Job Description Template template
A job description is the written definition of a role — its purpose, main responsibilities, reporting lines, and the skills and experience needed to do it — usually paired with a person specification that separates essential requirements from desirable ones.
The job description does more work than any other recruitment document: it drives the advert, structures the interview, anchors the offer, and later becomes the reference point for performance reviews, capability discussions, and redundancy selection pools. A vague one causes problems for years; a sharp one settles arguments before they start.
This template gives you a complete, ready-to-edit structure: role details, purpose, key responsibilities, a person specification split into essential and desirable, working conditions, and an equality check before sign-off.
Full text, ready to adapt.
Highlighted fields are placeholders — replace them with your organisation's specifics. A starting point, not legal advice.
Job Description Template
Policy · HR & People
1. Purpose and scope
This is the standard job description format used for every role at {{org.name}}. Complete one before any role is advertised, and review it whenever the role changes materially. The hiring manager drafts; [HR/senior role] approves before publication.
2. Role details
- Job title: [title — plain and searchable, not internal jargon].
- Department/team: [team].
- Reports to: [role].
- Direct reports: [roles or "none"].
- Location: [address / hybrid arrangement / field-based area].
- Hours: [number] per week, [pattern]. [State if flexible patterns are open to discussion.]
- Salary: [amount or band].
- Contract type: [permanent / fixed term to [date] / part-time].
3. Purpose of the role
[One or two sentences on why the role exists and what success looks like — e.g. "The [job title] keeps [operation/service] running safely and profitably day to day, and is the first point of contact for [customers/team]." If you cannot state the purpose in two sentences, the role is not yet defined well enough to recruit for.]
4. Key responsibilities
- [Responsibility 1 — start with a verb, describe an outcome the role owns, e.g. "Open and close the premises following the opening and closing procedure."]
- [Responsibility 2 — e.g. "Deliver [service/product] to [standard], meeting [measure]."]
- [Responsibility 3 — e.g. "Supervise and support [team], including rotas, one-to-ones, and training records."]
- [Responsibility 4 — e.g. "Maintain compliance with {{org.name}} health and safety, food safety, and data protection procedures."]
- [Responsibilities 5–8 — keep the list to the eight or so things the role is truly accountable for, not a task inventory.]
- Carry out other reasonable duties consistent with the role as requested by [role].
5. Person specification
Essential — candidates must demonstrate all of these to be shortlisted: [qualification or registration genuinely required by law or the work]; [experience described by capability, e.g. "experience running a shift team in a customer-facing environment", not arbitrary year counts]; [skills, e.g. "can use [systems] or learn them quickly"]; [behaviours, e.g. "communicates clearly with customers and colleagues"].
Desirable — strengthen an application but are not required: [additional qualification]; [sector experience]; [extra skill]. Keep this list short; every desirable criterion quietly narrows your candidate pool.
6. Working conditions and requirements
- [Physical or environmental factors stated factually, e.g. "the role involves lifting stock deliveries with manual handling training provided" — describe the task, and note that adjustments will be considered.]
- [Checks the role legally requires, e.g. DBS check level, driving licence for driving roles — only where genuinely required.]
- [Working pattern realities: evenings, weekends, on-call, travel between sites.]
7. Equality and reasonable adjustments
{{org.name}} recruits on merit against this specification. Every essential criterion has been checked as genuinely necessary for the role, and wording has been reviewed for requirements that could indirectly disadvantage any group. Reasonable adjustments are available throughout recruitment — candidates should contact [name/contact] to arrange them.
8. Approval, use and review
Drafted by [hiring manager], approved by [HR/senior role] on [date]. This description is used for advertising, shortlisting, interviews, and later for reviews and any selection exercises, so it must reflect the real role. Review at each recruitment round and whenever duties change materially. Next review due: [date].
How to adapt this template.
Write the purpose section first — if it takes more than two sentences, split or rethink the role before recruiting.
Cut the responsibility list to what the role is accountable for; save task-level detail for SOPs and training plans.
Challenge every essential criterion: would a strong performer you already employ pass it? If not, move it to desirable or delete it.
Replace years-of-experience requirements with the capability the years were standing in for.
Have someone outside the team read it for jargon and for wording that could indirectly exclude protected groups.
Version and date the document — the copy used at interview is the one that matters in any later dispute.
Turn this template into trained, proven behaviour
A policy in a drawer proves nothing. In TrainedTeam this template becomes assigned training with knowledge checks, e-signature acknowledgments, version history, and an audit-ready record of who completed what, when.
Job Description Template template FAQs
Is a job description a legal requirement in the UK?
No — no statute requires one. But the written statement of particulars you must give employees includes the job title or a brief description of the work, and a proper job description is the practical basis for fair recruitment, reviews, and selection decisions.
What is the difference between a job description and a person specification?
The job description defines the role: purpose, responsibilities, reporting lines. The person specification defines the person: the essential and desirable skills, experience, and qualifications you will shortlist against. Keeping them separate makes shortlisting decisions explainable.
Can a job description discriminate?
Yes — the Equality Act 2010 covers job applicants, and requirements that disadvantage people with a protected characteristic are unlawful unless objectively justified. Common risks are unjustified physical requirements, arbitrary experience bars, and wording that signals a preferred age or sex.
Can we change someone's job description after they start?
Minor updates within the role are normal, especially with an "other reasonable duties" clause. Material changes to duties, hours, or level are contract variations that need consultation and agreement — impose them unilaterally and you invite grievances or constructive dismissal claims.
How often should job descriptions be reviewed?
At minimum, every time you recruit for the role and whenever duties change materially. Many organisations also refresh them at annual review time, when the gap between the written role and the real one is most visible.
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