Job Specification
What is Job Specification?
Before they can find capable employees for an organization, recruiters need to know the job specifications for the positions they are to fill. — George W. Bohlander, Managing Human Resources.
By definition, job specification is a statement of the needed knowledge, skills, and abilities required of the person performing the job.
In the HR department for the City of Mesa, Arizona, the job specification for senior HR analyst includes the following:
- Graduation from a four-year college with major course work (minimum fifteen hours) in human resources management
- Three to five years experience in employee classification and compensation or selection or recruitment
- Two years experience in developing/improving job-related compensation and testing instruments and procedures.
Because job specifications establish the qualifications required of applicants for a job opening, they serve an essential role in the recruiting function. These qualifications typically are contained in the notices of job openings.
Whether posted on organizational bulletin boards or HRIS Internet sites or included in help wanted advertisements or employment agency listings, job specifications provide a basis for attracting qualified applicants and discouraging unqualified ones.