Job descriptions

A job description is a document that clearly defines a role by outlining its responsibilities, accountabilities, requirements, and qualifications. A well-written job description helps to attract a diverse pool of talented candidates, supports effective recruitment, and helps to set clear performance benchmarks.

What do we use job descriptions for?

• Recruitment: to help managers and recruiters find suitable candidates
• Employee expectations: to set clear guidelines on job responsibilities
• Performance evaluation: to use as a reference for assessing employee performance
• Equal pay: to enable the evaluation of jobs to ensure equal pay for equal work

Inclusive job descriptions

We need to make sure that our job descriptions are inclusive so that we can attract a diverse range of candidates; we can do this by:

• Using inclusive language and avoiding gendered words (you can find free gender de-coder tools online to check the language)
• Keeping sentences clear and concise. When you write more, people understand less.
• Avoiding jargon or complex language
• In the personal specification, listing only the essential criteria required to perform well in the role and avoiding additional desirable criteria
• Making sure you only list a degree or other qualification if it is essential for the role
• Avoiding asking for a specific number of years of experience
• Ensuring a good balance of technical and soft skills. Technical skills may well be essential for role but it’s the soft skills that will determine high performance and attract a wider pool of diverse talent.

Job description template and guidance

Our new job description template has been approved by the People Executive Board for use across all University jobs (academic, technical and Professional Services).

Embedded in the template is guidance and inclusivity insights to help you in writing your job description. However, if you need further assistance, please contact the Reward Team at people.reward@manchester.ac.uk

Information relating to salary bands, flexible and hybrid working, and specific job location should be included in the job advert rather than the job description.