Forties People

A candidate got a job as the PA to a Chief Executive. On 'handover' day , she discovered that he had changed to a three-day week and was about to take three months off to write a book! She also found she was expected to look after the diary of the Managing Director. The job wasn't as described, she wondered if the role would actually exist long-term, and she turned it down. If the employers had written the job description correctly, this situation would never have arisen.

• Be clear about what you want the employee to do
• List the main responsibilities of the role, without going into too much detail
• Think ahead, to make sure there are no nasty surprises
• Keep it relevant; don' t ask for things you'd like but don't need
• Make sure the specification is within the law. For example, you can't say ' Must be a graduate' or 'Must have A levels' unless it's a specialist role that actually demands those qualifications
• Take care when specifying previous experience, as you must be able to justify it. For example, you can say 'Must have experience of working at CEO level' , but you can't say 'Must have five years experience' unless you can prove why
• Include the hours and benefits, because if you need someone to start at 8am, that eliminates anyone who has to take their children to school before they can start work
• Prepare the job description in advance of briefing us, or invite us to help, we're more than happy to talk through what you are looking for and why, and help you write it
• Use the job description to measure applicants against at interview
• Get the job description right, and you have a good chance of finding the right candidate. Get it wrong, and you risk wasting everybody's time!