Simplify Your Hiring Process with our FREE Job Description Template
- Rhea Ramkhelawan
- Mar 20
- 4 min read
Sometimes, creating a well-structured, clear, and concise job description to attract the most qualified candidates for any open role can be a challenge.
What information is relevant? What information encourages qualified candidates to apply? These are some questions that can leave us wondering.
To help make this easier, we've created a detailed job description template with guidance on how to complete each part, ensuring a professional structure.
Download the template now:
Why Should You Use a Job Description Template?
Save Time: instead of spending hours researching how to create your job description, the template offers a step-by-step guide.
Establish Structure: With the template, your business will have an established framework for writing all future job descriptions to ensure consistency.
Attract Qualified Candidates: Job seekers are paying closer attention now more than ever to how businesses present themselves when posting an open role. A clearly structured job description shows that your business values organisation and clarity.
Every job description should have the following components:
Let’s look at each and how to ensure they are optimised in a way that will get you quality candidates.
Job Title
A job title should be clear, and relevant to the expectations of the job. It is important to stick to industry recognised terms that are widely used as job titles. This improves searchability but more importantly it helps job seekers align the role to their skills and experience.
If you want more visibility on job boards, having a job title that is relevant matches your role to the industry giving you increased reach.
Salary/Compensation
Compensation is a key consideration job seekers take when applying for jobs. Providing a clear salary range is important for getting the attention of the right candidate.
While in the UK it is not a legal requirement, it is good practice to be transparent, letting candidates know the expected salary for a role.
Check out our blog post on how hiding salary ranges could be costing you top talent.
Location
Be clear about where the job is based, both geographically and whether the role is on site, remote or hybrid. If the role is hybrid, you can go a step further and indicate how many days are required in office and how many remotely (e.g. 2 days in office, 3 days remote).
Listing the location helps job seeker determine whether the location works for them in terms of commuting, and whether they are willing to relocate. If the job does include support for relocation, this should be clearly stated to manage candidate expectations.
Job Summary
This is the first impression a job seeker gets of the role. Ideally, this should be short, about three to five sentences.
A strong job summary aims to capture a candidate’s interest in the role, set role expectations and helps with job search visibility on job boards and LinkedIn.
Here’s an example of an effective job summary:
“We are looking for a skilled Fire Stopping Technician to join our team who specialises in fire safety compliance. In this role, you will be responsible for the installation, inspection, and maintenance of fire-stopping systems, ensuring adherence to fire safety regulations and the integrity of passive fire protection solutions.”
Key Responsibilities
The key responsibilities of a job description outlines the main duties of the role. This further elaborates what candidates are expected to do daily.
These are some best practices for this section:
Use bullet points to keep it clear and easy to read
Use action verbs such as “manage”, “lead” and “coordinate”
Start with listing the most important duties first
Avoid phrases such as “handle various tasks” or “as required”, maintain specific but concise and direct descriptions
Required Qualifications
This section lets job seekers understand the required skills, experience, and education needed to be considered for the role. It gives candidates a chance to assess whether their qualifications match the role. For hiring managers, it shows transparency on hiring criteria.
These are some best practices for this section:
Use bullet points to keep it clear and easy to read
Be clear about educational qualifications and certificates
When referencing experience, include the years of experience (e.g. 3 years)
Keep the list concise
Additional Qualifications
In this section, mention additional skills or experience that would be advantageous in the role. These should be considered as “nice-to-haves” rather than requirements.
An example would be industry specific knowledge such as, “experience with cloud platforms like AWS or Azure” or “knowledge of cybersecurity best practices.”
Benefits
The benefits section of your job description is what attracts a job seeker to your company. This is where you list a strong benefits package such as employee assistance programmes, pension plans, training, and holidays. Perks like having your birthday off are also good to mention.
Here’s an example of an effective job summary:
Benefits include:
· 25 days paid holiday plus bank holidays
· Employee assistance programme: mental health support, financial planning support
· Training and development programmes
· Enrolment to company’s pension scheme
Company Overview
This is where you can create a connection with a candidate, sharing what the company does and why you do it. It is an opportunity to share your mission, values and even workplace culture.
These are some best practices for this section:
Keep it concise with three to five sentences
Mention company growth and industry
Use clear and engaging language to sound more authentic
Application Instructions
This section ensures candidates know exactly how and where to send their application. These instructions should be kept clear and straightforward to make it as simple as possible to submit an application. Complex application portals may deter candidates that fit the role.
You should also include an application deadline; this encourages a sense of urgency and helps candidates to apply on time.
Conclusion
With the right formatting, you can design a job description that is impactful and attracts the best quality candidates for your open roles. Remember to be concise, clear, honest and transparent with the information you are sharing about the role.
Need more help finding the right candidate for your IT and engineering roles? Contact our expert recruiters today: recruitment@verelogic.co.uk.
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