KNOW WHAT YOU WANT.
Write performance profiles, not job descriptions.
(1) Bad hires are avoidable - Lower the odds of making a bad hire by writing a Performance Profile, not a job description
(2) Summarize the job’s Mission + Outcomes + Competencies in 1000 words or less to be as inclusive as possible
(3) Include details on your company’s purpose, business, and culture to let candidates know what it’s like to work there
Looking for our Performance profile library? Click the button to the right.
What's wrong with most job descriptions?
In short, traditional job descriptions kind of suck.
Pull one up. Most of them kind of look the same: Long, disorganized lists of qualifications, experience, education, and (sometimes) skills. They aren’t compelling or clear, and they certainly don’t help distinguish good candidates from bad ones. As Lou Adler says in his excellent book, Hire with Your Head, "Qualifications-based job descriptions inadvertently exclude strong candidates with related, but not identical, experience. They also overvalue factors (i.e., skills, level of experience) that have been shown to be misleading predictors of success."
Most job descriptions also leave most candidates wanting. There just isn't enough detail to know what they will actually be doing once they get the job. The best candidates don't look for work based on what skills they possess - they look for work based on what they'll actually be owning, learning, and accomplishing. Give that person a long, stream of consciousness list of the tasks that they might someday work on, and you’ve already lost them.
Good news - there is a better way.
At Parkergale, we use Performance Profiles instead of job descriptions. Performance Profiles effectively communicate (i) the core purpose of the job, (ii) the key outcomes the person will be evaluated against (both during the interview process AND as an employee), and (iii) the stylistic markers of someone who fits the role, team, and organization.
Performance Profiles help answer the question "what are we really looking for?" and allow you to grade candidates using a consistent standard, which leads to better hiring decisions and stronger, more inclusive teams.
Candidates also consistently tell us that Performance Profiles are a key piece of employer branding - they communicate professionalism, and excite high-performing candidates by providing clarity on the level of autonomy and impact they will enjoy as part of your team.
Here’s what an actual Performance Profile looks like.
Performance Profiles are the executive summary of a job. They summarize the job in three sections.
MISSION - The job's core reason for being. Its purpose, expressed in a few sentences at most.
Example - Product Manager: "To serve as a visionary leader who helps our organization capture market share from the competition by analyzing the market and prioritizing new strategies and product offerings."
OUTCOMES - The handful of key results that the person will need to accomplish (and will be judged against) once they join the team. The things that need to get done.
Example - Business Development Analyst: "Call on and book at least 50 meetings with qualified prospects in your specific geography/market segment"
COMPETENCIES - The behaviors the person will need to be demonstrate to be successful in their role. How they work, communicate, and collaborate with others.
Example: "Growth Mindset - You enjoy learning how to improve your craft and can point to several examples in which you have applied a new insight or learning to make a process run smoother or better"
Why is this way better?
Performance profiles are more clear, exciting, and motivating. Studies have shown that committing to a goal can help improve employee performance. But more specifically, research reveals that setting challenging and specific goals can further enhance employee engagement in attaining those goals. Part of this increase in engagement may stem from minimizing confusion and mixed signals. As Deloitte’s 2014 Study on Global Human Capital Trends points out, “When people have conflicting priorities or unclear, meaningless, or arbitrarily shifting goals, they become frustrated, cynical, and demotivated.” We frequently receive feedback from candidates that the specific outcomes in our Performance Profiles are a key reason they are so excited to pursue opportunities inside our portfolio. While each candidate is different, the reason for that motivation may have some common drivers.
As Daniel Pink lays out in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, motivation stems from three major components: Purpose, Autonomy, and Mastery. Giving people the power to direct their own work, to improve their skills, and to work on something greater than themselves increases motivation. By laying out challenging goals and giving candidates the agency to share their thinking about how to accomplish them, Performance Profiles create a sense of ownership and possibility that attracts the best candidates.
Performance Profiles communicate where you’re headed and the impact you can have. In his High Growth Handbook, Elad Gil interviews Claire Hughes Johnson, COO at Stripe, as part of a chapter on “Decision Making and Managing Executives.” She puts it beautifully when she says:“ Organizations need constraints and objectives to optimize against, so that people can actually independently make decisions.” In one simple sentence, Claire lays out two of the biggest benefits a well-written performance profile: Clarity on where you’re headed, AND a straight answer on how the new employee will contribute to the company’s story. Powerful stuff.
Performance Profiles tell candidates how to prepare, and help hiring managers make fair + objective hiring decisions. When finished, the Performance Profile acts as the scorecard you can use to evaluate every single candidate. By asking specific questions about each outcome and competency on the profile, the interviewer can gather meaningful data on a candidate’s ability to do the job and their fit with the skills and values that matter most to the organization.
Hiring someone? Start here. These questions will help you reflect on “what you want” before you write your own performance profile.
-MISSION-
Why do you need this person?
Why does this job exist? What isn't getting done today which this person will take over?
What other parts of the organization will this person interact with the most? Which problems will they solve?
If this person introduced themselves to someone else at a non-business party, how would they describe their job?
-OUTCOMES-
What will they accomplish?
What business result will this person need to accomplish to be considered a success?
How can you convert the experiences and qualifications (HAVING) you're used to including on a job description to real job needs or outcomes (DOING)?
What do the best people in this job do differently compared to everyone else?
-COMPETENCIES-
What skills should they have?
How does this person need to behave to be successful in their role?
What team or organizational values do they need to demonstrate?
What personality or working styles are you NOT looking for?
Already have a job description? Here’s how to convert “having” into “doing” so you can create a more impactful Performance Profile and land the next great member of your team.
From “Hire With Your Head” by Lou Adler
Long lists of experience, skills, and educational requirements are boring, unoriginal, and don’t help you distinguish great candidates from lackluster ones. Take the experiences and skills you’re used to including in a job description and convert them to desired results or outcomes - candidates will be more clear on what they need to accomplish and more excited about joining your team. You’ll also know what to test for in the interview process and will be able to sort out the good candidates from bad ones.
To be inclusive, keep it short. Write your profile using 1000 words or less.
Research shows that longer job postings tend to attract less diverse pools of candidates. One example: Men tend to apply to jobs when they believe they meet ~60% of the requirements. Women tend to apply when they believe they meet closer to ~100%. The longer your job posting (and the more meaningless qualifications, years of experience, and educational requirements you include) the more likely you are sending a signal to an otherwise qualified candidate: “Maybe this isn’t the place for you.”