Why a consistent approach to job descriptions is good for business

With any hospitality job description, the first step is to understand exactly what you need from your ideal candidate.  Putting down on paper what the role involves, whilst considering cultural fit and the values that make your company unique, can be challenging, but once you’ve identified these elements, writing a job description should be straightforward.

Well-written and up-to-date job descriptions help everyone, from hospitality job seekers to your HR department, team leaders and managers stay informed. Not only are they a guide to the day-to-day duties within the role, they’re also a benchmark that can be used for performance reviews, salary negotiations, brand value reviews and can be used to find any gaps in your workforce.

How often should you revisit job descriptions?

Whenever you create a new position, you automatically create a new job description. That’s a good time to review your existing descriptions. Whenever a substantial change is happening within your business; expansion, tech updates, organisational change – that’s a prompt to look at your team’s job descriptions and see if they are still fit for purpose.

How often you review depends on how quickly things change within your organisation. Smaller SME’s, due to a lower number of employees and quick growth, might need to review their job descriptions more often.

Planning a review of every job description within your business makes sense but don’t make it something that becomes unsustainable – be realistic about how often you need to do this because, without a regular review, things can be missed.

How to review job descriptions

You’ve set a review date and have all the job descriptions in front of you. Where do you start to review the content and what do you need to consider? A quick guide would include all of these:

• Check the job description details for accuracy.  Does the description still reflect the job role?
• Is the job described well – would it attract hospitality job seekers keen to join your brand?
• Are the important details right – pay, benefits, any other extras?
• Are the legal aspects (compliance, health & safety) right and how about salary negotiations?
• Are compensable factors, which are important for salary negotiations and compliance, accurately described?

Another way to review is to cross-check recent appraisals for the role and any evaluations undertaken by team leaders or managers.

Doing this will highlight any duties not included within the description, for example not in their pay grade, where an employee is carrying out work. This could lead to problems so if the job description needs to be adjusted, do it quickly.

Get feedback on the role

Once you’ve reviewed a job description check with your team leaders and managers that it accurately reflects the role. Involve someone already doing that role to give their personal feedback. They will have first-hand knowledge of the skills and responsibilities needed, and those elements of the role that may not be in the existing job description.

Talk to them about what they do. This is a good way to write a job description, and an opportunity to ensure you have a proper understanding of what your employees do. When you’ve completed the review and created an up-to-date version of the job description, discuss this version with your employee to check that it reflects their input.

Use templates as a starting point

Having a set of job description templates can save time and streamline your recruitment and HR process. Providing your HR team with a standardised approach, covering roles at different levels of seniority, will ensure consistency of recruitment practices across your business as it grows. Templates can be tailored to suit individual job roles and descriptions.

Evidence-based hiring

When recruiting detailed job descriptions allow you to make more informed decisions about candidates, using evidence to distinguish between candidates instead of relying on the interviewer’s opinion.

This can only happen when you have a consistent approach in place, for all candidates and if the job description is relevant and suitable for the role being recruited, then candidates can be scored against it, highlighting who is the top talent.

This approach removes the guesswork and is a fairer process for everyone applying for the role.

Inconsistency in job descriptions can mislead candidates and could lead to the wrong person being hired. The oncosts of this are recruitment time, money and resources, plus the impact on retention. Keeping a level of consistency within your job descriptions will make it easier to hire the best talent for the role and your organisation.