The ideal candidate

Write a ‘person specification’ describing what the ideal candidate for the job ‘looks’ like. In other words, what behaviours, abilities and attributes will they need?

Many job descriptions have the person specification built into them – the key areas of knowledge, skills and aptitudes. These may be expressed in terms of qualifications and experience, but there are other elements that may be of importance to a particular role.

Let’s look at a few key areas:

• Qualifications- these may be educational or vocational or both.
• Experience – this should give you an idea of the build up of skills in certain areas. However, be careful – there is an old cliche that advises that you check if five years’ experience means five years’ experience or one year of experience repeated five times! The only way to check this out will be during the interview.
• Intelligence – harder to check on, but this usually becomes apparent at interview as you see how people respond to questions that require problem solving and creative thinking.
• Physical abilities- some jobs require certain fitness levels. Others, such as customer contact roles, need the individual to demonstrate an awareness of their personal presentation. In this category it may be stated if the job is suitable for a person with disabilities, and with what level of disability.
• Interpersonal skills- this covers social skills and the impact that the individual makes on others. If the role involves lots of teamwork, some types of people may disrupt the team or find themselves at a disadvantage in the current team environment. It isn’t just a case of ‘can they do the job?’ on a task basis, but ‘can they work with the existing people?’
• Special aptitudes and interests- any key skills or interests that might be useful for either now or the future, such as manual dexterity, or outside interests that demonstrate additional skills – perhaps chairing a local group or working with community support groups.
• Personal circumstances- always a touchy area, but there is no point in offering a job to someone who is unable to undertake the travel requirements or who is unwilling to move if the job is likely to require this.

A good person specification will not only describe the essential characteristics of the ideal candidate, but will also include additional characteristics that are desirable. For instance, it might state:

Essential – A-Level education

Desirable – English and sociology preferred subjects.

This would mean that anyone with an A level education would get through the screening process (providing all the other criteria were met), but if they had A level passes in English and sociology they would be at the top of the interview list. If many candidates have the essential qualifications, this may be an additional means of reducing the interviewing to those who have the desirable qualifications – or at least, inviting them to be interviewed first.

With a good job description and a clear person specification, it is much easier to identify the key elements of a job advertisement or a briefing document for whoever will carry out the recruitment process. It also makes screening applicants easier and results in interviews taking place only with potentially suitable candidates – which is more effective use of expensive management time than interviewing everyone who applies.