At a glance
| Document type | HR policy template |
|---|---|
| Issued by | Employer |
| Templates included | 3 ready to use versions |
| Download format | Word (.docx) |
| Statutory reference | None cited on this page |
| Last reviewed | 27 August 2026 |
| Maintained by | Engage HR editorial team |
Job description, job advertisement and role scorecard
Three documents built from the same material for different readers. Using one where another was needed is why job advertisements read like internal documents and job descriptions read like marketing.
| Job description | Job advertisement | Role scorecard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reader | The hiring manager, HR, the interview panel, and later the jobholder. | A candidate deciding whether to apply. | The interview panel and the manager assessing performance. |
| Length | One to two pages. | As short as it can be while answering what, where, why and how much. | Half a page. Four to six measurable outcomes. |
| Contains pay | Usually a band rather than a figure. | A range, where the organisation publishes one. | No. |
| Lifespan | Years. Reviewed when the role changes. | The duration of the opening. | The hiring process and the first year in role. |
| Failure mode | A list of tasks nobody can assess against. | The job description pasted in unedited. | Written after the interviews, to fit the preferred candidate. |
How a job description is structured
Nine sections. The first four are what a candidate reads; the rest are what the organisation uses afterwards.
- Identification. Job title, function, band or level, location, reporting line, positions reporting in, and the date the description was written or last reviewed.
- Purpose. Two or three sentences on why the role exists and what would not happen without it. Written last, even though it appears first.
- Key accountabilities. Six to eight outcomes the role owns, each with what good looks like. The core of the document.
- Measures. How performance in the role is assessed. Three to five, and they should follow from the accountabilities rather than sit beside them.
- Scope and decision rights. Budget, headcount, approval limits, and the decisions the role takes without escalating. The section most often missing and the one that most often settles later arguments.
- Working relationships. The internal and external parties the role has to work through, which is where the real difficulty of many roles sits.
- Essential requirements. What a person must have on the first day to do the job. Kept short and kept honest.
- Desirable requirements. What would help but can be learned or worked around.
- Conditions. Travel, shift working, on-call, physical requirements, and anything else that would materially change whether someone wants the role.
Two things to leave out. A closing line saying the jobholder may be required to perform other duties as assigned, which tells a reader the organisation has not decided what the role is. And a values paragraph identical across every description, which candidates skip and interviewers cannot assess against.
3 policy templates
Job Description Template for blank job description template
The structure with drafting notes in brackets. Delete the notes rather than answering them in the document.
[Company Name] JOB DESCRIPTION 1. IDENTIFICATION Job title: [Job Title] Function: [Function] | Department: [Department] Band or level: [Band or Level] Location: [Location] | Work pattern: [On site / Hybrid / Remote] Reports to: [Manager Job Title] Direct reports: [Number and Roles, or "none"] Indirect reports: [Number, or "none"] Written or last reviewed: [Date] | Owner: [Owner Designation] 2. PURPOSE OF THE ROLE [Two or three sentences. Why does this role exist, and what would not happen if it did not? Write this section last, once the accountabilities are settled. Do not describe the department here; describe the role.] 3. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES [Six to eight. Each one an outcome the role owns, not a task it performs. Start each with a verb that describes a result. If you cannot say what good looks like, the accountability is not written yet.] 3.1 [Accountability] What good looks like: [Description of the standard] 3.2 [Accountability] What good looks like: [Description of the standard] 3.3 [Accountability] What good looks like: [Description of the standard] [Continue to 3.6 or 3.8. If the list runs past eight, check whether this is one role or two.] 4. HOW PERFORMANCE IS MEASURED [Three to five measures, each following from an accountability above. Where a measure is qualitative, say who assesses it and against what.] 4.1 [Measure], assessed [Frequency] by [Assessor] 4.2 [Measure], assessed [Frequency] by [Assessor] 4.3 [Measure], assessed [Frequency] by [Assessor] 5. SCOPE AND DECISION RIGHTS Budget held: [Budget Description, or "none"] Headcount: [Headcount Description, or "none"] Approval limits: [Approval Description, or "none"] Decisions this role takes without escalating: [Decision], [Decision], [Decision] Decisions this role recommends but does not take: [Decision], [Decision] 6. WORKING RELATIONSHIPS Internal: [Function or Role] for [Purpose]; [Function or Role] for [Purpose] External: [Party] for [Purpose]; [Party] for [Purpose] 7. ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS [What someone must have on day one. Each line should survive the question: would we decline a strong candidate who lacked this? If not, move it to section 8.] 7.1 [Requirement] 7.2 [Requirement] 7.3 [Requirement] 7.4 [Requirement] 8. DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS [What would help, and can be learned or worked around.] 8.1 [Requirement] 8.2 [Requirement] 8.3 [Requirement] 9. CONDITIONS Travel: [Travel Expectation] Work pattern: [Shift, on-call or other pattern, or "standard hours"] Other: [Any condition that would materially affect whether someone wants this role] 10. APPROVAL Prepared by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Approved by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Band confirmed by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Next review: [Review Date]
Job Description Template for worked example, individual contributor role
A mid-level operational role. Note that the accountabilities describe outcomes and each carries a standard, which is what makes the description usable at interview and at appraisal.
