Defining A Hiring Process (part 2)
One of the most important, yet often overlooked, steps of the hiring process is the step of creating detailed definitions of each position in the corporation. Each position should have a clear and concise description that states the responsibilities and duties of the position as well as a list of required skills and abilities necessary to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the job.
It is important that the skills and abilities listed tie into the responsibilities and duties described for several reasons. First, having a detailed understanding of a position gives you and your staff the ability to consistently and objectively fill each position with truly qualified candidates. The second reason is liability. If you include skills and ability requirements that are not truly needed to do the job, include these in your hiring advertisements and then reject applicants based on the lack of the skill or ability, your company could be found in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). By having accurate position descriptions, based on the skills and abilities truly needed to perform each job, you are able to define a hiring process that removes impulsiveness from the hiring processes and protects your company from legal hassle.
It is interesting how many companies do not have accurate, up-to-date, job descriptions. In my personal experience only two of the eight environments I have worked in during my career had up-to-date job descriptions for each position in the corporation. So, where do you get the information needed to accurately define the jobs in you company as they currently exist?
Most corporations have organizational chart providing a good place to begin. If the chart is not up to date (positionally not necessarily personal personnel wise) take the time to update it. An up-to-date organizational chart describes the reporting structure of the corporation and should include positions and the names and contact information of the persons filling those positions. Using the organizational chart you can easily identify managers with direct reports and task them to provide / update job descriptions for each of their direct reports.
To make sure that your job descriptions are standard and contain the vital information you require it is best to create a documented process to generate / update job descriptions. Your process should include orientation for new managers of direct reports, a position interview form that encourages the manager to provide title, brief description, responsibilities, and required skills and so on for each position.
Since we are examining the hiring process in regards to software developers it is important to clarify what requirements / skills should go into the position descriptions of programmers. It is important to remember that technology changes quickly and so your position requirements need to be specific as to responsibility but more general in regards to technology. For an example consider a position for a developer required to develop enterprise integration software (software that enables various systems, applications to interact across the enterprise). While the current technology flavor may be Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) or Apache Axis (.NET versus Java), it may be better to describe the position in terms of enterprise integration and / or Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and then include the desired skills only in the skills section of the job description. Skills can then be adjusted a technology changes enabling the actual job description to be more static. This also makes the job description less restrictive by allowing development teams to react easier to changes in technology without leaving the bounds of a job description.
Though often overlooked, the step of creating detailed definitions of each position is the most important when defining a hiring process. Why is this? Having a solid understanding of the skills and abilities truly needed to perform a job provides you the means to create consistent, accurate and effective job descriptions and, when needed, accurate, consistent advertisements and finally consistent and effective interview questions. Consistency and relevancy are the two biggest factors needed to meet EEOC requirements and fill open positions with the best possible candidates.
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