Why a Fair Job Description Matters More Than You Think

Job descriptions are often written in a hurry — usually the evening before you want to advertise, often by adapting something you wrote for a different role three years ago. It is understandable, but it is a missed opportunity. A well-written description is the first proper conversation you have with a future employee. It tells them what the job actually involves, what you value, and whether you are the sort of employer they want to work for.

For a small business, this matters even more than it does for a large one. You do not have a recruitment team, a glossy careers page or a recognisable brand to lean on. What you have is clarity, honesty and a good reputation in your local area. A fair job description is the cheapest and most effective way to protect all three.

Describe the Duties Honestly and Specifically

Vague duties attract vague applications. If you write "general administrative support", you will get candidates who are guessing what that means, and you will spend the first fortnight of their employment correcting assumptions. Instead, list the actual tasks in plain language, and include the unglamorous ones.

• Daily tasks: opening the premises, answering the phone, processing orders, updating the stock system.
• Weekly or monthly tasks: invoicing, reconciling supplier statements, ordering stationery, running payroll reports.
• Occasional duties: covering for a colleague on holiday, helping at events, stocktaking on a Saturday.
• Who they report to and who they work alongside: a short team diagram in words is worth ten lines of corporate waffle.

If the role genuinely involves a bit of everything — common in a team of five — say so directly rather than dressing it up. Something like "this is a varied role in a small team; you will sometimes be asked to help with tasks outside your usual list" is honest, and it will attract people who enjoy that variety rather than people who will resent it by month three.

Separate Essential Skills from Desirable Ones

One of the quickest ways to narrow your pool unfairly is to write a long list of requirements without distinguishing between the ones you cannot compromise on and the ones you would simply like. Split them clearly.

Under essential, include only what someone genuinely cannot do the job without. A bookkeeper needs to understand double-entry. A delivery driver needs a clean licence. A café supervisor needs food hygiene awareness, or the willingness to complete training within a set period.

Under desirable, put everything else — experience in your sector, familiarity with a particular software package, a second language. Be explicit that you will train the right person. Many excellent employees come from outside your industry, and a fair description is what gives them permission to apply.

Be Transparent About Pay, Hours and Practicalities

Candidates increasingly skip adverts that hide the salary, and for good reason. If you can give a range, give one. If the role is part-time, say which days and roughly which hours. If it involves weekend working or an on-call rota, put it in the description rather than springing it at interview.

• Contract: permanent, fixed-term or casual, and the number of guaranteed hours.
• Location and pattern: where the work happens, whether any of it can be done from home, and any travel involved.
• Probation and notice: length of probation, notice periods on both sides.
• Benefits: pension, holiday entitlement above the statutory minimum, staff discount, training budget.

Being upfront about these details saves everyone time and signals that you treat people as adults. It also reduces the risk of a new starter discovering something in week one that would have changed their mind at application stage.

Use Language That Welcomes Rather Than Filters

The words you choose have a measurable effect on who applies. Avoid the familiar clichés — "rockstar", "work hard play hard", "must thrive under pressure" — because they tend to put off experienced, capable candidates and attract the overconfident. Keep sentences short. Write as you would speak to a colleague.

Check that any requirement is genuinely necessary for the role. Asking for a driving licence for an office job, or a degree for a role that has never required one, is not only unfair but can leave you open to a discrimination claim. If a physical requirement exists, describe it accurately and mention that reasonable adjustments are available. Simple statements such as "we welcome applications from people returning to work after a career break" cost nothing and widen your field considerably.

Review It Before You Advertise — and Afterwards

Before publishing, ask a colleague who does not know the role to read the description and explain back to you what the job involves. If they cannot, rewrite it. Then check it against what your current team actually does, not what you planned three years ago when the role was created.

Once someone is in post, the job description should not be filed away and forgotten. Review it at the end of probation, again at appraisal, and whenever duties shift. A description that reflects reality is a fair measure for performance, a solid foundation for training, and a useful reference if you ever need to discuss changes to someone's role. Keep it current and it will keep working for you.