[Company Name] JOB DESCRIPTION 1. IDENTIFICATION Job title: Payroll Executive Function: Human Resources | Department: Payroll Operations Band or level: [Band or Level] Location: [Location] | Work pattern: [On site / Hybrid] Reports to: Payroll Manager Direct reports: none Written or last reviewed: [Date] | Owner: [Owner Designation] 2. PURPOSE OF THE ROLE This role runs the monthly payroll for [Headcount Description] employees across [Number] locations, so that people are paid the right amount on the published date and the organisation's statutory filings are made accurately and on time. Without it, payroll accuracy depends on manual reconciliation after the fact rather than on controls applied before the run. 3. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES 3.1 Execute the monthly payroll cycle to the published calendar. What good looks like: inputs closed by the stated cut-off, the run completed and reconciled before the release date, and payment files released without a missed date in the year. 3.2 Own the accuracy of payroll inputs. What good looks like: attendance, leave, joiners, leavers and revisions reconciled to source before the run, with variances above [Threshold Description] investigated and documented rather than adjusted. 3.3 Prepare and file statutory returns within their due dates. What good looks like: every applicable return filed on time, with no notice or penalty arising from a late or incorrect filing. 3.4 Process full and final settlements. What good looks like: settlements completed within [Settlement Window] of the last working day, with recoveries and dues identified before the calculation rather than after a query. 3.5 Resolve employee payroll queries. What good looks like: first response within [Response Window], resolution within [Resolution Window], and recurring query types raised with the Payroll Manager as a process issue rather than answered repeatedly. 3.6 Maintain the payroll control record. What good looks like: every change to a master record traceable to an approved instruction, and the monthly reconciliation signed off before the run is closed. 4. HOW PERFORMANCE IS MEASURED 4.1 Payroll released on the published date, measured monthly 4.2 Error rate per thousand payslips, measured monthly by the Payroll Manager 4.3 Statutory filings made within due date, measured per filing 4.4 Full and final settlements completed within [Settlement Window], measured monthly 4.5 Reopened query rate, measured quarterly 5. SCOPE AND DECISION RIGHTS Budget held: none Headcount: none Decisions this role takes without escalating: correction of an input error identified before the run; scheduling of the reconciliation; the response to a routine employee query. Decisions this role recommends but does not take: any off-cycle payment; any change to a master record not supported by an approved instruction; any recovery from an employee. 6. WORKING RELATIONSHIPS Internal: HR Operations for joiner, leaver and revision inputs; Finance for the payment file and the general ledger posting; reporting managers for attendance exceptions. External: [Party] for statutory filings; the banking partner for payment release. 7. ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS 7.1 [Number] years running an end to end monthly payroll cycle for [Headcount Description] or more. 7.2 Working knowledge of the statutory deductions and returns applicable to [Location]. 7.3 Practical experience of a payroll system and of reconciling its output to source records. 7.4 Demonstrated accuracy under a fixed monthly deadline. 8. DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS 8.1 Experience of payroll across more than one state. 8.2 Experience of a payroll system migration or a parallel run. 8.3 Familiarity with [System Name]. 9. CONDITIONS Travel: negligible. Work pattern: standard hours, with extended hours expected during the payroll close window each month. 10. APPROVAL Prepared by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Approved by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Band confirmed by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Next review: [Review Date]
Job Description Template for worked example, people manager role
A first-line management role. The sections that carry the difference are decision rights and the accountabilities covering the team rather than the output.
