Job description template
A job description sets out why a role exists, what the person in it is responsible for, what good looks like after a year, and the skills it needs. This free Word template covers purpose, responsibilities, outcomes, essential and desirable skills, reporting line, pay, benefits and location, plus a fair-wording check to run before you publish.
Running a company of 30 to 200 people? Documents like this are now worth money.
Write it before you advertise and keep it current: it feeds the advert, the contract, and the objectives for probation and performance reviews. Below: how to write one, a fictional example, and the UK and US rules on wording.
What's in the template
Job description
| Job title | |
|---|---|
| Team or department | |
| Reports to | Job title, not a name |
| Direct reports | Number and job titles, or none |
| Location and working pattern | Site, hybrid or remote; hours or shifts |
| Contract | Permanent or fixed-term; full-time or part-time |
| Pay range or grade | |
| Version and date |
1. Purpose of the role
One or two sentences: why this job exists and what would not get done without it.
2. Key responsibilities
| Responsibility (start with a verb) | Share of time | Essential to the role? (yes or no) |
|---|---|---|
3. Outcomes: what success looks like after 12 months
- A result you could check, e.g. month-end figures ready by working day 5
4. Skills, knowledge and experience
| Requirement | Essential or desirable | How we will assess it |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | ||
| Essential | ||
| Essential | ||
| Desirable | ||
| Desirable |
5. Working relationships and authority
- Works most closely with:
- Main external contacts:
- Decisions this role can make without approval:
6. Pay, benefits and conditions
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Salary or hourly rate | |
| Bonus or commission | |
| Holiday | Days a year, and whether bank holidays are included |
| Pension and other benefits | |
| Travel, on-call or weekend work |
7. Fair-wording check before publishing
- Each essential requirement is genuinely needed to do the job
- Phrases like 'recent graduate' or 'highly experienced' appear only if they are real requirements
- Physical demands describe the task (e.g. stands for most of a shift), not the person
- Qualifications allow 'or equivalent experience' where that would do
- The title and wording are gender-neutral
- It explains how to ask for adjustments when applying
8. Approval
| Written by | Approved by | Date | Next review |
|---|---|---|---|
How to write a job description
- Start from the work, not the last person who did it: what must the role deliver in the next year? A description copied from the last advert may describe a job that no longer exists.
- Write the purpose in one or two sentences. If it takes a paragraph, you may be describing two jobs.
- List five to eight responsibilities, each starting with a verb, with a rough share of time. Mark which are essential and which could be handed to someone else: that matters when a disabled candidate needs adjustments, and in the US it is evidence of essential functions.
- Turn the main responsibilities into outcomes you could check after a year. They become the first objectives in the probation review and, later, the performance review.
- Keep the essentials short. An essential requirement is one the person couldn't do the job without, even with training; the rest are desirable.
- Add the facts candidates decide on: pay, location, hours and contract type.
- Run the fair-wording check in section 7, then get it approved and dated.
Example: purchase ledger clerk
A filled-in description for a fictional 70-person engineering company.
Purpose: make sure suppliers are paid accurately and on time, and that what the company owes is recorded correctly. Reports to: finance manager. Location: on site, one day a week at home. Pay: £26,000 to £29,000 (illustrative).
| Responsibility | Time | Essential? |
|---|---|---|
| Match supplier invoices to purchase orders and delivery notes, then code and enter them | 50% | Yes |
| Prepare the weekly payment run for approval | 15% | Yes |
| Reconcile supplier statements and resolve queries | 20% | Yes |
| Set up new suppliers and confirm any change of bank details by phone | 10% | Yes |
| Cover the credit control inbox during holidays | 5% | No |
Outcomes after 12 months: invoices entered within three working days of arriving; statements from the top 30 suppliers reconciled monthly; no payment released without approval. Essential: experience of processing invoices in an accounting system, accuracy with figures, Excel filters and lookups. Desirable: a bookkeeping qualification, or equivalent experience.
Fair wording: what the law says
UK
- The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination because of a protected characteristic: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity leave, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
- GOV.UK's guidance for employers says you must not state or imply in a job advert that you'll discriminate, including saying you can't cater for disabled workers, and that phrases like "recent graduate" or "highly experienced" should only be used when they are actual requirements of the job.
- Every new starter's written statement of employment particulars must include their job title or a description of their work, which you can take from here.
US
- The EEOC says it is illegal to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference for, or discourages people from applying because of, race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Its example: an advert seeking "recent college graduates" may discourage people over 40 and may break the law.
- Under the ADA (employers with 15 or more employees), the EEOC treats a written job description prepared before you advertise or interview as evidence of the job's essential functions.
This is a summary, not legal advice; the sources below have the detail.
Common mistakes
- An essentials list nobody could meet. Ten "essential" criteria put off good people who meet eight of them.
- Describing the body instead of the task. "Must be physically fit" says less than "lifts 15 kg boxes several times an hour", and only the second lets you consider adjustments.
- Duties that hide the real job, such as "support the team", or "other duties as required" quietly covering half the work.
- Never updating it, so at review time it describes a role the person stopped doing a year ago.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a job description and a person specification?
A job description covers the role: its purpose, responsibilities and outcomes. A person specification covers the person: the skills, knowledge and experience needed, usually split into essential and desirable. This template combines the two.
Should a job description include the salary?
Include the range if you can, so people can decide quickly whether to apply and you don't interview candidates far outside your budget.
How long should a job description be?
One to two pages. Anything longer usually means the duties need grouping.