Thursday, 8 May 2008 
 
 
Today’s candidates are motivated by more than just money – they want to be engaged, inspired and want to make social difference said Nicole Underwood, General Manager, Entrée Recruitment at the Adelaide Chartered Accountants Business Forum today.  
 
“A successful recruitment process involves engaging candidates to come and work with you through purpose, intention and energy. Recruitment should not be clinical and in this market, top candidates want a company to stand for something and to be inspired by, more than just a job,” Ms Underwood continued.  
 
According to Ms Underwood, “The role of employers is to be clear about what value they are offering candidates. Job descriptions need to change with what’s in it for the candidate, the tasks and responsibilities they have, along with the outcomes they will be responsible for delivering.”  
 
“Employers should see a big opportunity to change the focus of job descriptions away from the skills, experience and knowledge they believe candidates need, towards competencies and transferable skills candidates can offer,” said Ms Underwood. 
 
“The focus is moving away from experience and skills based job descriptions to more of a focus on the behaviours people need to demonstrate to be successful in the role,” said Ms Underwood. 
 
With full employment (South Australian unemployment rate is at 4.6 per cent), an international skills shortage and difficulty in finding top talent, poor job descriptions are potentially costing South Australian companies from securing the top candidates.  
 
In research obtained by consulting firm Alexandermann Solutions, close to 60 per cent of companies rated education and qualifications as the least important factor of what made a high performer in their organisation – yet job descriptions still have this as a key focus.  
 
“The role of employers is to be clear about what value they can offer candidates that they value, from first impressions through to ongoing retention and performance management,” said Ms Underwood.  
 
Ms Underwood’s presentation also included the aspects of what make up a successful job description, including:

• A specific statement outlining the overall job purpose
• Key result areas job success is measured on
• Avoiding internal acronyms and jargon
• Short and simple length (maximum three pages)
• Visual presentation
• Used as part of the total recruitment strategy.