[Company Name] JOB DESCRIPTION 1. IDENTIFICATION Job title: Customer Support Manager Function: Customer Operations | Department: Support Band or level: [Band or Level] Location: [Location] | Work pattern: [On site / Hybrid] Reports to: Head of Customer Operations Direct reports: [Number] Support Specialists and [Number] Senior Support Specialists Written or last reviewed: [Date] | Owner: [Owner Designation] 2. PURPOSE OF THE ROLE This role runs the support team covering [Coverage Description], so that customer issues are resolved within the committed response times and the causes behind repeated issues reach the teams that can remove them. It owns both the daily service and the capability of the people delivering it. 3. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES 3.1 Deliver the committed service levels for [Coverage Description]. What good looks like: response and resolution commitments met in [Target Percentage] of cases each month, with breaches reviewed individually rather than absorbed into an average. 3.2 Plan and hold capacity against demand. What good looks like: rosters published [Advance Period] ahead, cover in place for known peaks and absence, and escalation to the Head of Customer Operations where demand is outside what the team can hold. 3.3 Build the capability of the team. What good looks like: every specialist has current objectives and a development conversation each [Frequency]; new joiners reach independent case handling within [Ramp Period]; the team can cover [Coverage Description] without dependence on any single person. 3.4 Manage performance in the team. What good looks like: shortfalls raised when they arise rather than at the cycle, supported by evidence, and dealt with through the applicable process rather than by reallocating work around the person. 3.5 Route the causes of repeated issues out of support. What good looks like: the top recurring issue types identified each month with case volume attached, raised with the owning team, and tracked until the cause is removed or accepted. 3.6 Handle escalations. What good looks like: named ownership within [Response Window] of an escalation, a written status to the customer on an agreed rhythm, and a closing note recording what happened and what changed. 3.7 Own the team's operating discipline. What good looks like: cases recorded accurately enough that the reporting can be relied on, and the queue reviewed daily rather than at the end of the month. 4. HOW PERFORMANCE IS MEASURED 4.1 Service commitments met, measured monthly 4.2 Customer satisfaction for the team, measured [Frequency] 4.3 Time to independent case handling for new joiners, measured per joiner 4.4 Recurring issue types closed at source, measured quarterly 4.5 Voluntary attrition in the team, measured annually 5. SCOPE AND DECISION RIGHTS Budget held: [Budget Description] Headcount: [Number] positions Approval limits: leave and expense approval for direct reports up to [Approval Limit] Decisions this role takes without escalating: roster and allocation; the handling of an individual escalation; performance conversations and warnings within the applicable process; recruitment against an approved position. Decisions this role recommends but does not take: changes to headcount; changes to the service commitments; the ending of employment; pay revisions. 6. WORKING RELATIONSHIPS Internal: Product and Engineering for causes behind recurring issues; Account Management for customer context on escalations; HR for performance and recruitment. External: customers, during escalations. 7. ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS 7.1 [Number] years in a customer support environment operating to defined service commitments. 7.2 Experience managing a team of [Team Size Description], including performance conversations. 7.3 Practical experience of capacity planning and rostering against variable demand. 7.4 Ability to write a clear escalation status a customer will read. 8. DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS 8.1 Experience supporting a technical or regulated product. 8.2 Experience introducing or changing a support tooling stack. 8.3 Familiarity with [System Name]. 9. CONDITIONS Travel: occasional travel to [Location] for [Purpose]. Work pattern: standard hours, with participation in the on-call escalation rota [Frequency]. 10. APPROVAL Prepared by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Approved by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Band confirmed by: [Name and Designation] | Date: [Date] Next review: [Review Date]
What it has to contain
| Element | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| A purpose statement that says why the role exists | Two or three sentences naming what would not happen without the role. It is the section that tells a candidate whether the job is worth reading further, and the section that tells the organisation, a year later, whether the role is still needed. |
