Person Specifications for a New Job

The Situation

Reducing the cost of human resources recruitment

When an organizational development intervention is required, perhaps because a business is growing or changing to meet new circumstances it may be necessary to develop a person specification as part of a job specification for an entirely new job such as a human resources, customer service, marketing or finance manager. This requires the receiving manager to exercise a great deal of imagination and the process can be very difficult. But it is better to face the difficulties early on before an appointment is made rather than discover later that the realities of the job are different from the new appointee’s (and the organization’s) expectations of the job envisaged. Resolution of mistakes made in creating a new position can be very expensive. An early investment in time and effort to get it right will be cost effective.

The Process

To facilitate the clear thinking needed, repertory grid interviews would be carried out structured around critical incidents that will be encountered in the new job. The critical incidents will be the elements used in the compare and contrast process of the repertory grid interview. Typical critical incidents used to determine elements would be:

• Two events (or tasks) which will be especially demanding on the person's technical skills
• Two events (or tasks) which will be especially demanding on the person's relationship skills
• Two routine events (or tasks) which will be a normal part of the job envisaged
• A crisis or emergency event (or task) which the appointee is likely to get involved in
• For the bigger picture, two events (or tasks) of any kind which the person will be involved in.

And, to provide focus on the skills and experience required, the compare and contrast questions would use “in terms of…” qualifiers as follows:

• in terms of the skills they will need
• in terms of their impact on relationships
• in terms of their impact on the rest of the organisation
• in terms of the resources they will require.

Thus, a typical construct formation question would be:

“Considering XXXX (an event which will be especially demanding on the person's technical skills), YYYY (a routine event which will be a normal part of the job envisaged) and ZZZZ (an event which will be especially demanding on the person's relationship skills) think of something that two of them have in common that makes them different from the third, in terms of their impact on relationships.”

Or, if XXXX and YYYY are more similar than YYYY:

“In terms of their impact on relationships XXXX and ZZZZ are similar because…. and YYYY is different because… ”.

Working through various combinations of two against one comparisons and contrasts, using the qualifiers to provide focus, facilitates provision of a series of bipolar constructs which provide insights as to the qualities of knowledge, experience and skills required for the new position.

The Interviewees

The interviewees will obviously include the receiving manager, but should also include the new job holder’s important peers whose performance will be most impacted on by the new job holder and who may be asked to give up some of their responsibilities to the new job-holder. If the restructuring was proposed by other than the receiving manager and the new job holder’s peers and to ensure that the exercise is not simply an exercise in redrawing the organization chart imposed by external agents (for example the human resources team or a consultant), those who proposed the new position should also be interviewed. They may get some surprises!

The Interview

This can be a very difficult interview, especially if the interviewees realise that they have not thought through the issues thoroughly. Listening skills and empathy will then be very important. If you provide interviewees the element creation questions ahead of the interview, interviewees will be able to prepare and anticipate some of the issues they will need to face.

Some interviewees may not have given the issues much thought so plenty of time should be allowed. Time for reflection may be needed and several sessions may be required to enable thorough consideration of the issues. Even then the results may not be as clean cut as you would like and you may need to help. In your facilitation you will need to be very careful not to impose your own thoughts.

This is not an intervention for the beginning repertory grid interviewer. The interviewer should be well practiced in using grid and have practiced this particular use of grid on him/herself and a willing colleague.

The Outcomes

The process of developing the constructs may provide much more than a list of the qualities of knowledge, experience and skills you are looking for in a candidate. In developing a job specification as part of restructuring, managers frequently think about how a new job will fit into the organization chart rather than the forces that will be experienced and the relationships that will shape how the job is required to be done. In this Repertory Grid Interview process the managers will be asked to think in depth about how a new appointee will be required to address critical incidents and thus the forces and relationships involved.

Thus managers will be forced to think about the real problems encountered by a new jobholder in the new position while helping to form their expectations and making them precisely and clearly expressed - for instance ensuring the right resources or support or being accountable for issues they can actually influence. The challenges of the new job will be confronted, as will the demands these challenges make on the organisation as a whole. So, what started as a simple task with the objective of developing a person specification could turn into a much needed consultancy task.

Those who may be asked to give up some of their responsibilities to the new job-holder will have been part of the process and thus more likely to accept and willingly incorporate the new position and the new job holder within the organisation.

Thinking hard about these issues early on will increase the likelihood that the new organisation and its incumbent will match expectations when the new job description is implemented and reduce the chance of making a very expensive mistake.

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Related Resources

• Overview – Enquire Within Used to Help Write Person Specifications
• Enquire Within Used in the Development of Management Competencies
• Writing a person specification and job description
• What is a person specification?

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