The number of risk managers seeking new roles was high before the COVID crisis, and the pandemic’s economic impact on the employment market has driven the number of vacancies down. However, the demand for risk managers is resilient, and it is very much a buyers’ market.
Consequently, scrutiny of the quality of job specifications and their suitability to the applicants they are trying to attract is becoming the norm. Job seekers are becoming more vocal in their critique of various social and business platforms. This critique is often warranted and comprises a combination of the following complaints:
· This job spec asks for everything
· It doesn’t tell me much
· Why is this or that qualification necessary for this role?
· This is the same job spec from 6 months ago – is it the same role?
Our tips are written with Risk roles in mind and are inspired by conversations with candidates and hiring managers.
Job Title
Approach bespoke titles with caution: applicants actively search for roles based on job titles. While “Investment Risk Analyst” may seem bland, it will yield the most effective search results and give your vacancy exposure to the relevant audience. You can liven up the vacancy in the job description content. If you are not listing salary, be cautious of overemphasising level as corporate grades vary across the market; an Associate Director’s responsibilities in one firm may be quite different in another, for example.
Career progression and growth
Too few job specs address career trajectory. It is unnecessary to go into extensive detail, but the knowledge that there is a powerful career path from the first day of joining is attractive. Research shows that remuneration is not the foremost reason risk managers move roles—career projection, work-life balance stack grade higher.
Boring
If your job description is bland and focuses purely on the employee’s responsibilities, your readers may feel this reflects the firm. Ideally, your marketing team should be involved in selling the features of joining your organisation. Many fintech’s get this right. It appears contradictory to sell your services to consumers and yet have a copy and paste bland, generic job spec. It can portray the impression of a customer-first approach rather than a people-first approach.
Discriminatory language
From “he must have” to masculine language such as “dominant.” To avoid this, we recommend using gender decoding tools that assess if the language you use is gender bias. There are several free and paid tools on the market. Statistics show that the language used in job specifications is more likely to dissuade female applicants from applying. Only 25% of companies set gender diversity targets when recruiting, and the efforts to recruit a diverse workforce begins with the job description.
Certifications
There is now a depth in the certifications available to risk professionals. A few years ago, it would suffice to stipulate: “relevant qualifications” as a criteria. Now the opportunity to use qualifications specific to credit, investment, information security, market and operational risk could give you an advantage in finding the ideal candidates faster if they are genuinely relevant to the position. If in doubt, there is no harm with having a flexible approach to certificates.
We are an ‘Equal Opportunities Employer’
Think carefully about promoting yourself as an “Equal opportunities employer” if there is no diversity within your senior team. One firm, aware of their undiversified management, wrote in their job spec. “We are an Equal opportunities recruiter and are striving to make improvements in this every day.” This disclaimer seems genuine and challenges the assumption that “equality status” is a badge of honour rather than a discovery and journey towards improvement.
Applicants are likely to judge this Equal opportunities employer statement on a firm’s Leadership Team website page and Linked In information.
Creating a job description should not be an automated process, it should be as individual as the employee. Risk Partners offers a job description creation as a Service, enabling you to attract the right talent.
Your job description advertises your organisation and your team. Not everything should be recycled. Reach out to discuss our service.
Matt Brown
Director
