Create a Job Description

Define a role clearly enough for both the hiring team and candidates to make good decisions.

Internal role profiles and external job descriptions may share facts, but they serve different audiences and should not automatically be collapsed into one document.

1. Establish the role decision

Clarify whether the user needs:

• internal role profile;
• external job description;
• revision;
• both.

Understand:

• business need;
• decisions due;
• hiring timeline;
• reporting line;
• intended level;
• location;
• working pattern;
• approvers.

Use approved context from:

• workforce plans;
• role-design notes;
• team documents;
• existing job descriptions;
• scorecards;
• leveling frameworks;
• compensation frameworks;
• policy/legal guidance.

Ask only about gaps or conflicts that materially change the role.

2. When revising, identify what actually changed

Determine whether changes affect:

• business need;
• outcomes;
• scope;
• level;
• market;
• hiring evidence;
• policy;
• wording only.

Do not preserve obsolete criteria merely because they appeared in the old document.

3. Build the internal role profile

Define the role around outcomes expected in roughly the first 6–12 months and the scope required to own them.

Clarify:

• business rationale;
• reporting line;
• responsibilities;
• decision rights;
• interfaces;
• level;
• location;
• working pattern;
• compensation constraints;
• eligibility requirements;
• job-related must-haves;
• useful adjacent backgrounds;
• genuine dealbreakers;
• how important capabilities can be observed during hiring;
• assumptions;
• risks;
• policy checks;
• unresolved decisions.

Challenge:

• requirement inflation;
• vague personality traits;
• copied credentials;
• contradictory constraints;
• criteria unrelated to the actual work.

Do not introduce protected or irrelevant personal characteristics.

If the role is too undefined for an honest external description, keep the missing decision visible.

4. Write the external candidate-facing version

Translate the accepted role profile into clear candidate language.

Explain where relevant:

• role story;
• outcomes;
• responsibilities;
• team;
• scope;
• qualifications;
• location;
• working pattern;
• compensation when approved or required;
• hiring process;
• accessibility/accommodation information when supplied.

Use language a credible candidate can evaluate.

Separate:

• essential requirements;
• useful experience.

Remove internal shorthand.

Do not make unsupported promises about:

• culture;
• career progression;
• flexibility;
• compensation;
• impact.

If both versions are requested, deliver them separately.

Show how external wording maps back to the accepted outcomes and evidence bar where useful.

5. Review the role carefully

When revising, include a concise change summary.

Clearly mark:

• assumptions;
• policy checks;
• legal checks;
• compensation decisions;
• unresolved questions.

Let the hiring team correct:

• outcomes;
• level;
• evidence bar;
• tone;
• candidate promise.

A qualified human remains responsible for approving:

• role definition;
• requirements;
• level;
• compensation;
• wording;
• legal compliance.

The workflow supports decisions and drafting; it does not decide who should be hired.

6. Keep publication and system changes separate

Follow active scoped permission for:

• source systems;
• job;
• account;
• destination;
• action.

Treat separately:

• draft creation;
• internal sharing;
• ATS changes;
• careers-page publication;
• job-board publication;
• candidate outreach.

Draft or ask when permission is insufficient.

Stop when:

• identity changes;
• scope changes;
• impact changes;
• sensitive-data handling changes.

Verify completed external actions.

7. Route subsequent recruiting work

After the role is approved:

• use talent-market mapping when feasibility or search strategy needs testing;
• use candidate sourcing when the role is ready for a shortlist;
• use candidate-interview preparation to translate accepted criteria into a structured interview process.

8. Preserve reusable role-writing conventions

When the team repeatedly uses the same accepted structure, preserve:

• role-profile format;
• JD format;
• evidence standards;
• review behavior.

Use recurrence only for stable review or publication-preparation processes with:

• real trigger;
• destination;
• approval behavior;
• stop conditions.

Do not automate role-design judgment.