Write a role profile that sets out the outcomes the job must deliver and the skills it needs.
Before you write a job ad, decide what the job actually needs. Write down what the person must achieve in their first year, work out the skills those results require, and only then write the ad.
Wei Ling leads a team at a logistics company. Her manager, Daniel, has approved one new hire for her team to handle a large client starting next quarter. Her first move is to dig out the company's last job ad for a similar role. It asked for "a dynamic, young team player with excellent communication skills, minimum five years' experience, Mandarin-speaking an advantage". She changes a few words and is about to post it.
That ad describes nobody in particular. It would bring in applications she has no way to compare, and parts of it could breach Singapore's fair employment guidelines. Reusing an old, generic ad is a weak first step for any hire.
First-year outcomes are what the person must achieve in their first year, written as results rather than a list of duties. To find them, ask yourself what would make you say, twelve months from now, that hiring this person was the right decision.
Wei Ling wrote three. The first is to run the new client account so the client's weekly reports go out on time and escalations are resolved within a working day, from month three onward. The second is to build working relationships with the client's warehouse and finance teams so routine issues are settled without her. The third is to take on one improvement project for the team's reporting process by month twelve.
List skills only after you have the outcomes, and take each skill from an outcome. Working in that order keeps the profile honest, because it is easy to fill a list with impressive-sounding skills the job doesn't need, such as "strategic thinker" or "dynamic". If you can't link a skill to an outcome, leave it off the list.
From her outcomes, Wei Ling worked out that running the account needs clear written communication, comfort with spreadsheets and the ability to stay calm with an unhappy client. Building relationships with the warehouse team needs someone comfortable picking up the phone. The improvement project needs someone who notices wasteful processes and suggests fixes.
Next, split the skills into two groups. Must-have skills are the ones the person needs on day one, or the job cannot work. Learnable skills are ones a capable person could pick up in the first few months with support. Every new hire has to learn these, so none of them justifies screening anyone out.
Wei Ling's must-haves were clear written English for client emails, working confidence with spreadsheets, and experience handling customer complaints. Her learnable skills were the company's ticketing system, the specifics of logistics contracts, and the client's internal processes.
When learnable skills are treated as must-haves, the candidate pool shrinks for no good reason and excellent people are often screened out. A minimum years-of-experience requirement is a common example. Ask what the years stand in for. If the old ad's "minimum five years' experience" really means handling difficult clients, say that in the ad and accept candidates who can show it in two years.
TAFEP, the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices, publishes the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices. Among other things, the guidelines say a job ad should state criteria relevant to the job. It should not include criteria such as age, gender or race, or wording that implies them. This rules out words like "young", as well as any race, religion or gender preference that has nothing to do with the work.
If a role genuinely needs a particular language, for example because a key client works in Mandarin, the guidelines expect the ad to say why. A language line with no reason given reads as a preference about the kind of person you want to hire. Before you post, read TAFEP's guidance on job advertisements, which includes examples of acceptable and unacceptable wording.
Singapore has also passed a Workplace Fairness Act. Check the MOM and TAFEP websites for what applies to your company and when, and involve HR if you have it.
If your new hire might need a work pass, you also need MOM's Fair Consideration Framework. Under it, some employers must advertise a role on MyCareersFuture before applying for certain work passes for a candidate. MOM sets the rules on who must advertise, for how long and for which passes, and those rules change, so check MOM's current guidance with HR before you start.
A role profile is a one-page document for the hiring manager and anyone else involved in hiring. It is not the job ad, but the ad is written from it. It contains:
the role title who the role reports to why the role exists three first-year outcomes five must-have skills three learnable skills, each with a note of how it will be taught
Wei Ling finished hers in forty minutes, and it changed her whole hiring process. Her rewritten ad leads with what the job involves and what the person will achieve. It lists the must-have skills plainly and says the ticketing system and contract details will be taught. "Young" and "dynamic" are gone. The Mandarin line is gone too, because the new client works in English.
Write your own ad the same way. Start with the work and what the person will achieve, list the must-haves plainly, and say what will be taught. Sales roles have different outcomes and skills, and the course Leading a sales team: hiring, coaching, forecasting covers hiring for them in detail.
Now write the profile for the role you are hiring, or the next one you expect to hire, before you open any old job ad.
Write a one-page role profile. List three outcomes for the first year, five must-have skills and three skills the person can learn on the job.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).