Building a Successful Job Description: Part 1 - Building Your Job Order (with handout)

Putting pen to paper and understanding the fundamentals of your job description

• Part One > 📌 You are here.

• Part Two

• Part Three

This blog post discusses the importance of building a job order form to hire the right people for your sales team. It provides guidance on defining roles, setting requirements, and saving time and money in the hiring process.

As a sales leader, you know that hiring the right people is essential to your team's success. But how do you ensure that you're hiring the right people for the right roles?

One way is to start by building out the role internally with your hiring team through the creation of a job order form. This will help you to:

• Define the role's purpose and responsibilities. What are the key goals of the role? What are the day-to-day responsibilities?

• Identify the skills and experience required for the role. What are the hard and soft skills that the ideal candidate will have?

• Set the salary range for the role. How much will you be willing to pay for the right candidate?

Once you've built out the pieces of the job order form and debated it internally, you can use it to create a job description for a public facing view to candidates. The job description should be clear, concise, and accurate. It should accurately reflect the role's purpose, responsibilities, skills, and experience requirements.

Going through the motions of the job order form exercise internally with your hiring team will help you to create a more effective job description. This will, in turn, help you to attract and hire the right people for your team.

Here are some additional benefits of the job order:

• It ensures that everyone on the hiring team is on the same page about the role. This can help to avoid misunderstandings and delays in the hiring process

• It allows you to get feedback from other team members on the role's requirements. This can help you to identify any gaps in the requirements or to make sure that the requirements are realistic

• It helps you to save time and money in the long run. You can avoid having your hiring managers sit through countless interviews without clear directions as well as having to post and repost the job description

It can quickly become overwhelming when faced with the task of creating a cohesive job order. So, what is the most effective approach to start tackling all the components that make up a good one? 

One way to begin is by using a structured, consistent order form. This form can provide a clear structure for organizing the necessary information. A truly exceptional job order encompasses these elements:

• North star for the team: Restate the goal of the team at the top of your job order. From a long term view to quantitative short term goals make it tangible

• Role title: The role title is crucial as it sets the foundation for the job description and helps the team understand the position they are hiring for. It provides clarity and ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding the purpose and scope of the role

• Number of roles to fill: Knowing the number of roles to fill is important as it allows the team to assess the scale of the hiring process. It helps in planning and allocating appropriate resources, such as recruiters and interviewers, to efficiently manage the hiring workflow

• Start date timeline: The start date timeline is crucial for setting expectations and planning the recruitment process. It helps the team understand the urgency and prioritize their efforts accordingly. Additionally, it allows for aligning the hiring process with other organizational activities and ensures a smooth transition for the new hires

• Remote or in-office or both: Specifying the work location is important as it impacts the pool of candidates that can be considered. It helps the team identify whether they need to focus on local candidates or expand their search to remote or global talent. Furthermore, clarifying the percentage of remote and in-office work required helps in managing expectations and determining the flexibility of the role

• Base salary and OTE range: Clearly defining the base salary and on-target earnings (OTE) range for the role is crucial for attracting suitable candidates. It ensures transparency and avoids wasting time on candidates who may not align with the compensation expectations. It also helps candidates evaluate their fit for the position and make informed decisions

• Deal Size: What is the average size of each deal today? What do you want it to be? It’s helpful to understand what size deals reps have closed in the past along with their sales process when interviewing candidates.

• Deal Speed: What is the speed from outreach to close? What do you want it to be? It’s critical to understand the type of velocity reps are comfortable with from previous positions and to make sure there is alignment for both parties around expected metrics on a day-to-day basis 

• Top Three Must Haves: Identifying the top three must-haves for the role provides clarity on the essential skills, qualifications, or experience required. This information helps in screening and shortlisting candidates who possess the core competencies necessary to succeed in the role

• Top Three Nice to Haves: Listing the top three nice-to-have attributes allows the team to identify additional desirable skills or qualities that could be beneficial for the role. While not mandatory, these nice-to-haves can serve as differentiators among candidates with similar qualifications

• Questions for applicants: Providing a set of questions for the recruiter and each hiring manager involved to ask applicants ensures consistency in the interview process. It helps in gathering relevant information and assessing candidates based on their responses. For each hiring manager choose an overarching topic like sales aptitude, grit, culture alignment, etc and focus the questions for that interview on that topic

• Number of interview rounds: Knowing the number of interview rounds required before making an offer helps in planning the hiring timeline and managing candidate expectations. It ensures that the team is aligned on the interview process and provides a clear structure for candidate evaluation

• Sharing notes about candidates: Having a standardized method for sharing notes about candidates as they progress through the interview rounds ensures efficient communication within the hiring team. It allows for effective collaboration, avoids duplication of effort, and ensures that everyone has access to relevant candidate information when making decisions

• Benefits provided for the role: Communicating the benefits provided for the role helps in attracting and retaining top talent. It showcases the value the organization places on employee well-being and satisfaction, and it allows candidates to assess the overall compensation package holistically

• Additional resources for candidates: Sharing articles, links, or other resources with candidates provides them with a deeper understanding of the role and the company. It allows candidates to make informed decisions about their interest and fit for the position, leading to more qualified and engaged applicants

The Handout 

📚 We have created a straightforward guide to assist you in efficiently starting conversations with your internal hiring team and developing formal job descriptions. This user-friendly guide can be utilized whenever you need to define a position you are recruiting for, ensuring a seamless transition into the rest of the hiring process.

Up Next…

In part two of our series, we talk about the importance of alignment between all the stakeholders in the hiring process, including tips and tricks for a successful alignment. 

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