Job descriptions have multiple uses. As well as being used in the recruitment process to give candidates an idea of what the role involves and allow them to make an informed decision on whether to apply, it is also used by staff and line managers as a reference point for responsibilities and the expected level of performance.
Using the Job Description Standard Template (Word, 3MB), follow the guidance below to develop your document.
Job Title
Ensure the job title is specific, including the area of work/subject specialism (where appropriate) and avoid acronyms and jargon. It may be appropriate to promote your job with a different job title externally if the internal job title would not be understood outside of LJMU. Please speak to your HR Business Partner if you require any further guidance in this area.
Grade
Include the grade that has been confirmed by the Reward and Recognition team. Please do not submit a request for a new vacancy that hasn’t been evaluated.
Salary
View up to date salaries.
Hours
Please include whether the post is full time or part time in this section. For roles that can be fulfilled on a job share or part time basis, you may include Full Time/Part Time so that suitable candidates seeking different working patterns can see this.
Contract length
This will either be Permanent, Fixed Term or Secondment. If a fixed term role, please also indicate the end date or duration.
Reporting to
Provide the job title of the relevant line manager here.
Location
Add the primary location where the post holder will be based. There is a flexibility clause in this section that indicates candidates may be asked to work in any LJMU location, therefore please leave this in.
Job Summary
A short summary of the main purpose of the role should be provided here.
Do
- Include the key responsibilities that the postholder will be required to undertake on a regular basis.
- Be honest – omitting less desirable tasks that are a regular part of the role could result in your new member of staff being dissatisfied and leaving, resulting in readvertisement being required.
- Ensure any new or amended Job Description and Person Specification documents are graded by the Job Evaluation Team prior to advertising.
Don’t
- Be overly prescriptive - the document should focus on regular areas of responsibility.
- Understate or overstate the requirements of the job.
- Include acronyms or jargon.
The criteria you include will have a significant impact upon a candidate’s decision to apply. This could limit the applicant pool in terms of diversity (people self-selecting) so ensure your chosen criteria are relevant, justifiable, and reasonable. If you are in doubt if a criterion should be essential, you can discuss this with your HR Business Partner.
The person specification is what candidates will use to demonstrate their suitability and the document that you will use to assess their applications against.
For academic and research positions, minimum criteria is provided on the template Job Description documents.
For non-academic/research posts, follow the guidance below when creating your person specification or speak to HR to see whether there are any similar centrally held JDPS documents that you could use as a starting point.
Do
- Think about what is required from the successful candidate on day one – if they could not do the job without a particular quality, these should be categorised as ‘Essential’.
- Include qualities that would be beneficial, but could be trained on the job as ‘Desirable’.
- Be specific – rather than asking for ‘good IT skills’, let candidates know which particular IT packages that they need to demonstrate skills using such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Teams, etcetera.
Don’t
- Include too many essential criteria as you may not be able to shortlist any candidates as a result.
- Include too few criteria as too many candidates may qualify resulting in a large number of candidates to interview.
- Include a requirement for a specific number of years’ experience (unless this is due to a statutory requirement or a requirement for membership of a professional body). This can be discriminatory and number of years’ experience does not guarantee quality. Use descriptions such as ‘Demonstrable experience of’, ‘Substantial experience of’ instead so candidates can address this as appropriate in their responses.
Please also indicate how the criteria will be assessed, for example via the ‘Application’ form, an ‘Assessment’ or ‘Presentation’ or at ‘Interview’ stage so candidates know which areas to focus on at each stage of the selection process.
