A quick note before we get started.
Like many of you, I’ve spent the last week focused on the horrible events in Ukraine.
My initial response to the crisis was to stop writing altogether. Who cares about hiring practices when bombs are flying at Ukrainian homes? Who cares about corporate culture or inclusivity or optimizing the labor force while we watch a petty tyrant pose an existential threat to global liberal democracy?
But then I read Garrett Buck’s White Papers post, where he dropped this gift:
What I do know, is that there is work on the days the bombs drop and there is work on the days the bombs don’t and that work is always to draw deeper and closer to others who dream of a world where nobody is expendable and nobody is under attack.
The primary reason I started writing about talent evaluation is that I believe that no one is expendable. Everyone has gifts that we often fail to see, and, in far too many cases, we allow our biases to cloud our judgment, and we build bureaucracies to distance us from our humanity. Often to our detriment.1
At the very least, I hope that Lying to Ourselves is a way to hold myself accountable. It’s a way for me to intentionally do the work of seeing others as who they are and what they’re capable of rather than tools to serve a process or, worse, my ego. And if I can share what I’ve learned with you? Well, that’s even better. Will I always get it right? No! Progress is rarely linear, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth pursuing, even in times like these.2
So without further ado, let’s talk about job descriptions.
-Ben
A Job Worth Describing🥰
Going into the second quarter of 2022, I’d wager that you and your organization are planning on growing your headcount - and you’re not alone. In the later part of 2021, there were two unemployed workers for every three job openings. In other words, the hottest labor market in over half a century isn’t showing signs of cooling any time soon.
This post is the first in a series on the unsexiest part of the hiring process, the job description. In later posts, we’ll look at sales and marketing tactics to learn how to improve your job descriptions, get advice from recruiters, and look at some companies doing descriptions the right way.
But let’s kick things off with the fundamental question: Do you have a job worth describing?
Avoiding the bullshit jobs
Step one in determining if your job is worth describing is determining if it matters at all. Said another way, how can you avoid creating another bullshit job?
Bullshit jobs are so abstracted from any real value that even their practitioners perceive them pointless. In a 2015 survey, 37% of Britons described their jobs as meaningless, and the bullshit jobs theory has enjoyed renewed interest post-COVID. I suspect that the fear of having a meaningless bullshit job is a factor in causing the industry hopping and business formation underpinning much of the Great Resignation.
For example, the below video, published eight months ago, has 2.1 million views.
What do you need?
I have a small consulting business where I work with companies to grow their revenue. Practically this means I spend lots of time with company leadership and, specifically, the sales, marketing, and product teams. We work together to build a go-to-market/sales strategy, and then I help the team execute that strategy.
Part of the business is talking to potential clients, and almost every conversation opens with the potential client telling me that they want to grow; therefore, they need to hire people. But that formula rarely holds up.
Instead, we take a deeper dive into their business, build a model, and discover some reasonably significant inefficiencies. Most of the time, adding more people won’t solve their problem.3
What is evident is that those additional hires aren’t necessary. Instead, what’s required is a focus on the one or two things that the company could do better, and then the discipline to track improvement in that area.
My lesson? Hiring is expensive; it shouldn’t always be your first solution.
Would you do the job?
Here's another question to ask yourself: would you do the job? Why or why not?
Take a serious look at what your role entails, whether there’s a growth opportunity and whether your workplace is healthy. Just by thinking critically about the role and the candidates who could fill it, you are already demonstrating that you practice the one thing Millenial and Gen Z workers care most about: An employer who cares about their well-being.
Another critical question: Are you backfilling someone who left? If so, why did the employee leave? Knowing the honest answer to that question can tell you a lot about your organization, the role, the manager, and the team.4
Job Descriptions matter now more than ever.
Until a handful of years ago, many workers were willing to hang tight - but that’s not the case anymore. People need a reason to do a job, and, as we will see, innovative companies realize that they’re not just selling a job; they’re selling hope and growth - even to the lowliest of functions.
My lesson here is that It doesn't hurt to be reflective and ask yourself if you’d take the gig. I’ve personally asked myself that question and realized that, without changing too much, there was a lot we could do to make the position more appealing, not just for the organization but for the candidate as well.
In later posts, we’ll talk about writing better job descriptions. For now, confirm that you have a job worth describing.
As always, thanks for reading!
I rarely address this idea directly but I firmly believe that we (defined as “people in a position to hire someone”) really do get in our own way when it comes to evaluating talent. In fact, I almost called this newsletter “Shooting Ourselves in the Foot.” Also, the science agrees with me (it seems like a good time to link to this study [again]).
Big thanks to Allan Peetz who read and provided feedback on a draft of this preamble.
At least not in the short term. Trying to scale broken processes and people is a recipe for disaster.
I italicized “honest” for a reason. I’m very skeptical of exit interviews, especially ones that are neutral or contain no meaningful feedback. If your workplace is toxic what incentive do you have to be honest with the poor HR specialist tasked with conducting your exit interview?