| Accountabilities written as outcomes, each with a standard | A task list describes a day and cannot be assessed. An outcome with a description of what good looks like can be tested at interview, reviewed at appraisal and used to settle a later question about whether the role has grown. |
| Explicit decision rights | What the role decides alone and what it only recommends is the section most often omitted and the one that settles the most arguments later. It also tells a candidate more about the level of a role than the title or the band does. |
| A separation of essential from desirable requirements | Merged lists suppress applications, and they do so most among candidates who read the list literally and count themselves out. Splitting them widens the field at no cost, and it forces the manager to decide what is needed on day one. |
| The reporting line, in both directions | Who the role reports to and what reports to it is the fastest way for a reader to place the job. It also prevents the common problem of a description advertised as a management role that turns out to have no reports. |
| Conditions that would change whether someone wants the role | Travel, shift working, an on-call rota and physical requirements are the things candidates withdraw over at offer stage. Stating them early costs a few applications and saves a hiring process. |
| A date and a review date | Descriptions are reused for years. Without a date, a reader cannot tell whether the document reflects the role as it is now or as it was two reorganisations ago, and levelling and pay decisions get made against a description that stopped being accurate. |
How to write one
- Decide what the role is accountable for before writing anything. List the outcomes the organisation needs from this position, not the tasks the last holder performed. Where the list runs past eight, check whether this is one role or two, because a description carrying twelve accountabilities usually describes a hiring decision nobody has made.
- Write each accountability with a standard attached. For each one, say what good looks like in terms someone else could assess. If the standard cannot be written, the accountability is still an activity rather than an outcome, and it will be useless at interview and at appraisal.
- Fill in the decision rights. Write down what the role decides alone, and what it recommends to someone else. This is quick, it is the section candidates find most informative about level, and it is the one that resolves scope arguments a year later.
- Test each requirement against a real candidate. For every essential requirement, ask whether you would decline a strong candidate who lacked it. Where the answer is no, move it to desirable. Where a requirement is not needed to do the job at all, delete it rather than demoting it.
- Have the band confirmed before the role is advertised. Levelling from the description rather than from the title keeps the architecture consistent. Advertising first and levelling afterwards produces offers that cannot be made at the band the position was approved at.
- Write the advertisement separately. The description is an internal document. The advertisement answers what the job is, where it is, why it is interesting and what it pays, in a fraction of the length. Pasting the description into a job board is the most common reason good candidates do not apply.
- Build the interview scorecard from the accountabilities. Take the accountabilities and the essential requirements and convert them into what the panel will assess, before any interviews happen. A scorecard written after the interviews tends to describe whoever the panel liked.
- Review it when the role changes, not on a calendar. Update the description when scope, reporting line or decision rights actually move. A description that has drifted from reality is worse than none, because the pay and levelling decisions made against it will be wrong in a direction that goes unnoticed.
Accountabilities against activities
Activities describe what someone does and cannot be assessed. Accountabilities name what the role is answerable for, with a standard attached, and can be tested at interview, measured in role and referred back to when scope is disputed. Convert clusters of activities by asking what they exist to achieve. Six to eight is the working range.
The difference between a useful job description and a useless one is almost entirely visible in section three.
Activities describe what someone does. Coordinate with vendors. Assist with monthly reporting. Support the recruitment process. Every one of these is true of a large number of jobs, none can be assessed, and a list of twenty of them tells a reader nothing about what the role is for.
Accountabilities describe what the role is answerable for. Deliver the monthly reporting pack by the third working day with variances explained. Fill approved positions within the agreed time and cost. Each names an outcome, and each can be tested at interview, measured in role and referred back to when someone asks whether the job has grown.
