What Critical Role Do Job Descriptions Take During Hard Economic Times?

What role do job descriptions play in reconciling our need for talent while preparing for a possible economic downturn?

To help you come out on top during a potential recession, we asked CEOs and business leaders this question for their best tips. From preventing resource waste to hiring necessary talent, there are several crucial pieces of advice that you should keep in mind when crafting a job description during harder economic times.

Here are 5 guiding stars business leaders rely on when writing effective job descriptions:

• Find the Right Match

• Retain the Right Employee By Focusing on Skill

• Effectively Manage Your Workforce

• Subvert by Giving More Info to Candidates

• Center the Process

Find the Right Match

Job descriptions play an important role in the hiring process. By clearly outlining the skills and experience that a position requires, they help to ensure that we consider only qualified candidates for the job. 

In today's economy, this is more important than ever. 

As companies look to cut costs, they may be tempted to fill vacancies with under-qualified employees. A well-written job description can help to prevent this, by making it clear what skills and experience are required for the position. In addition, a clear job description can also help to attract qualified candidates who might otherwise not apply for the job.

In a tight labor market, this can be vital for companies looking to fill open positions. Ultimately, job descriptions play a key role in reconciling our need for talent while preparing for a possible economic downturn.

Antreas Koutis, Administrative Manager, Financer

Retain the Right Employee By Focusing on Skill

Job seekers don't look at job descriptions the same way anymore. Most have always had the hard skills like: “must be able to do scheduling” and “knowing Excel.” 

These are important, but they aren't what draw people to apply. In fact, a list of hard skills can actually deter people from applying because they may feel like they don't fully complete the list. In reality, they may know enough or can learn enough to be great at the job.

Job descriptions now should include more of what the reality of the day is like rather than all the hard skills. It should include some soft skills as well. Visualizing what a job is like daily will entice more to apply for it, even if it's challenging. Some applicants like challenges. Plus, the transparency and authenticity will attract candidates who are looking for an honest work environment.

Baruch Labunski, CEO, Rank Secure

Effectively Manage Your Workforce

By clearly outlining the duties, responsibilities, and expectations of a position, job descriptions help to ensure that employers can attract the right candidates for the job. 

In addition, by providing a detailed overview of the skills and qualifications required for a role, job descriptions can help to ensure that employees are appropriately prepared for their positions.

In the event of an economic downturn, job descriptions can help to ensure that employees can be quickly reassigned to other roles or departments as needed. As such, job descriptions play a vital role in ensuring that businesses are able to effectively manage their workforce in times of change.

Jim Campbell, Founder, Wizve Digital Marketing

Subvert by Giving More Info to Candidates

Job descriptions sell the company’s offerings to prospective candidates. Designing the job description to serve as a company’s selling point and a description manual of what the company requires from any prospective candidate. 

The job description gives a detailed rundown of what the company wants to subvert economic turmoil. The job description also details how the company plans to cut back on any extra offerings in terms of incentives in the event of an economic downturn in the organization.

Yongming Song, CEO, Live Poll for Slides

Center the Process

A majority of businesses do not have any systems or controls in place when it comes to job information (job descriptions). In fact more than 85% still use Microsoft Word to write their job descriptions, email to approve them, and shardrives to store/manage them. Hard economic times tend to expose cracks in business processes. Reductions-in-force (RIF) and organizational restructuring will lead to things like job merges, career architecture projects, and in-depth analyses of what employees are doing. All of those tasks require accurate job descriptions and a defined process to manage them efficiently.

Andrew Ellerhorst, CEO, JDXpert