How to Use JD Template for exceptional job description and hiring success?‍

When you Google the term "jd templates" or "job description template", it shows about 243 million results. 

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The Internet has millions of templates to help recruiters with job descriptions. But do they help? 

• They give a great starting point for drafting a JD, with apt responsibilities, qualifications, etc. requirements. 

• They maintain consistency amongst all the job descriptions across the company job postings. 

• They save time and make JD drafting easy. 

• They are customizable and come with relevant information to give a head start. 

• They ensure compliance with laws and regulations to avoid any mishap.

So, templates are worth recruiters' time and give them an edge while creating JDs. However, provided that they are so valuable, recruiters cannot exploit and extract true value from them. They have to redraft the entire thing again with wasted resources and time. 

Today's blog will look at how you can use JD templates and create exceptional job postings. This will help to attract the right kind of talent and top candidates. Let us start with the job description and why you must leverage templates instead of drafting them from scratch. 

What is a Job Description?

Job description is when the hiring process takes place. They are valuable to the company and the hiring process, be it job postings or contacting the candidates.

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A job description is a document or a summary of all the required relevant information about the job vacancy. It includes a brief company introduction, job role, responsibilities, qualifications, salary, and perks, etc. In a nutshell, it provides complete detail about the job role for which the vacancy arises to set clear expectations for employers and candidates. 

Example: Amazon posted a job description for the SDE role. 

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Source example

This job description specifies the job details and gives an overview of what the candidate can expect when she/he joins the organization. It elaborates on the essential and preferred qualifications along with basic company information. It also shares the job role in a storytelling format. 

Ps:- The 'Related Jobs' section stands out as it helps the applicants to apply for the most appropriate job position. 

Do you want to read more job descriptions with an innovative touch to attract top talent? Read about top JD examples (case study plus templates available). 

Recruiters must make job descriptions comprehensive and concise with all the details specified, setting clear expectations for the applicants. 

But, What is in the job description? 

A job description must be specific and concise and include all the information to give applicants a clear picture of the job role. Recruiters can focus on the following aspects while drafting a job description: 

• Job title 
• Job purpose
• Job duties and responsibilities 
• Qualifications (must have and nice to have) 
• Working conditions 
• Salary and perks 
• Company brief (about product or service) 

One must not include all the sections, but it is advisable to mention all the relevant details to get an ideal candidate. Moreover, this reduces the chances of unqualified applicants, making the hiring process fast. 

With this discussion, we can conclude that job descriptions are critical to hiring success. Is it a good choice to depend on job description templates? Won't they be inefficient and hamper the hiring process? 

Why Use A Job Description Template?

IMAGE: A visual summarising the points: 

• Consistency
• Time-Saving
• Avoid Legal Issues
• Clarity
• Evaluate and Develop a Career Map 
• Standardization
• Accuracy

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Job description templates can be an aid to recruiters when drafting job descriptions. They are not a one-done solution, but they give a head start when making JDs for job postings. But how do they help? 

• They help in saving time by providing a rough first draft for JDs. 

• They ensure consistency among all the job descriptions to set apart brand voice.

• They comply will all the legal rules and regulations to avoid legal issues. 

• They help in drafting clear and accurate job descriptions for providing comprehensive information. 

• These templates specify basic information and all the requirements for the job role. This provides the basis for performance evaluation and ensures employee trade development. Additionally, this helps in progressive career growth.

• They make it easier to standardize the job descriptions to ensure consistency throughout all the job vacancies.

• They help draft accurate job descriptions by providing a starting point, including job duties, responsibilities, qualifications, etc. 

Hence, templates are popular amongst recruiters to prepare job descriptions for job postings. Also, one thing to notice is that job descriptions are not restricted to job board postings only. Recruiters also share them during the outbound recruitment and use them to share information about the job opening. 

But that raises a question: Can recruiters solely rely on one job description template? 

No! 

Each job description caters to a specific job role to provide accurate information. The job of marketing manager and SDE is not the same, then how can we expect to work with the same JD template for both roles? 

Why Should A Job Description Template Match To The Job Role? 

The content writer's core job is to create content, while the core job of a coder is to write codes. How can these two people have the same job description template? 

A job description template is not a skeleton that would specify the sections to include. Rather it is like a rough first draft that recruiters edit and modify according to their requirements. 

IMAGE: JD parts to be edited:

• Role title
• Job Summary
• Job Responsibilities
• Job Requirements
• Employee perks and benefits

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For each job description template, recruiters must edit the role title, job role summary, responsibilities, qualifications, perks, and benefits. Generally, each template provides this information, but the recruiter must align this to their hiring needs. 

For instance, a template might specify that a product marketing manager has to work with the marketing and product team for product success. But your company needs them to focus on a marketing effort to communicate product specifications. Hence, job descriptions must be modified based on business needs and match specific job roles. 

But, Why is it critical to edit and modify the job description templates? 

• You can create clear job descriptions that provide accurate information and bring employers and candidates on the same page. 

• You can set accurate and clear expectations regarding the job role and company culture for the candidates. 

• You avoid dissatisfaction among candidates by setting clear expectations and amongst the HR team by reducing the number of unqualified candidates. 

• You can identify the right candidate as a job description template and act as an evaluation basis, setting a baseline expectation from the candidates. 

• You remove ambiguity about the job role and reduce misunderstandings between the employer and employee post-hiring. 

