Writing an accurate, attractive, and competitive job description should always start with an
assessment of the department’s mission and vision, as well as the department’s structures, policies, and daily practices.
In the report, Search Committees: A Comprehensive Guide to Successful Faculty, Staff, and Administrative Searches, Christopher Lee recommends that before meeting with the human resources department to craft the final job position description, staff should utilize input questions to gain feedback from the current staff about the position to be hired. Some questions to begin with include:
- What are the three to five major responsibilities of the position?
- What are the major priorities of the position?
- What are some of the unique elements of this position that differ from those of similar positions?
- What are the three major things the new incumbent must accomplish in the first six months to be successful?
- What is the most important skill the new incumbent must have to perform this job well?
- What known and unexpected challenges could possibly derail the success of the new incumbent?
While each campus and each housing department have their own unique requirements and structures, there are some commonalities that exist across the platform. In cooperation with the Campus Housing Index project, a panel of housing professionals crafted the following position descriptions. These descriptions are useful for benchmarking purposes but can also be used as a starting point when crafting new or revising current job descriptions.
Download the document to view the guidelines.