Stages of recruitment

The first stage in the recruitment process is for the business to carry out a needs analysis, in order to determine the aims and objectives of its recruitment activity – this helps the business to identify where a vacancy exists and what needs to be done in order to fill the vacancy.

During this analysis, the business may consider key questions such as:

How many people need to be recruited?
How many hours per week will they work? Will they be part-time employees or full-time employees?
How much will they be paid to do the job?
What type of people need to be recruited? What are the main skills, qualities and characteristics the required by the business?
When will the new staff start work? Are they needed immediately, in a week’s time, in four weeks’ time, etc?

Based on the outcome of this needs analysis, the business will be able to put together a job description and a person specification for each vacancy it is identified.

Think first!

Do you know what type of information would typically be included in a job description and a person specification? Type some ideas into the box below before you move on.

Now click on the images below to find out more.

Job description

A job description is a document which outlines the key information relating to a specific job role. A job description will typically include the following information:

Some introductory information about the business and why it is looking to fill the job role (what is the purpose of the role?).
The job title – for example, Customer Service Advisor, Sales Manager, Finance Assistant, Web Designer, etc.
The main duties and responsibilities that will be involved in doing the job.
How much money the person doing the job will be paid (this is known as remuneration). This may be expressed as an annual rate of pay (a salary) or an hourly/daily/weekly rate of pay.
The location of the job role – for example, it may be in a fixed location or it might involve travelling (perhaps around a specific region of the UK, the whole of the UK or overseas).
The person to whom the job holder will report to (their line manager) and any employees for whom the job holder will manage and be responsible for.

Person specification

While a job description relates directly to a specific job role, the person specification focuses more on the individual skills, qualifications, experience and qualities of the person required to do the job effectively. A business will use the job description to decide what should be contained in the person specification. In turn, the person specification will help the business to decide on the information to include when advertising the job.

The main features of a person specification include:

Essential and desirable skills/competencies. Skills relate to the expertise and talent the person will need to do the job – for example, sales skills, ability to manage budgets, fluent in French, holds a full driving licence, etc. Competencies relate to how the person behaves when using their skills – for example, has good verbal communication skills, uses their own initiative, works well as part of a team, etc. The essential skills/competencies are ones that the successful candidate must have, while the desirable skills/competencies would be useful but a candidate would still be considered suitable if they didn’t have them.
Knowledge and experience requirements – for example, working knowledge of Microsoft Office software, at least two years’ experience working in a call centre environment
Education, qualifications and training needed to carry out the job – for example, NVQ in Administration, educated to degree level, etc.
Personal attributes – such as confidence, resilience, positivity, etc.

By listing out all of these requirements, the business can use the person specification as a ‘checklist’ when choosing potentially suitable candidates for the job. For example, a business may use the person specification to evaluate all initial applications for a particular job – the candidates who ‘tick the most boxes’ will then move on to the next stage in the recruitment process (perhaps an interview, assessment, presentation, etc).