead of being the victim by throwing your hands into the air and accepting the status quo. If you allow box checking and you allow first impressions to dictate your job search – you’ll be looking at never really getting a shot a great opportunities unless luck comes looking for you.
Break the cycle by following our Career Success Methodology. I guarantee if you implement the steps we lay out in our workbook, This is NOT the Position I Accepted, you’ll start getting past the stupid behavior of box checking and first impressions.