The conversion is mechanical. Take a cluster of related activities and ask what they exist to achieve. That is the accountability. Then attach a standard: what does it look like when this is being done well. Where the standard cannot be written, either the outcome is not owned by this role, or nobody has decided what good means, which is worth discovering before hiring rather than after.
Six to eight is the working range. Fewer than four usually means the role is under-defined or too junior to need a description of this kind. More than eight is a warning: it is often two roles that were merged when a headcount request was cut, and the merge is being handled by writing one description rather than by making a decision.
What inflated requirements cost you
Requirements listed out of habit filter unevenly, hardest among the candidates an organisation says it wants to attract, and are difficult to defend if questioned. Apply one test line by line: would we decline a strong candidate who lacked this. Yes means essential, no means desirable, and no effect at all means delete it.
The requirements section is where most job descriptions do quiet damage.
The pattern is familiar. A degree is listed because previous holders had one. A certification appears because a competitor's advertisement mentioned it. A minimum number of years is set because it feels like a proxy for capability. None of these was tested against whether the job actually needs it.
The direct cost is a smaller field. The indirect cost is that requirement lists are read differently by different candidates: some apply when they meet a fraction of the list, others apply only when they meet all of it. Inflated requirements therefore filter unevenly, and they filter hardest among exactly the candidates an organisation says it wants to attract.
There is a further consideration. A requirement that is not needed for the role is difficult to defend if it is ever questioned. And requirements that exclude particular groups without a real connection to the work are the kind of thing that attracts scrutiny. The safe position is also the useful one: every essential requirement should be something a person cannot do the job without.
The practical test is a single question, applied line by line. Would we decline a strong candidate who lacked this. Where the answer is yes, it is essential. Where it is no, it belongs under desirable. Where the honest answer is that it does not affect whether the person could do the job, it should be deleted rather than demoted, since a long desirable list has its own suppressing effect.
The section everyone leaves out
Decision rights are absent from most job descriptions, and their absence causes more trouble than any other omission.
What a role decides on its own, and what it can only recommend, is the clearest statement of its level that a document can contain. Two roles with the same title and the same band can differ enormously on this. A candidate reading a description without it has no way of telling whether they are being offered authority or a queue of approvals.
It also settles arguments. Six months in, a manager and a jobholder disagree about whether a particular call was theirs to make. With decision rights written down, that is a short conversation. Without them, it becomes a question about seniority and trust, which is a much worse conversation to have.
The section is quick to write. Budget held, headcount, approval limits, then two short lists: decisions this role takes without escalating, and decisions this role recommends but does not take. Five minutes of thought, and it is often the section candidates ask about most in interviews.
The related section, working relationships, is nearly as neglected and does similar work. For a great many roles the difficulty is not the technical content but the number of parties who have to be brought along. A description that names those parties and says what each interaction is for tells a candidate something true about the job that the accountabilities alone will not convey.
What the description is for after the hire
A description written for recruitment gets used for years for other purposes: levelling the role to a band, building performance objectives, settling scope disputes, and deciding what the organisation needs when the holder leaves. Writing with those uses in mind means being honest about scope and recording the date at every revision.
Job descriptions are written for recruitment and then used for years for entirely different purposes. Writing with those later uses in mind changes what goes into the document.
Levelling is the first. Where an organisation maps roles to bands, the mapping is done from the description. A description written to make a role sound attractive, with inflated scope and borrowed accountabilities, produces a band that the role does not warrant, and the pay follows the band. Descriptions that are honest about scope keep the architecture usable.
Performance is the second. The accountabilities and their standards are what objectives should be built from, and where the two disagree, the employee is right to ask which one they are being assessed against. A description that has never been updated while the role has changed becomes an unfairness at appraisal, since the person is measured against work they stopped doing.
Scope disputes are the third. Roles grow, and at some point someone asks whether the job has become a bigger one. The dated description is the only reference available for answering that question, which is an argument both for keeping it current and for recording the date every time it is revised.
