Write a Winning Job Description for Your Franchise

A job description is a written statement that summarizes the responsibilities, requirements, and qualifications for a particular role. It is essential to find top talent for your franchise, and a good benchmark for performance reviews. A winning job description can help you put the right person in the right job which could make the difference between a franchise that succeeds and one that fails. But where should you start and what should you include? Here are some tips to help you write a winning job description to attract the top talent for your franchise.

Sell it: Start with a general summary about the role, including why it is important and where it fits within the organization. Include details on who that person reports to and where they fall into the company’s structure. For example:

List key skills and qualifications: List only the qualifications and skills that are crucial for the role and safe the soft skills and experience for the interview. Examples of these can be: “Must have sales experience selling to retailers” or “Must have experience in managing high value corporate accounts.” Try to keep this list short or it may become too detailed.

Include High-level responsibilities only: Job descriptions should clearly describe the major responsibilities; you do not need to include every small task. For example: “Maximizing profits and achieving sales targets set by head office” or “Handling customer complaints and queries.” Try to keep this list to about six to ten points.

Peer review: One may be subject to bias, so ask your team or an external advisor to review the description for you. A second set of eyes will most likely spot something you have missed, adding to a flawless job description. If you have never hired this type of role before, and you are absolutely stuck, perform a quick online search for similar roles and compare job descriptions.

Keep it Up-to-date: You want to make sure to keep the job description up-to-date as the same job may require different responsibilities during different times. It is also important for comparing pay rates against other jobs.

The information contained in this article is summary in nature and is intended to provide general guidance only. It should not be viewed as a replacement for legal or professional advice.