2.5 minute read  |  A one-question audit you can run on every open role this week

Here is a one-question audit worth running on every open job description your company has posted this week.

Would your best current employee in that role still apply if they saw this posting today?

For most companies, the honest answer is no. And that answer explains more about hiring struggles than any applicant tracking system ever will.

Why great employees wouldn’t apply to their own job

Job descriptions tend to get written in a specific style. Long. Formal. Hedged. Full of requirements that no single human actually meets. A list of ten bullet points under “preferred qualifications” that read like a composite of every person who has ever done the job well, plus a few traits leadership wishes they had.

The person who could actually do the job well reads that list, finds three things they don’t quite match, and decides not to apply. Meanwhile, the person who matches none of them but has unshakable confidence applies anyway. Over time, that pattern shapes who you hire. And it rarely shapes it toward the stronger candidate.

What great job descriptions do differently

They describe the actual work, not the ideal person. Instead of “self-starter with a passion for excellence,” try “you’ll own our month-end close process and present variances to the CFO.” Specific. Testable. Honest.

They separate must-haves from nice-to-haves honestly. If someone truly can’t do the job without a specific certification, say so. If they can, remove it. Every unnecessary “required” filters out candidates who would have been great.

They tell the truth about the hard parts. The best candidates respect honesty about what’s difficult. “This role requires 20 percent travel” or “we’re rebuilding this function and you’ll be making decisions without a playbook” attracts the people who want that, and screens out the people who don’t.

They end with what a win looks like. What does success look like in six months? In a year? Candidates self-select against clear outcomes. They can’t self-select against vague ones.

The afternoon fix

Pull up the three open job descriptions on your site right now. Ask the person who currently does each job (or did it most recently) to read it and answer two questions. Does this describe what you actually do? Would you apply to this if you were looking today?

Most of the time, you’ll get a thoughtful critique in about twenty minutes. Rewrite the postings with their feedback by end of day.

That one afternoon of work tends to change the quality of applicants faster than any other hiring intervention we see.

Getting the right applicants for your open roles?

A great job description does half the hiring work for you. At Exact Staff, we help companies write postings that reach the candidates they actually want, and screen out the ones who are a mismatch, before anyone wastes time on a first interview.

Contact your Exact Staff Representative to schedule a consultation