Role Profiling

The 6 Stages of The Employee Life Cycle
Stage 1 – Attraction

Role Profiling

Team building is a crucial aspect of any organisation. Getting the right people in the right roles can make or break a company’s success.

One of the most important steps in the recruitment process is role profiling.

Role profiling is the process of defining the requirements and responsibilities for a particular position. It involves identifying the essential skills, knowledge, experience, and qualifications needed to perform the job effectively. A well-written role profile will attract the best candidates, and also act as a natural pre-filter, enabling you to quickly identify applicants who are not the right fit.

Take a step back

Before beginning to write a profile, it’s worth stepping back and reviewing the vacant position. If it is replacing a leaver, do you need a like-for-like replacement? Or are there aspects of the role that have evolved – are there any skills gaps or challenges within the team that a new hire could bring to the mix and add some value?

It could even be an opportunity to make wider changes – redistributing tasks that other people in the team would like to do and taking tasks away that the current team don’t enjoy.

Team profiling is also a sound investment – looking at the combined strengths of your team and what attributes they are lacking to operate effectively as a whole. Do you have too many challengers and not enough communicators or collaborators?  Does the team share the company Vision and Values.?

Key Steps to writing a Bullet Proof Profile

1. Identify the job title and seniority level.
   This helps to define the scope of the position, where and how you will search and source your ideal hire, whilst setting the expectations for the candidate. Proactive job seekers will be exploring the job boards; the need to capture their attention is critical.
2. Define the job purpose and key responsibilities.
   With clarity, summarise the sole purpose of the role, its essential functions, as well as the desirable’s that will really add some value to the role and team. Don’t overload the profile with an enormous wish list, give some insight to a “Day/Week in the life of” Set the expectations and what level of responsibility they will including direct reports.
3. Identify the necessary skills and qualifications.
   This includes educational requirements, as well as certifications or specialised training that may be required. – In terms of soft skills and personality profile fit, do you need a good communicator with great social and people skills or someone that’s great with analytics. Be clear as to your expectations as potential candidates can connect with this kind of detail.
4. Determine the level of experience required.
   The number of years of experience required in a particular field is useful, but the breadth of experience across multiple industries could bring innovation.
   Think this through very carefully – you don’t want to exclude good candidates who lack specific experience but could bring valuable insights from outside your area, especially if the team already has the history to bring a new recruit up to speed.
5. Define the cultural fit
   The final step, but no less important. You’re looking for the right person, not just the right skills. The new recruit will need to integrate with their colleagues, and be managed. Identify the values, beliefs, and attitudes that are necessary for success in the role. Once this is established it will be easy to spot the ones that don’t represent the company ethos Vision and Values.

Do your research

If this is a role that you haven’t advertised before, spend some time online looking at similar role profiles. Put yourself in the shoes of somebody applying for this job and ask yourself which vacancy you would be attracted to and why. Think about the stage of the employee lifecycle the applicant may be at, and the type of person you want in your team.

Once you have a draft profile, give it to the other team members to review. This will give you valuable feedback, as well as giving them some buy-in and giving clarity over what the new person will be doing. You never know, this might prompt somebody to apply for it themselves, or start discussions around how the team could be adjusted to work better.

Benefits of Role Profiling

1. Attracting the right candidates: A well-written role profile helps to attract the right candidates by clearly defining the job responsibilities, required skills, and qualifications.
2. Streamlining the recruitment process: Role profiling ensures that the job requirements are clearly defined, and the candidates are assessed against the same criteria. It also allows candidates to self-select – filtering out those who are obviously a poor fit before interview.
3. Improving employee retention: Sets clear expectations right from the outset, and ensures that the candidates hired for the job are a good fit for the position and the organisation.
4. Enhancing employee engagement: Getting the right person in the right job, with very clear expectations that can be discussed with the line manager, is a great way to hit the ground running.

An essential step – DO NOT rush the process!

Role profiling is an essential step in the recruitment process. It helps to ensure that the job requirements are clearly defined, and the right candidates are attracted to the position. A well-written role profile can streamline the recruitment process, improve employee retention, and enhance employee engagement.

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