IT Job Specifications

An effective job specification is essential for effective recruiting and this is especially true with IT recruitment where non-technical people might be involved in the recruitment process.

But these days, especially in end-user IT installations, recruitment isn't just about technical key words, it's often more about the business need - a problem that needs to be solved.

The job description, or "job spec" as it's more commonly known, is the logical starting place, but it's also something that's easy to get wrong.

Unless the basic duties of a position are accurately defined right at the beginning of a recruitment exercise, you have little chance of being able to identify your ideal candidate.

You might think that this is obvious, but having witnessed how many businesses of all types and sizes get it wrong, we know that many managers will benefit from learning more about this often misused document.

Our usual point of contact when recruiting is with IT Managers, IT Directors, HR Directors, Finance Directors and Managing Directors - depending on the position we are recruiting for.

However, in many cases, the actual job specification we see pays little attention to the mechanics of the job and often looks more like a wish list than a recruiting document.

The standard of job specifications vary significantly, not only from company to company, but also from manager to manager within the same organisation.

Job specifications can often be quite lengthy and detailed documents that specify the precise requirements of the individual required to an almost impossible level of detail.

That isn't always necessary and these formal documents can often hinder the recruitment process.

• Job Requirement - this is usually a three or four line description of the job from the manager's perspective
• Reason For Hire - fairly self-explanatory and really for internal purposes within larger organisations.
• Experience Profile - specifying the number of years experience required in what types of industry.
• Qualifications - Specifying the minimum educational standard required for consideration.

There are many other headings and subheadings that are added, but these are the most commonly used ones.

The difficulty with formal job specifications is that they are often presented in almost contractual format - using non-friendly language and specifying "musts" and "must nots" - indicating a lack of flexibility.

These are not of great use to a third party recruiter - because they often miss the most important points - for example, they rarely include an accurate indication of the actual day to day duties!

Before compiling a job specification, it's important to consider a few questions:

• What is the title of the position you are recruiting for?
• Is this a common job title? - What do other companies or organisations call this position?
• Why does this vacancy exist?
• If this is a new position, what is the business need that has resulted in this vacancy?
• What will the person be doing on a day to day basis - from start to finish?
• What is the likely background of the ideal candidate for this position? Why?
• What is the salary range and benefits package?
• How does the package compare to similar roles in other companies?

Asking these questions can save a lot of difficulty later on.

You really don't need to complicate things by adding extra parameters like educational qualifications, minimum number of years in the job and other stuff that will simply restrict the number of candidates you get to see.

What do you plan to do with your job specification?

Who will get to see it?

Is it a briefing document for an advertising agency or recruiter?

Or is it just for your own use?

The answer to these questions should give you an indication as to how detailed your specification needs to be.

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