The last use is succession and continuity. When the holder leaves, the description is what the organisation has to reason from about what it actually needs next. That is the moment when a document full of activity bullets and a catch-all duties clause turns out to have been worth nothing. A document that named outcomes, decision rights and relationships turns out to be worth the hour it took.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Why it causes trouble | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Listing tasks instead of accountabilities | Twenty bullet points beginning with words like assist, coordinate and support. Nobody can be assessed against them, candidates cannot tell what the job is for, and at appraisal the description contributes nothing. | Convert each cluster of tasks into the outcome it serves, and attach a description of what good looks like. Expect the twenty bullets to become six or seven. |
| Requirement inflation | A degree, a certification and a minimum number of years are listed as essential although none is needed. The field narrows, capable candidates count themselves out, and the requirement is difficult to justify if it is ever questioned. | Test every essential line against whether a strong candidate lacking it would actually be declined. Move most of them to desirable and delete the ones that are not needed at all. |
| The catch-all duties clause | A closing line stating that the jobholder may be required to perform other duties as assigned. It tells the reader the organisation has not decided what the role is, and it is no help when scope is disputed. | Delete it. Where the role genuinely includes unpredictable work, name that as an accountability and describe its boundaries. |
| Two jobs in one description | The accountabilities cover work that no single person can hold, usually because two vacancies were merged into one approved position. The role is either not filled or filled by someone who fails at half of it. | Where the list exceeds eight accountabilities, split it and take the headcount conversation before advertising rather than after the first hire leaves. |
| Using the description as the advertisement | An internal document written for levelling appears on a job board. It is long, procedural and says nothing about why the role is interesting, so the applications come from people who read everything rather than from people who wanted this job. | Write a short advertisement from the description, covering what the role is, where, why it matters and the pay range where the organisation publishes one. |
| Never updating it | The description is written at hiring and left. Two years later the role has different reports, a different budget and different scope, but pay, levelling and any scope dispute are all assessed against the original document. | Update the description when scope, reporting line or decision rights actually change, and record the date each time. |
Frequently asked questions
What should a job description include?
Identification details including title, band, location and reporting line, and a purpose statement. Six to eight accountabilities each with a standard, how performance is measured, scope and decision rights, and working relationships. Then essential requirements, desirable requirements, conditions such as travel or shift working, and the date it was written or last reviewed.
How long should a job description be?
One to two pages. Longer usually means activities have been listed instead of accountabilities, or that two roles have been merged into one document. The job advertisement drawn from it should be much shorter still.
What is the difference between a job description and a job advertisement?
The description is an internal document used for levelling, assessment and later reference, and it lasts for years. The advertisement is written for a candidate deciding whether to apply, answers what, where, why and how much, and lasts as long as the opening. Using one as the other is why many postings attract the wrong applications.
How many responsibilities should a job description list?
Six to eight accountabilities. Fewer than four usually means the role is under-defined. More than eight is a signal that two roles have been combined, often because a headcount request was reduced and the merge is being handled by drafting rather than by a decision.
Should a job description include salary?
The description usually carries the band rather than a figure, since it is an internal document with a long life. Whether the advertisement carries a range is a separate decision, and organisations that publish ranges generally find it reduces time wasted on both sides.
Should a job description say the jobholder may perform other duties as assigned?
Better to delete it. It signals that the organisation has not decided what the role is, and it provides no real help when scope is genuinely disputed. Where the role includes unpredictable work, name that as an accountability and describe its boundaries.
How often should job descriptions be updated?
When the role changes rather than on a fixed calendar. Scope, reporting line and decision rights are the triggers. Record the date at each revision, since levelling, pay and scope decisions are all made against the document and a stale description makes each of them wrong in a way nobody notices.
Who should write the job description?
The hiring manager writes the accountabilities, standards and decision rights, since they are the only ones who can specify what the role must deliver. HR checks the structure, confirms the band against the job architecture, and reviews the requirements for inflation. A description written entirely by HR is generic in the places specificity matters most.
Job descriptions in Engage
Engage keeps the description attached to the position rather than to the person, so when a holder moves on the next hire is made against the role as it actually stands, dated and with the band already confirmed. Objectives at appraisal are drawn from the same accountabilities, which is what stops an employee being assessed against a document that stopped matching their job two years ago.
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