Thursday, April 4, 2013

How to write a job description that works!


Over the past 11 years of being an employer in the cleaning service industry, my partner and I have read thousands (if not tens of thousands) of applications and resumes, have hired hundreds of people and have parted ways with most. Through this journey we have learned what type of people work well within our organization and what type do not.

Unfortunately, finding the right employee is like finding a needle in a haystack. There is a huge population of unemployed persons that are all applying for the same jobs. So how do we find the right people within this mountain of applications and resumes? My partner and I have developed a hiring system that includes a series of steps, which we will discuss in a series of blog posts, that give us an insight as to which applicants are worth knowing more about.

This blog post is a continuation of a series of posts on how to find the "perfect" employees for your cleaning service business. If you haven't already, read the previous posts which are linked below.

How to hire the RIGHT people for your cleaning service business

Writing the job description

A good job description will inform your applicant about the position they are applying for as well as, what will be expected of them while working for the company and, in return, what the company will offer them for meeting those expectations. 

So knowing what you expect from your staff is easy to define, right? Come to work on time, do a good job, don't cause trouble and do what you're told. There... Done.... Well, not so fast. Your potential employees need more from you. 

In order to attain the right people for your cleaning service business, you need to lay it all out on the line so, when applying for the position, the applicant knows exactly what that position entails, what the company will expect from them and what they can expect in return. Therefore you need to write a detailed job description which should include the following information: 
  • A brief description/history of the company and the services offered.
  • A list of requirements for the position. These will be the "must have attributes" from the list of attributes you made which is discussed in the previous post. If they don't have all of these attributes, they don't get hired. (e.g. valid driver's license, reliable transportation to and from work, etc.)
  • A list of attributes that your company finds in it's top employees. These will be the "desired" attributes you made from the previous post. A good applicant will have most, if not all, of these attributes. (e.g. punctual, friendly, team player, etc.)
  • What the company offers in return. It's important to show the value of working for your company to your applicant so they can get excited about the job and feel confident in the company they are applying to work for. If you demand allot and offer a little, you will never find the right people. (e.g. hours per week, wage, bonuses, paid time off, holiday pay, etc.)
  • Details on how to apply *More information on this in our next posting!
By giving your applicant the information they need to make an informative decision, on whether this job suits their needs or not, is imperative. Taking the time to put together a detailed job description will ultimately save you both time and energy by weeding out those potential applicants that, given the information, realize this is not the job they are looking for and therefore decide not to apply. In other words, you're not wasting your valuable time reading applications and calling people that aren't qualified or interested in the job you have to offer. 

I truly hope this second posting has gotten you thinking of how you can streamline your hiring process and find the right people for your cleaning service business. Our next issue will focus on how to collect your applicant's information so you can easily define who is, and who isn't, going to be the perfect employee for your cleaning service business.  
Best Wishes ~Erica Jensen President Clean Right Co.

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3 comments:

  1. Me too...informative but the lime green; I need to copy/paste and change the color to read it

    ReplyDelete
  2. Impressive information you have shared with us. I appreciate your great work.
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