• You improve employee satisfaction and retention rates by providing clear information regarding the job role, ensuring no surprises after the onboarding. 

• You mitigate the chances of writing biased or discriminated job descriptions that drive away the underestimated candidates. 

• You promote a healthy and positive company culture using consistent and inclusive language. 

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Job descriptions must match specific job roles to ensure you hire the best candidate and provide them with the best experience. But how do you use the templates correctly to attract the right candidate for your company? 

You don't just take these templates and post them with minor changes. You must modify them to leverage them and attract the right candidate. Let us learn how! 

How to Customize Job Description Templates? 

IMAGE: a visual summarising points: "Making Exceptional Job Descriptions With Templates"

• Analyze business needs
• Match the template to the specific job role
• Add specific skill set requirements 
• Add specific responsibilities
• Censor exclusive language
• Add qualifications (must haves and nice to have) 
• Specify perks and benefits
• Proofread
• Ensure legal compliance
• Add the visuals

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Finding a suitable template is not the end job. A recruiter has to spend more time modifying the template each time a job vacancy arises. This will include making changes that align the job description with the job requirement. 

So, how do you modify and edit? 

Creating a remarkable job description requires a clear understanding of the business needs and job role requirements. If the recruiter doesn't have clarity about the same, the job description will not set realistic expectations. This will result in poor candidate experience and hiring failure. Below are the top 10 practices for hiring success and correctly leveraging templates. 

1. The first step before editing the template is to analyze the business need and review whether the template suits and fits your business needs. Recruiters have to modify the template to match the business needs. This ensures that there are no misunderstandings and clear expectations. 

2. The next step is to match the template to the specific job role. Ideally, there are job role-specific templates, but the recruiters must tailor them further and add primary and secondary responsibilities based on job requirements. This will set clear expectations and ensure give comprehensive view to candidates.

3. Add specific skill set requirements and other job-specific qualifications as per business needs. Often, executive job roles have specific skill set requirements that recruiters must mention in the job descriptions. Apart from that, dynamic markets often lead to the creation of new job roles which demand specific skill sets. Hence, recruiters must edit the templates to match their job role requirements. 

4. The job descriptions must include a detailed list of job responsibilities and duties related to technical and personality aspects. Since these are job and company-specific, the recruiters have to modify these with each template. A template may lay baseline responsibilities, but the recruiters must edit them to match their requirements.

5. Edit and censor the template to eliminate any kind of exclusive language that might drive underrepresented candidates away. This will include gender-biased language and the inclusion of other discriminatory phrases. Having inclusive language throughout the company material is critical, including the job description! 

6. Add/ edit the qualifications requirements, segregating them between "must haves" and "nice to have". Qualifications can be regarding academic or skill efficiency. For instance, many jobs demand a graduate while some demand pure skill without dependency on any degree. A recruiter must outline and map these qualifications to add them to the template. 

7. Specify the perks and benefits associated with the job. This detail is based on industry standards and personal research. A template may provide an outdated industry standard and may need to align with business policy and compensation plans. Hence, a recruiter almost always has to edit this section. They must specify the salary expectations, perks, additional benefits, etc. 

8. Editing and modifying the template may lead to some grammatical errors and typos. Tools like Grammarly and Hemmingway Editor will help you to edit your job description for more than grammatical errors. You can modify the language to make it more concise and match your brand voice. 

9. Proofread and ensure your job description complies with the rules and regulations without stimulating legal issues. Recruiters can run them through the legal department to ensure no violations. This can include issues related to discrimination, equal opportunity employment laws, etc. Many organizations add extra provisions to the application form to ensure legal compliance.

10. The final step is to add visual appeal to ensure that the job description is not a big blob of text but rather is concise and skimmable. A poor job description can drive away top candidates while leaving them confused and uninterested. Add a bit of a visual aspect and ensure that the job description is not cluttered and specifies all the information in a digestible manner. 

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How to Scale Job Description Templates For Hiring Success? 

The first step to hiring success is finding templates and drafting the perfect job description. But having to search and maintain many templates and job descriptions can be tedious. Do you want to spend hours drafting and sending job descriptions to the relevant candidate? 

Need a solution to source and manage job descriptions in one place?

NurtureBox can be your end-to-end solution for hiring success that will automate the job description distribution. Especially, if your company relies on outbound recruitment, you know the struggle of personalizing and sharing JDs with the candidates. 

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NurtureBox is a talent engagement platform that helps you source and engage with your ideal candidate on multiple platforms. It also provides the automation option for job descriptions to share with desired candidates in a few clicks. You will no longer spend hours preparing and sending JDs to qualified candidates. 

Scaling your hiring reach and automating job descriptions becomes easier with NurtureBox! 

Create Exceptional Job Descriptions ft. NurtureBox 

Job description templates mean drafting exceptional JDs that set clear expectations, attract the right candidate, and promote a positive company image! All you need is to edit them as per your hiring needs to boost your hiring pace. 

Do you want an easy tool to add, edit, manage, and share job descriptions?  

Your search ends at NurtureBox! 

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NurtureBox provides a job description automation option to edit the existing templates or add a new job description. This tool integrates with your existing HR tech stack, making sharing job descriptions easier. You can create a dedicated landing page with all the job descriptions or share job descriptions on desired social media platforms directly.

So, you can create and manage your job descriptions easily and get all the information right into your tech stack without going back and forth. Download our plugin today and make hiring easy!