Why Your IT Job Description Isn’t Enough

A job description allows you to go to market with your position. Get the word out. Start the search. Find the right team member.

It’s standard fare. You have to have one. And so many companies rush to get something on paper, more accurately the internet. Something that checks all the right IT boxes and skills that make sense in the industry and they go out looking for the same person everyone else is looking for.

But have you ever gone through the hiring process and found yourself two-months into the wrong hire for the position. If you take a step back, you may find this problem started with a general job description that didn’t get to the roots of what the actual position requires. The problem started before the actual IT candidate search.

Go Beyond a Tech Job Description

The most effective job description is the end result of a thorough investigation of the actual role the new hire will be tackling.

Although you may feel so busy you want to compile the job description and get this position filled yesterday, we have helped many companies spend a little more time upfront to save countless hours later.

Taking the time to map out the position in its entirety, doesn’t just help with attracting the right people to the position and your company, it sets the course to measure your new hire’s success for the entire first year and beyond.

Without putting in the work to examine the actual role you need filled, you may find yourself:

  • Dramatically narrowing your candidate pool by requiring qualifications the new hire doesn’t even need to be successful for your team.
  • Misrepresenting the reality of the role resulting in an unhappy, confused and disloyal new hire at the end of the hiring process.
  • With a great new hire who fits the culture, but no way to track if they are successful in this position.
  • Wasting your time looking in the wrong direction.

It’s important to back up one step from the job description and explore what the real needs of the position are. To truly find the right candidate with the qualifications to perform the tasks needed and who knows exactly what is expected of them to be successful in this new role, you need to start before the job description with a Outcome-Driven Job Description.

Meet the Outcome-Driven Job Description

You wouldn’t start building a house without a solid blueprint. The people you hire are the foundation of your company’s success, so don’t build your team without a plan either.

The Outcome-Driven Job Description is your position’s blueprint. Like architects’ drawings, once your Outcome-Driven Position Plan is finalized, everyone can move confidently into the build phase eliminating costly mistakes from lack of planning.  

What Exactly is an Outcome-Driven Job Description?

The Outcome-Driven Job Description is an in-depth look into the true functionality of the role you need to fill, including the most important areas of responsibility and completed with smart goals to help you track the success of your new hire over time.

The Outcome-Driven Job Description is a talking document bringing the role to life and setting you and your candidate up for success. It includes:

Why the Outcome-Driven Job Description?

As we stated before, a mis-hire can many times trace its roots back to the fact that the team didn’t exactly know what was needed for the role when they began interviewing. When the job description isn’t a true reflection of what is really needed in that role, you are setting yourself, your team and your candidate up for disappointment. Doing this exercise eliminates that.

The Outcome-Driven Job Description produces a much different document than just a job description. It goes beyond just checking the boxes of common IT qualifications and validates why certain skills are required. It then goes beyond the first day on the job to help you measure the candidate’s performance in the first 30, 60, 90-days and more.

Benefits of the Outcome-Driven Job Description in your search

No one wants to put time into something that doesn’t have a pay off. These benefits should convince you that writing your Outcome-Driven Job Description is more than worth the time.

    • It validates why certain qualifications are required to ensure you are looking for the right candidate.
    • Creates crystal clear expectations to manage the new hire effectively – benefits go way beyond the first day on the job.
    • Create better interview questions more relevant to the role to learn if they are able to do the job and if they are willing to do the job.
    • Increase the accuracy of the interview.

Now that you know the importance of making the time investment into the Outcome-Driven Job Description to land on the best job description, download our Outcome-Driven Job Description Workbook to get started today.

Or visit our Guide to the Best Job Description You’ve Ever Created to learn more about each component of this plan.

If you’d like assistance creating your Outcome-Driven Position Plan and in your IT candidate search don’t hesitate to connect with us today.