How to Write a Job Description That Attracts the Best Candidates

When a vacancy needs filling, one of the first steps is often to find the job description from the last time the position was recruited.

It saves time, but it can also mean organisations start a recruitment process with responsibilities and requirements that haven't been properly reviewed for several years.

Teams change and responsibilities move around. New systems are introduced. What you needed from a Finance Manager, Management Accountant or Finance Business Partner three years ago may not be what you need today.

The same applies when bringing in an interim. An old permanent job description may provide a starting point, but an interim brief often needs to be much more focused on what that person needs to deliver over the next few months.

A good job description or interim brief should give candidates a clear picture of the opportunity and help the right people recognise that they have the skills to do it. Get it wrong, and you could be narrowing your candidate pool before recruitment has really begun.

1. Start with what you need now

Before updating an old job description, look at what has changed since you last recruited.

The structure of the finance team may be different, responsibilities may have moved and the priorities for the person coming in may have changed significantly.

For a permanent hire, it helps to think about what you expect the successful candidate to take ownership of and achieve during their first year.

With an interim, this becomes even more important. They may be coming in to clear a backlog, cover a period of absence, support year-end or provide additional expertise during a project. The brief needs to make those priorities clear. If you're still deciding which approach is right, we've looked at the differences between interim, permanent and fixed-term finance hiring in more detail.

Starting with the work that actually needs doing makes it easier to identify the experience that matters, rather than carrying forward requirements simply because they appeared on the previous JD.

2. Decide what's essential and what's desirable

Job descriptions can easily become wish lists.

A particular qualification might be followed by a set number of years' experience, previous employment within the same sector and knowledge of a specific finance system. Individually, each requirement might sound reasonable. Put them all together and the available candidate pool can become very small.

Look at the reason behind each requirement.

A Finance Business Partner coming from another complex organisation may have the right transferable experience without having worked for a charity before. An experienced accountant may be able to pick up a new finance system quickly. In some positions, someone qualified by experience or part-qualified may be just as capable as a fully qualified accountant.

For an interim assignment, some requirements are likely to be less negotiable. If you need someone to come in and deliver from the first week, previous experience of a particular process, system or situation can matter much more.

The important part is distinguishing between experience that is necessary and experience that would simply be nice to have.

Making essential and desirable criteria clear can help candidates make that distinction too.

3. Tell people what they will actually be doing

A job description and a job advert serve different purposes. The JD may need to record the full scope of the position internally, while the advert needs to give someone a clear picture of the opportunity and a reason to consider applying.

That means an internal job description doesn't necessarily need to become the job advert word for word.

Internal JDs often have to serve several purposes. They may contain grading information, governance responsibilities and standard wording used across an organisation. All of that may be necessary internally, but candidates need to be able to quickly understand what the job will actually involve.

The reporting line, team responsibilities and main areas of ownership are much more useful than a long list of generic duties.

Compare:

"Provide high-quality financial information to key stakeholders across the organisation."

with:

"Partner with budget holders across three directorates, helping them understand performance against budget and improve forecasting."

The second gives a much clearer idea of the work involved.

For interim recruitment, being specific can also help an experienced contractor quickly judge whether the assignment matches their background. If the priority is preparing for audit, completing a systems implementation or getting management accounts back on schedule, say so.

You don't need to include every task, concentrate on the responsibilities that best explain why you're recruiting, and what the person will be there to do.

4. Use clear, inclusive language

The wording of a job description can influence who decides to apply.

Research into recruitment advertising has found that certain language can make vacancies more or less attractive to different groups. Long lists of essential criteria can also discourage potentially suitable candidates who don't meet every requirement.

This isn't about removing important criteria to generate more applications. It's about making sure the criteria you include are actually relevant to someone's ability to do the job.

Vague descriptions such as "dominant",or "competitive" are not as useful as describing the behaviour or skill you need. "Able to challenge senior stakeholders constructively", for example, tells a candidate much more about what will be expected.

The same principle applies to experience. Specifying a number of years can sometimes be less useful than describing the level and type of work the person needs to have handled.

The UK Government's guidance on writing inclusive job descriptions also recommends reviewing long lists of 'must-haves', using behaviour-based criteria and removing wording that could deter returners or people with gaps in their CV.

We've written previously about why diversity and inclusion matter in recruitment. Reviewing the language and criteria in a job description is one practical way to check that unnecessary barriers haven't crept into the hiring process.

5. Include salary, benefits and flexible working

Salary, location and working arrangements are usually among the first things candidates consider when looking at an opportunity.

Where possible, be clear about them.

If the job is hybrid, explain what that means in practice. If there is genuine flexibility around hours or working arrangements, include it rather than leaving candidates to ask later in the process.

This can be particularly useful for not-for-profit employers competing with the private sector. Salary isn't the only factor candidates consider when making a move, and many non-profits can offer benefits and working arrangements that compare favourably with the private sector. Flexible and hybrid working, annual leave and pension arrangements can all strengthen the overall proposition. If you offer them, make them visible.

For interim assignments, the information candidates need may be slightly different. Being upfront about the day rate, expected duration, location and working pattern allows contractors to decide quickly whether an assignment is suitable.

6. Remove unnecessary barriers

It is worth reading a job description from the perspective of someone outside the organisation.

Internal terminology can make a job difficult to understand. An educational requirement may have been carried over from an old specification even though professional experience is now more relevant. A career break may have no bearing at all on someone's ability to do the work.

These are relatively small details, but collectively they can affect who feels able to apply.

Accessibility should also be considered during the recruitment process, including giving candidates a straightforward way to raise any reasonable adjustments they need.

A final review of the criteria can help distinguish between requirements that are important to the job and those that have simply been carried forward. Removing the latter can give you access to a wider pool of relevant candidates.

7. Use your recruiter to test the brief

A specialist recruitment partner can add value before the vacancy even goes to market.

We know the finance candidate market and can advise on whether the salary or day rate is competitive, which requirements may be restricting the available pool and what candidates are likely to want to know before they consider the opportunity.

We can also challenge a brief where we think it needs it. Sometimes a client starts with a very specific profile in mind, but our conversations with the market show that relevant experience can be found elsewhere. For an interim requirement, we can help narrow the brief to the experience and deliverables that really matter from day one.

Making those decisions before going to market can save time later and give you a stronger pool to choose from.

Write for the person you actually need

Most hiring managers have an ideal candidate in mind. But a job description needs to describe the skills and experience needed to do the job, rather than every attribute that ideal person might have.

For permanent recruitment, being too prescriptive can mean overlooking candidates with relevant transferable experience. For an interim assignment, a broad, generic JD can make it difficult for experienced contractors to understand what they have actually been brought in to deliver.

A useful job description gives people an accurate picture of the work, sets clear expectations and makes it easy to understand which experience really matters.

Before an old JD goes back out to market, give it another read. A lot may have changed since the last time you used it.

If you're planning a permanent or interim hire into your finance team, our Accountancy & Finance recruitment team can help you test the brief and give you an up-to-date view of the candidate market, contact them for an informal chat.

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