Having job description templates for your business can be incredibly useful for your hiring efforts and beyond. We’re here to discuss exactly what a job description template is, and how to create one for your business. In this article we’ll be discussing:

• What is a Job Description and Job Description Template?
• Writing a Job Description Template: The Different Sections
• Job Description Template
• Job Description Example
• FAQ for Job Description Templates

What is a Job Description Template, and Why is it Useful?

Before you know how a job description template is an essential tool in your recruitment efforts, it’s important to understand exactly what a job description is.

What is a Job Description?

A job description is a document that outlines everything a role entails and sells the job and company, while filtering out candidates who are unsuitable for the role.

This will include information on the company itself, information on any experience they would need for the role, the responsibilities and scope of the position, as well as any perks and benefits that the company offers as well as any specific to the role.

A job description isn’t just useful for hiring. It can also be used after a new candidate’s probationary period, to measure their effectiveness and hold them accountable to objectives and responsibilities.

And, What is a Job Description Template?

Meanwhile a job description template is an internal document that helps you to write a job description for any new positions in the business. It is used to streamline the process of writing multiple job descriptions for positions throughout the company.

The different job descriptions you write will obviously need different information, such as the responsibilities of the role and the experience needed. However some of the information will remain the same (or similar), such as the company summary or company benefits.

Your business may choose to have multiple different job description templates to use for different roles: For example, one template for junior positions would discuss how your company has won awards for the training and development programmes it offers.

Meanwhile a template for more senior positions would instead focus on opportunities for career development and flexible working, with older more senior employees needing hybrid working.

Writing a Job Description Template: The Different Sections

Every job description that you write will follow a similar formula. Which makes it easy to streamline the process with a job description template that you can use again and again.

The typical layout for a job description will look like this:

• Job Title
• Key Details (Optional)
• Responsibilities of the Job
• Experience Required for the Job
• The Company Summary
• and Perks and Benefits

Job Title

The job title for your role is one of the most important parts of your job description template. After all, it’s generally what everyone searching for a job will use to try and find a role that is right for them. 

A job title should achieve three things: 

• Immediately inform a job seeker what the job you’re hiring for is.
• Attract as much attention to the job advert as it can.
• And attract the attention of the right people to the job.

To achieve this, there are three different areas to consider when writing a job title.

1. Don’t just use the job title you use internally

Many times what a job is called within a business, is specific to that business. Whether that is because it more accurately reflects the role within the company, or because it makes their employees harder to find by recruiters.

Whatever the reason, it’s worth considering if there is a more industry standard title you can use to attract more candidates and improve your SEO results.

2. Don’t be too specific with your job title

Your job title should attract candidates to the job post, and ideally the right people. But by making your job title hyper specific, you also make it harder to find, as search engines will have a harder time knowing who to show it to.

For example, if your job title is “SEO Manager”, you’ll receive a lot more interest than if your job title is “SEO Content Strategy Consultant”. And while the latter may be a more accurate description of the job, you’re going to receive a fraction of the applications. People simply aren’t searching for that as it isn’t a common, industry standard job title.

3. Use SERPs and job boards to find out which are the popular job titles

If you’re unsure of which job titles to use for job descriptions, you can consider looking on search engine results and job boards to get a general idea of which job titles are most commonly used, and even to see which receive the most applications.

Of course you can even experiment yourself, using variations in the job title to see which receives the most applicants, and most suitable applicants.

Responsibilities of the Job

For a job description template, this section will be left blank, as the role and responsibilities of each role will be different. 

But for each individual job description, you should include actual day-to-day tasks they will be completing, as well as their overarching view of the role. This will include:

1. An overview of the role

Giving a brief overview of the role will let candidates know if the role is right for them, because even with the same job title, two jobs can be vastly different. 

For example, an SEO Manager could be a role that is technical SEO focused, or content writing SEO focused.

