How to write Requirements in a Job Description

Background

Research has found that the number of job requirements you list has an exponentially negative impact on the diversity of candidates who apply (more requirements = less diversity)

• Research shows 60% of requirements in job adverts are not essential
• People read “desirable” requirements as “essential”
• Unnecessary essential skills can limit the quality and diversity of candidates, with an adverse impact on female and neuro-diverse candidates
• Research has found that women will not apply for technical roles if they cannot tick 80-100% of the criteria
• Women favour job adverts that bring out the soft skills in a role
• 92% of managers say that soft skills are a better indicator of high performance in the role
• Listing a degree as essential puts barriers up to social mobility and has an adverse impact on diversity
• Only 30% of people globally have a degree, and recent research has shown that only 34% of university intakes are ethnically diverse students
• There is also a real shift towards more vocational qualifications, so think carefully about your educational requirements if you want to future-proof your roles

   

How to Copywrite 'Requirements' 

A good formula for a 'Requirement' is that a sentence is no longer than 17 words, with a maximum of 6 requirements written in bullet point format. 

A requirement defines what the candidate needs to have to be effective in the role from the outset, so you need to ask the below questions:

• Skills and Capabilities - what does the role holder need to be good at on day one?
• Knowledge - what does the role holder need to know on day one?
• Experience - what does the role holder need to have experience in from day one?

We recommend only ESSENTIAL requirements are on your job advert

• Focus on what the role-holder will need from day one in the role, remember a great candidate will love the opportunity to learn new skills once they are working with you
• Check your biases and only focus on what is essential to be high performing in the role
• Make sure you highlight any relevant soft skills
• Remove non-essential or any bias towards educational requirements, such as degrees or niche degrees
• Remember there is standard reusable content to use if you need it!

To recap:

How to type and edit Requirements on Rolemapper

• Create or open your document on RM - (click here for more info on how to create or upload)
• Scroll down and click on the requirement section

• Start typing or simply double click and choose from re-useable content from the dropdown - you can edit these if you wish
  • Remember Requirements are the skills, capabilities, knowledge, and experience needed to be successful in the role. ​5-6 requirements are best practice
  • These WILL BE pulled through from your job description into your final Job Advert if marked essential

• Select if this is an essential or non-essential requirement:
  • Is it essential?
    • “Taking a step back from the long list and thinking about what it takes to be great in this role, what is absolutely essential that could not be learned on the job in the first 90 days?”
    • "Looking inside your team, thinking about your high performers. What does good look like? What skills, experience and capabilities do they have that make them successful?"
    • “If you found an exceptional candidate without this, but who had everything else you were looking for, would you consider them? Could they be successful?"
    • "Could they have gained this knowledge/experience from another industry/sector/company type that could transfer easily into this role? "

• To add a new Requirement, click the 3 dots then click 'add new'

• To add indicators (only in the Job Description document), please click the up arrow to open the dropdown, start typing or select reusable content from the dropdown
  • Remember indicators are what the role holder would need to demonstrate that they can carry out the requirement listed.
  • These WILL NOT pull through from a job description into a copied Job Advert ​

Verb Assist and Inclusivity flags

Rolemapper will flag biased words and un-inclusive criteria as follows: