How to write a job description

To write a job description, start with one sentence on why the role exists, then list five to eight responsibilities, each with what it involves and how success is measured. Add the reporting line, a short set of essential and desirable criteria, the conditions including the pay band, hours and work pattern, and an approval and review date. Keep it to about two pages, and check any pay figure against the award or agreement before it appears in a job ad.

Start with the purpose

The purpose sentence is the test every other line is measured against. If a responsibility does not serve it, it probably belongs to another role. Write it as an outcome, not a list of activities.

The job description example for a fictional accounting software company’s Customer Support Team Lead does this in one line: lead the support team so customers get accurate answers within the response standard and the team improves each quarter. A second sentence adds scope, running a team of six day to day and owning the response and satisfaction numbers.

Put the facts people check first in a header block above it: title, department, reporting line, number of direct reports, location, classification band, approval date and version. The example’s header answers most of a candidate’s first questions before they read a responsibility.

Responsibilities with measures

A list of duties without measures is an advertisement. A list with measures is the document the performance review will use a year later.

Group duties into areas of accountability and give each a measure. The example uses a three column table: responsibility, what it involves, and the measure. Six rows:

• Team performance. Rostering, coaching, the weekly huddle. Measure: median first response under 4 hours.
• Quality. Ticket reviews and the macro library. Measure: CSAT at 85 percent or above.
• Escalations. Owning severity one issues and the product feedback loop. Measure: resolved within 24 hours.
• Hiring and onboarding. Interviewing and the first 30 days. Measure: new starters at full productivity by day 45.
• Reporting. The monthly support report. Measure: delivered by the third working day.
• Process improvement. One improvement a quarter, with evidence. Measure: adopted and measured.

A measure does not have to be a percentage. “Delivered by the third working day” is as checkable as a CSAT score. What matters is that two people would agree whether it was met.

The same measures can carry straight into an onboarding plan. The 30 60 90 day plan example for a new support manager turns the 4 hour response standard into a phase goal with a target.

Selection criteria: essential and desirable

Every essential criterion quietly removes applicants, so each has to earn its place. The example lists five essential criteria, including two years leading a support or service team, a helpdesk tool at admin level, coaching experience with examples, and availability for one late shift a week. Three desirable criteria follow: a SaaS or accounting software background, experience running a knowledge base, and a second language.

Three rules keep criteria useful and fair:

• Write evidence, not adjectives. “Passionate” and “driven” exclude nobody and predict nothing.
• Put real requirements in essentials. A late shift the job genuinely needs belongs there, because hiding it wastes everyone’s interview.
• Move qualifications to desirable unless a law, licence or registration requires them.

Keep criteria to what the job needs. Questions about age, family plans, health or other personal characteristics do not belong in a job description or the application that follows; the guide to job application form questions covers what to ask and what to leave out.

Conditions and the pay band

Put conditions in one block: pay band, hours, work pattern, travel and probation. The example lists a band of $92,000 to $105,000 plus super, full time at 38 hours a week, hybrid with two office days, no travel and a six month probation. Because the block is self contained, the job ad can be cut straight from it.

Two Fair Work rules matter here. First, from 7 January 2023 a job ad cannot include a pay rate that is less than the employee’s minimum entitlement under the applicable award or enterprise agreement, or the national minimum wage where neither applies; the Fair Work Ombudsman’s job ads page gives examples of ads that breach it. Ads for pieceworker roles where a periodic rate also applies must state that rate or say one will apply. Second, pay secrecy terms in employment contracts entered into from 7 December 2022 have no effect, so employees can share their pay if they choose.

Check the classification before settling the band. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s hiring guidance says to decide first whether the person will be full time, part time or casual, then find the minimum pay rates, penalties and allowances that apply using its Pay and Conditions Tool, and to identify the right award with its Find my award tool. The band in the description should sit at or above the minimum for the classification the role actually falls under, and the employment type belongs in the conditions block beside it, because the same role can carry different entitlements as a casual or a permanent position.

Where the role sits

Candidates want to know team size and who they report to before anything else. The example puts a three level hierarchy diagram beside the purpose sentence: Head of Operations, this role, and six support specialists. It says in a glance what a paragraph would bury.

Close the document with approval and review. The example has signature lines for the Head of Operations and People and Culture, and states that the description is reviewed in 12 months, at the annual review, or when the reporting line changes. Once someone is hired, the description sits alongside the offer letter and the employment contract, which carry the binding terms. The note on what a position description is covers how the term is used across employers.

The sections table

The table at the end of this article lists the sections of a job description, what each contains, and an example from the team lead description, including three of its six responsibility measures. Use it as a drafting order and a final check.

Common mistakes

Duties without measures. Nobody can tell a year later whether the role was done well.

A wish list of essentials. Ten essential criteria remove good applicants who would learn the rest in a month.

Pay below the minimum. A published rate under the award minimum breaches the job ad rules.

Vague conditions. “Flexible hours” with an unstated late shift leads to a resignation in month two.

No version or date. Two versions in circulation lead to disputes at the performance review.

Build it

A job description is mostly tables and one small diagram. Documents here have five diagram variants, process, flow, cycle, funnel and hierarchy, so the reporting line can be a hierarchy diagram rather than a sentence, and key values come in four layouts, stats, rows, card and cards, which suits the header and conditions blocks. A two page document is below the three page minimum for a cover, so it opens straight with the header block.

The AI chat edits text only, so it can reword a responsibility or a criterion without touching the tables or the diagram. For approval signatures, one signature block party is one signer, each with a name, email and signing order. The page on diagrams in a document shows the hierarchy diagram, and the tutorial on creating a document with AI covers the first draft.