Help Candidates Self Select with Work Levels Job Descriptions
By Michelle Malay Carter on June 8, 2008
Because we don’t?have?science-based understanding?about work, i.e.?that it occurs in discreet, measurable levels, we do a really poor job of writing job descriptions.
What About the WORK?
Most job descriptions are a mishmash of ambiguous competencies, personality characteristics, and often include arbitrary educational qualifications.? They do a lot of talking about the candidate qualifications but precious little about the job.
Effectively Narrow Your Candidate Pool
My experience has been that the better my clients get at actually describing the work involved in the role, the smaller and more targeted their pool of interested candidates becomes.
Know Your Work Levels
Of course, I suggest using a work levels approach to describing the work.? Why?? Because if you were to accurately describe a level-four sales role to a level two-capable sales person, s/hewould not be interested.? Humans are really good at self selection if the work is well described.
An Additional Candidate Characteristic to Consider
From a selection perspective, you could have two candidates of the same age,?who graduated from the same school, had the same sales experience within your organization, who were both enjoyed sales work, but one of whom was capable of being promoted to the next level and one who was not due to current cognitive capability levels.
There are ways to assess current cognitive capability, but my argument today is if you simply explicitly described jobs by work level, most unqualified candidates would not apply.
Mismatching is Rampant
PeopleFit research shows that 35% of employees are mismatched to their roles currently, either under utilized and bored (20%) or over their heads and incapable (15%).? Properly matching employees to roles is a critical component for engagement.
I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.
Have you ever been mismatched to your role?? How did it feel?
Filed Under Employee Engagement, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Talent Management, Work Levels
Comments
4 Responses to “Help Candidates Self Select with Work Levels Job Descriptions”
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I certainly agree with your overall premise, but I wonder if this works well all of the time, or only when the economic factors haven’t led to a larger number of “desperate” job seekers. In such times, I’ve seen people push for job interviews that they had to know were “above” them or even “below” them, no matter how explicit a description of the work I put in the job ad (and did HR complain about the length of my ads!). While it’s still fairly easy to weed out the former with a capable screening and interview process, the latter can still slip through by downgrading their resumes, often with unhappy results.
Hi Will,
You’re right. Good observations. When people need to feed their families, they do what they need to do.
I think many underestimate how painful it can be to be underemployed. I know a woman who is likely stratum 5 capable who works a level one role for health insurance as her husband is self-employed. She handles it with grace, but I don’t know that I could do it.
Regards,
Michelle
I second Will Pearce’s comment about desperate job seekers. I also think there’s a lot of reading into and ignoring of items in job descriptions by candidates to see what they want to see that happens. Some can be attributed to ambiguity in the job posting itself, but not all of it. I think Michelle you are right by suggesting that some people underestimate the pain of under or over employment. As a recruiter trying to provide the best candidate for a client, I also have to be mindful of the pain to the client if the wrong person were put into the role.
Hi Alicia,
Thanks for stopping by. Yes, “settling” is not a good thing when you are looking for a spouse, nor a job. Thanks for the comment.
Michelle