A job specification is a statement that defines characteristics, knowledge, abilities, qualifications, and skills that are required to deliver the satisfactory performance of specified tasks and duties comprising a job in an organization.

Job specification features work-experience, educational qualifications, managerial experience, creative capabilities, emotional balance, leadership skills, adaptability etc to perform the responsibilities and duties involved in a job.

In simpler terms, job specification is called employee specifications. It is derived from job analysis. Job specification together with the job description helps the organization to overview the title, roles, education, responsibilities, skills etc that are required from the employee.

Job specification helps in selection and recruitment process and also to evaluate the performance of the employees to raise the appraisals or promotions.

Why is Job Specification Important?

Job specification is a document that helps to understand the purpose and importance of a particular job position in the organization.

As it contains all the specific details of a job, it helps the interview team to focus on the critical components when they are selecting an employee for the position.

Job specification includes all the specific details related to the job position like personality traits, educational qualifications, skill set, managerial experience, prior work experience, etc thus lays down clear guidelines on which the recruitment team can select the best possible person to fit the role.

Job specifications are also posted on the recruiting portal websites where the candidates can go through the requirements to determine whether they are suitable for the job position.

Here are some of the advantages of the job specification.

Advantages of Job Specification

There are many advantages to having a detailed job specification. Here are some of them.

• The job specification lists out all the details that are required for the candidate to perform the job. It helps the recruiters to understand the set of characteristics, experience, educational background, technical skills etc to select the best suitable candidate for the job position.
• Based on job specification and job description, the employee prospects determine whether they are suitable to apply for the job vacancy.
• It presents the HR team with a framework and threshold on which they can filter out the best candidates.
• Job specification guides both employee and the employer on the complete recruitment and selection process.
• The data set in the job specification to evaluate the performance of the employees.
• It helps the organizations during promotions and performance appraisals.
• Comprehensive job description in-hand sets a benchmark for the HR managers to figure out the training needs that makes the employees perform as expected.
• Saves time for the recruitment team while screening the resumes.

What are the Elements of Job Specification?

Education

This component gives an idea of the academic qualifications of the candidate. It generally covers high-school education, graduation, master degree, technical certifications, diplomas etc.

Some jobs may require a 4-year degree and some may just need a two-year academic degree. Some positions demand certain training and certifications.

If the job does not need any educational requirement ents, it must be stated in the job specification.

Experience

This parameter defines the years of experience the candidate needs to have in a particular domain to suit the job position.

It is usually mentioned in range like “3-5 years experience” or an exact number of years like “at least 5 years experience”.

It specifies the work experience in a specific domain and position.

Managerial and supervisory experience is mentioned under the experience parameter in the job specification.

Sometimes, it can be extremely specific like “10 years experience in marketing a specific branded product”.

Skillset

It examines the knowledge and skill set profile that are required by the individual to efficiently perform the job.

The skills become niche-specific for the higher positions in the company.

Personality Characteristics

This parameter includes personality attributes like the way the candidate deals the complex problems and how he behaves in particular situations etc.

It also specifies generic behavioral patterns and emotional intelligence i.e how psychologically strong the person is? etc.

To read more Job Specification examples, you may consider visiting job search sites, here you can read job specifications other recruiters have used in their job openings.