2. Give details on the day-to-day responsibilities of the job

Of course an overview of the role is good, but you want to provide real insight into the day-to-day activities of the role. This will help a candidate gain real insight into the position, and make sure that any applicants you see are confident in their ability to complete the tasks.

3. Use bullet points, not paragraphs

When writing the responsibilities of the role, try to avoid massive bodies of text that are difficult to read. Instead, use bullet points to highlight what they will be doing, making it much more reader friendly and digestible.

4. Show how the role will be a part of the business and team

It’s also important to include some information on how the new employee will fit into the team. Who will they be working with, and who will they get the opportunity to learn from?

This can also help paint the picture of the person in the role, by showing how their work will impact the wider business.

Experience Required for the Job

Similarly to the responsibilities of the role, the skills and experience required for the role will be different for each job, so this section should be left blank as well.

When it does come time to write the job description, there are a few things to remember when writing which skills, experience, and qualifications your applicant will need to be successful.

Say which skills are essential and which are flexible

While you may have a wishlist for your new employee that is miles long, the chances of having this perfect employee applying are pretty slim. 

But if you break your skills up into the essential and the nice-to-have, you show candidates which skills you can’t flex on: Meaning you’ll receive more candidates who are suitable for the position.

Don’t have too long a list

Similarly to above, try to avoid having a huge list of requirements for the role, and bring it down to the essentials, with a few nice-to-haves.

If your job description has a huge list of requirements, not only are people less likely to feel they are right for the role, people who are right for the position are less likely to apply. It could seem like you want the world from your new employee and may ask just as much from them when they work for you, or show that you don’t really know what you want from any new employees.

About the Company

The company summary should give the reader an overview of what exactly your company does, what it offers, and how the candidate would fit into the company. Let’s look at how you can do this:

1. Give a quick overview of your company

You should aim to be fairly specific with your company. After all, people are less likely to apply to a company where they aren’t really sure what the company does. 

For example, would someone rather work at an “Ecommerce focused digital marketing agency.”: Or an “international performance marketing agency that delivers award-winning ecommerce campaigns to clients in an exciting array of industries.”

2. Give any necessary information about location and work environment

Location of a role is one of the biggest factors in someone’s job search. And the job location is something they’re going to look for first. If your business has multiple office locations, then that could also be worth mentioning.

This also stretches to include the work environment: Does the role offer hybrid working? How many days a week? Is there flexibility in the working hours?

3. Discuss the company culture

Your company culture is crucial to your hiring process, and to make sure you’re hiring the right people for the job. While someone can look great on paper, if they aren’t a cultural fit for the business it can lead to friction later down the line.

So to save yourself some time interviewing applicants who aren’t right for your business, it’s worth including a bit of information on your culture and how you like to work. 

For example, if it’s a position that will require large amounts of solo work, then it’s worth saying so, as it wouldn’t be a good fit for someone who wants to work as part of a team.

Perks and Benefits

In your job description template, the perks and benefits offered by your company will largely stay the same. However, these benefits may differ slightly from position to position depending on various factors such as level of seniority, and job industry.

In a sales or recruitment position for example, you will likely offer commission opportunities that you wouldn’t for any other role in the business. Similarly, for a c-suite or Head of Marketing position, you may offer stocks or shares options that you wouldn’t for a junior position in the business.

So make sure that the perks and benefits for each role are tailored accordingly from the job description template. 

Optional: Key Details

An optional section we include in our job description templates is a “Key details” section. The information that our research has shown is most important to an applicant looking for a new role.

This could include the job title, salary, location, work environment, language requirements, and any other critical information for an applicant. 

Obviously it’s completely optional, but should hopefully grab the attention of anyone who is a potential suitable candidate for the role.

Job Description Template

Putting all the above into action in your own job description template will look like the below.

[Job Title]

Location: [Location]

Salary: [Salary and Bonus]

[Job Title] Role & Responsibilities

As the businesses new [Job Title] your role will include:

• [General overview of the role]
• [Responsibility #1]
• [Responsibility #2]
• [Responsibility #3]
• [Responsibility #4]
• [Responsibility #5]
• [Responsibility #6]

Your Skills & Experience

To be considered for the role, the business does ask that you have:

• [Years of experience]
• [Qualifications]
• [Technical experience]
• [Hard skills]
• [Soft skills]
• [Desirable but not essential skills]

The Company

Information on what the company does, who it offers its services to, the company culture, and how the candidate will be involved in the company.

Perks and Benefits

In return, you can expect a supportive work environment with a superb benefits package that includes:

• [Salary]
• [Flexible working opportunities]
• [Holiday allowance]
• [Company pension]
• [Healthcare/ Dental insurance]
• [Company incentives]
• [Company social events]

Job Description Example

Now let’s look at what it looks like put into action, for a a job description example for a Digital Marketing Manager:

Job Title: Digital Marketing Manager

Location: London – Hybrid Working 

Salary: £40,000 + Generous Annual Bonus

Digital Marketing Manager Role & Responsibilities

As the businesses new Digital Marketing Manager, your role will include a wide variety of responsibilities including:

• Supporting the Head of Digital Marketing to oversee complete marketing efforts for agencies clients across SEO and content marketing.
• Line manage the social media and copywriting executives in your team.
• Supporting the SEO team on the execution of your SEO strategy.
• Remain responsible for SEO on-page optimisations including: Keyword research, content gap analysis, meta descriptions and competitor analysis.
• Act as support to the executives across multiple teams including SEO, social media marketing and content.
• Stay up-to-date on latest changes and trends in the digital marketing industry, filtering down your knowledge and expertise to junior team members.

Your Skills & Experience

To be considered for the role, the business does ask that you have:

• 3+ years of digital marketing experience, with well-rounded experience in SEO.
• Digital PR and link-building experience is also desirable, but not essential.
• Team and line management experience.
• Additional channel knowledge is also desirable: Social media, content marketing, paid advertising.
• Experience with data analytics and analysis tools: SEMrush, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, Excel etc.

The Company

An independently owned Digital PR agency based in Oxford is looking for a Digital Marketing Manager to join their team and take the lead on SEO strategy across the wider planning for clients.

While focused on Digital PR, the agency provides services across the entirety of SEO, Organic Traffic, Paid Advertising, Creative and Design. This makes this role a perfect opportunity for an SEO with skills in, (or looking to learn) complimentary channels and verticals, such as paid advertising, influencer marketing and social media management.

While the business is based in the heart of Oxford, the business offers hybrid and flexible working. This role comes with the opportunity to work closely with senior management, to continue to progress and develop in your own career.

Perks and Benefits

In return, you can expect a supportive work environment with a superb benefits package that includes:

• A starting salary of £40,000.
• Hybrid and flexible working.
• 25 days holidays + 1 day extra for every year at the agency.
• A generous company pension scheme.
• Private healthcare and dental insurance.

FAQ for Job Description Templates

If you’ve got any remaining questions, have a check of the frequently asked questions about job descriptions and job description templates below.

How long should my job description be?

You should aim for a job description length of between 300 – 700 words. Any longer than 600+ see’s a significant drop in the amount of applications. While having a job description with less than 300 words can see an increase in applications, for technical roles it is difficult to make sure you include all the necessary information.

The actual length of your job description will vary in length depending on a few factors, such as the seniority of the position, its scope and range of responsibilities, and how much technical expertise is required.

Can I use the same job description for different jobs?

You can use the same job description template for multiple roles within your business as some elements of the company summary, the perks and benefits, and the overall structure will remain the same.

The details of the role and the experience needed for the role, will obviously have to be changed for each individual role.

However it is important to make sure that any information that needs to be changed in the company and benefits sections is changed, and the sections are checked for errors.

Is a job description a legal requirement?

No, there’s no law saying that you need to provide a job description. However, it can make hiring much more difficult as people won’t be able to apply. 

And if you head-hunt potential candidates directly, many candidates will be reluctant to apply for a position if they can’t see an actual job description at any point.