day 416: A Good Job Spec

A good, well written job spec can make all the difference in who applies for a job and the ease by which a decision is made about who is the best candidate. If we know what we are looking for and can spell it out well then it will entice those who we want and weed out those we don’t. Within all of this the spec has to also be compelling to someone who is just learning about our company. It has to be a call to action for either the candidate seeing it or the recruiter who is hunting for the best person. I love Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 ad in London’s Times, recruiting a crew to sail with him on his exploration of the South Pole:

Wanted. Men for hazardous journey.
Low wages. Bitter cold.
Long hours of complete darkness.
Safe return doubtful.
Honor and recognition in the event of success.

He ended up with more people than he could hire. What this job spec does is get at the heart of what type of person he valued. He was looking for courage, endurance, stamina, and adventure. When we hire, do we think enough about the core set of values and principles that we want within a person? Bad hires are usually not because of a person not having the right skill set, it is usually about the person not fitting culturally with the company, which brings us back to values and principles. In one of the first stories of hiring in the Bible, Jethro tells Moses what kind of people he should “select” to replace some of Moses’ duties. We read this in Exodus 18:21; “But find some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes.” Again, we see values and principles as core to the specifications. If today you are hiring, or being hired, don’t forget the importance of putting values first and then letting all the rest flow from there.

Reference: Exodus 18:21 (New Living Testament)