A**job profile** is a document that describes an ideal employee for a specific position in a company. Recruiters and HR specialists use the profile as a detailed terms of reference for searching and evaluating candidates.
## What is a job profile?
Profiles are of two types:
- **Situational** \- they are created for a specific vacancy, taking into account the current needs of the company. For example, when a project manager is urgently needed, only critical requirements are included in the profile.
- **Methodical **\- a basic standard for a particular position, updated as requirements change. Such profiles help to maintain uniform requirements for the position in all departments of the company. For example, a single profile of a sales manager for all branches.
Unlike a job description, a profile contains not only a list of duties, but also requirements for personal qualities, experience, and education of the employee. For example, for a corporate account manager, the profile describes both professional skills - knowledge of sales techniques and CRM systems - and personal qualities, such as the ability to negotiate and build long-term relationships.
Also, as the business and market develops, the job profile can change, so companies regularly update the profiles to ensure that they are relevant to current tasks and help them find the right specialists.
## Why you need a job profile
Example
A company is looking for a head of sales. Without a job profile, an HR specialist risks wasting time on candidates with insufficient experience or unsuitable competencies. And clearly defined requirements allow to focus on relevant specialists - those who have experience in managing a team of 5 or more people and successful cases of building B2B sales processes.
The profile helps not only in hiring new employees. HR managers use it to evaluate current staff to check whether the person meets the requirements of the position and is ready for promotion. The profile also serves as a basis for creating training and development programs for employees.
In large companies, job profiles become part of a unified HR management system. They help maintain corporate work standards and create transparent career paths for employees.
**As a result, job profiling helps recruiters and HR professionals:**
- Quickly find suitable candidates thanks to clear selection criteria;
- Conduct interviews according to predefined parameters;
- Create probationary tasks;
- create job descriptions based on the profile;
- justify salary levels for new hires;
- analyze the reasons for unsuccessful hiring;
- optimize recruitment costs.
## What goes into a job profile
The job profile describes everything that can affect the employee's work: skills, personal qualities, working conditions and other aspects. For example, for a technical specialist in CRM-systems implementation, not only the necessary programming skills and knowledge of specific platforms, but also experience in communicating with customers, the ability to conduct user training, and the willingness to deal with customer objections.
**A standard job profile includes several basic blocks:**
- **formal requirements:** necessary education, minimum work experience, professional certificates, knowledge of foreign languages;
- **professional skills (hard skills):** Knowledge of specialized software, mastery of methods and tools, technical competencies, profile knowledge;
- **personal qualities (soft skills):** communication skills, organizational skills, ability to work in a team, stress resistance;
- **work experience:** specific achievements in previous positions, realized projects, scale of tasks, industry specifics;
- **results and indicators:** measurable work objectives, area of responsibility, success criteria for the position;
- **working conditions:** salary range, bonus system, work schedule and format, development prospects;
- **Candidate assessment methods:** interview formats, test tasks, professional cases, recommendations.
## How to create a job profile
Work on a job profile begins with a recruitment application. In modern HR systems, the hiring manager fills out an electronic application form where he/she specifies the position title and number of vacancies, organizational unit, basic and advanced requirements for candidates.
Once all mandatory fields are filled in, the system sends the application to HR professionals to work on. The recruiter can track the progress of each candidate through the recruitment funnel: from the initial consideration stage to the job exit. All communication with the manager and work notes are recorded in the application activity feed. This is how [automation of HR processes]() helps to structure the recruitment process and save the history of interaction for each vacancy.
Recruitment application in SimpleOne HRMS
Based on the application, the HR specialist creates a detailed job profile - a detailed document with requirements for the candidate, his/her tasks and working conditions.
**To create the profile, the HR specialist:**
1. **collects information** \- specifics of the position, market situation, examples of current employees;
2. **discusses the position with the hiring manager** \- the main tasks of the position, the most important requirements for candidates, working conditions.
3. **Formulates requirements** \- mandatory and desirable skills, specific examples of tasks, measurable performance outcomes, stages of candidate evaluation.
4. **approves the document** \- checks the realism of the requirements, agrees the profile with the hiring manager.
## Mistakes in drafting
You should not copy other people's profiles to find candidates - they do not take into account the specifics of a particular business and corporate culture. Each company is unique, so the job profile should reflect its needs and specifics of work.
You should also avoid vague wording in the description of requirements. Phrases like "extensive work experience" or "good market knowledge" can be interpreted differently by everyone. The profile needs clear criteria, such as "experience of managing a team of 10 or more people", "experience of working with steel mills", "C-level negotiation skills".
A manager should always be involved in the profile, otherwise you may miss important requirements and distort the priorities in the competencies of the future employee. For example, for a key account manager, the manager may consider experience in a specific industry critical, while HR will emphasize general sales skills.
## Performance Evaluation
The quality of a job profile can be assessed by several indicators that will help track how useful the document is:
- **The ratio of the number of** candidates **rejected to those approved by the** manager
With a properly written profile, the recruiter accurately understands the requirements and presents only suitable professionals to the customer. A high rejection rate indicates that HR and the manager understand the requirements differently.
- **Speed of job closing**
A clear profile helps to find the right specialists and make decisions on candidates faster. If the search is delayed, it means that the requirements are not precise enough or do not correspond to the market situation.
- **Number of additional questions in the recruitment process**
A well-designed profile contains all the necessary information - as a result, the recruiter does not have to constantly clarify details with the customer, and candidates get comprehensive answers to their questions during interviews.
If the profile shows low results on all criteria, it is worth reconsidering the requirements. Sometimes it is enough to adjust the salary level or lower the experience bar. In other cases, it may be necessary to completely rework the profile, taking into account the real needs of the business and the situation on the labor market.
## Sample employee profile
Let's take a look at a sample job profile for a corporate account manager position in a B2B company.
#### General Information:
Reporting to the head of the sales department.
Work format - office with the possibility of remote work 2 days a week.
Salary - from 150,000 to 250,000 rubles (salary + % of sales).
#### Experience requirements:
practice of running complex B2B projects from 3 years;
successful cases of work with manufacturing companies;
experience in closing transactions from 5 million rubles on your own;
knowledge of specifics of software sales.
#### Professional skills:
confident work in CRM Salesforce;
skills in preparing commercial proposals;
making presentations at the level of top management;
calculation of project payback.
#### Personal qualities:
Systematic thinking and ability to structure information;
competent written and oral speech;
ability to lead several projects simultaneously;
willingness to travel 1-2 times a month.
#### Tasks for the probation period
to study the company's products;
get acquainted with current clients;
master the CRM-system;
prepare a plan of work with 5 prospective clients;
conduct the first meetings;
form commercial proposals;
close the first deals;
reach sales targets;
develop a strategy for developing your client base.
#### **Candidate assessment methods:**
Analysis of resumes and case studies, initial interview with HR, meeting with department head, final interview with commercial director.
Example of a job profile
## Briefly about the job profile
HR specialists and managers use this document to search for personnel. Unlike a job description, it describes not only responsibilities, but also requirements for a candidate's personal qualities, experience and competencies.
Profiles can be situational - for a specific vacancy, and methodical - as a standard for a certain position. Work on the profile begins with a recruitment request from a manager and includes gathering information about the position, discussing requirements, describing tasks and agreeing on a document.
Large companies use HR systems to automate the process - from creating the application to tracking the results of the selection. When a recruiter has a good understanding of the requirements, he offers only suitable specialists to the customer.
A job profile is a living document that requires regular updating. As the business and labor market evolves, the requirements for employees change, so it is important to keep profiles up to date.
