Posted in Other | Posted by Impact Partnership

The Hiring Series, Part 1: Crafting the Perfect Job Description

Posted on July 28, 2016

Attracting a motivated, capable employee starts with developing a thorough job description.

A job description needs to include several pieces of information that are essential to drawing in the right talent. By reading your job description, the potential candidate should be able to learn about the company, the role’s expectations, and the salary range. Make sure to personalize the description to you and your practice, as this will assist in driving more qualified candidates to apply for the position.

There are five primary roles administrative professionals typically apply for in an advisor’s practice: Director of First Impressions, New Client Specialist, Existing Client Specialist, Appointment Setter, and Marketing Director. Even if you are hiring your first employee and need them to do everything, a job description is essential in helping the new employee know exactly what “everything” means.

When developing a job description, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What tasks are you currently executing that a new employee could easily take over? These responsibilities must go on the job description as requirements of the role.
2. What administrative parts of your day-to-day job do you least like to do? Usually, we feel dread performing these duties because we are more equipped to perform a number of other tasks.
3. What tasks could you reassign to someone else that would give you more time at the conference table?
4. In general, what is on your wish list for your practice that you can’t accomplish on your own?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can craft a well-thought-out job description that attracts the right candidates for the position.

We recommend that you include basic information about the job, such as title, full time or part time, experience required, as well as task level position, responsibilities, and qualifications. In terms of salary, most companies like to put “negotiable based on experience” instead of a salary range, which can be good, but it could attract candidates that have salary requirements far beyond what you are looking to pay.

Impact has developed standard job descriptions for the roles mentioned above. Contact us today for more information.

Was this article helpful? Stay tuned for more posts in our hiring series, including reviewing a resume, interviewing candidates, and making a job offer.

For insurance professional use only. Not for distribution to members of the public.