Hiring for Fit

CHAPTER 4

From Job Description to Position Profile

We find that few organizations have a clear and accurate job description at the outset of a search. Perhaps surprisingly, we see many managers hiring new employees using out-of-date job descriptions, even after an organization has changed considerably since it last hired. A document often exists, but in many cases it fails to capture important elements of the organization and the role. In particular, we see many job descriptions that emphasize hard-skill requirements and pay little, if any, attention to soft skills. This is a serious oversight, given that the dismissal of employees usually results from deficiencies in soft skills, not hard skills.

The process of choosing the necessary fundamental ...