The Job Description: Write One That Attracts The Hospitality Candidates You Want
A Job description outlines the essential responsibilities involved in a role. They have grown increasingly critical over the years as hospitality businesses struggle to find the best talent.
An effective job description ensures your brand can attract candidates and fill crucial skill gaps. In fact, 52% of job seekers on a recent Indeed research report said job descriptions directly influence their decision on whether or not to apply for a role.
Job descriptions help you to outline exactly what you need from a new employee, so you can make the right decision about who to hire first-time around. These documents also:
- Give candidates a clear idea of what to expect from a role
- Act as a guide when making hiring decisions
- Communicates the expectations aligned with a role
- Form the foundation for interview questions
- Attract critical talent to role opportunities
Core Components of a Job Description
Whatever your process for creating a job description there are key components you need to include as a minimum. This is to ensure potential candidates are getting the basic info to read further and make a decision on if they will apply.
- Title and summary – an easy to understand title and short summary. Even if the role is named differently internally, look at what is popular when people search for a job with similar duties. You are likely to attract more people.
- About Us – a section that sells you and why they should come and work for you. The more attractive you make it, the more likely they are to want to apply.
- Competencies and Skills – Essentially, it’s a checklist of everything a good employee will need to perform well in the role, refrain from putting anything that is a nice to have as this could candidates others off.
- Benefits and salary – show your candidates what’s “in it for them”Provide an insight into the kind of salary your candidate can expect. You can choose a salary “range” if you’re open to negotiations. Just make sure it’s in line with the average for the role. Don’t forget to draw attention to benefits too.
Top Tips for Writing A Compelling Job Description
Writing effective job descriptions for the skills short hospitality landscape isn’t just about ensuring you include all the right information. As the number of job openings in today’s market continues to expand, it’s important to look for ways of making your job descriptions more compelling.
Here are some quick tips to help you attract more candidates.
1. Improve the Opening Section
It’s becoming extremely difficult to make job descriptions stand out these days. After all, job postings are above their pre-pandemic levels. In fact BigHospitality reported a 700% increase in hospitality roles compared to pre pandemic levels.
Your potential candidates will be scanning through job listings daily. That’s why it’s important to make sure you instantly grab attention.
A good way to make your descriptions more compelling is to focus on the benefits the candidate can expect immediately. Rather than starting with a phrase like “The ideal candidate will”, make it about them. For instance, “This role gives you an opportunity to work with an award winning brand and develop our menus ”
2. Communicate Your Culture Clearly
Candidates are a lot pickier about where they work in today’s skills-short marketplace. Therefore it’s critical to highlight the culture of your business straight away. That way candidates can determine whether your business really fits their needs.
Discuss the company culture employees can expect, introducing concepts like, flexible schedules, use of on-site facilities, and team-building exercises. Consider including genuine insights and quotes from your existing employees. This is a great way to demonstrate your business’s credibility and authenticity.
3. Make Information Easily Accessible
Job descriptions need to be informative, but candidates don’t want to be overwhelmed with huge amounts of text and complicated words. Consider cutting down on lengthy sentences and switching to bullet points where possible. This will help your candidates scan your content and find the necessary information to determine whether they should apply.
Experimenting with different kinds of content is a good way to make your job descriptions a little more engaging. Alongside paragraphs and bullet points, you could consider using short videos to provide insight into your business, with statements and stories from real employees. Show candidates the business space, and let them hear your voice to make your content more memorable.
4. Double-Check Your Content is Inclusive
As demand for diverse, equitable, and inclusive employers continues to rise, it’s important to double-check that your content doesn’t include any evidence of bias. Unconscious bias can easily creep into job descriptions and prevent crucial talent from applying.
For instance, you may use words like “young go-getter” or “experienced veteran” without malicious intent, but these terms alienate whole age groups within your candidate pool. When writing your hospitality job descriptions, watch out for any language which might make your description less appealing to a specific gender, age group, or ethnic group.
If you’re worried your diversity message isn’t clear enough, talk to your recruitment company, who will be able to advise you on how to include your commitment to DEI.
5. Be Transparent About the Candidate Experience
Setting expectations in the job description is an excellent way to save time for your team and your potential hospitality candidates. Being open and clear in your job description about what the interview process and how decisions will be made shows your candidates that they can expect a straightforward hiring journey with you.
Highlight whether there are likely to be any post-interview tests your candidates will need to complete such as trial shift, and let your potential employees know if interviews will happen in person or virtually. It may also be worth introducing some basic information about the onboarding experience for successful candidates.
6. Ask for Feedback
As employee and candidate expectations change, it can be difficult to consistently update your job descriptions in a way that generates real results without a little help. Fortunately, there are various places where you can cultivate feedback. Ask your existing team members for help making your job descriptions stand out. They can tell you what benefits make your role more compelling and what information you might have missed.
Speak to your hospitality recruitment company for advice on how to make your job listings stand out. After all, these professionals have years of experience posting job descriptions and helping brands attract top talent.
Job Description Mistakes To Avoid
- Obscure Job Titles – it just confuses people.
- Using Exaggerated Language – Such as ‘working for the best company in the world’ Better to focus on what you can offer and what is unique to you
- Failing to include the basics – see core components above
- Exhaustive list of must haves – will turn away people who could be great for your business
Final thoughts
Designing the ideal job descriptions is one of the most important things you can do as an employer trying to attract hospitality talent. In a skills-short environment, it’s crucial to ensure your job descriptions not only show your would-be employees what they can expect from your role but also give them insight into culture and benefits.
If you struggle to update and enhance ineffective job descriptions, we are experts in writing compelling job descriptions for over 30 years. Contact KSB Hospitality and Catering Recruitment Agency via the link below and we’ll chat through how we can help you.
