Advice and guides / For employers
What to put in a hiring brief so the shortlist comes back right
A bad first shortlist is almost always a brief problem, not a sourcing problem. The good news is that the fix takes ten minutes.
When a first shortlist comes back wrong, the usual reaction is that the recruiter did not understand the role. Sometimes true. More often the brief they were given could support several different interpretations, and they picked one.
The six lines
- The role, in the words your market uses. Your internal title may be "Associate II". Nobody is searching for that. Give the market title as well.
- The experience band, with a floor and a ceiling. "Three to six years" is a brief. "Experienced" is not. The ceiling matters as much as the floor, because an overqualified hire leaves.
- The salary range you have actually approved. Not the number you hope to pay. A range that turns out to be fiction at offer stage burns the candidate, the recruiter and your name.
- Location and work pattern. City, office, and how many days in it. If it is hybrid, say which days and whether that is policy or discretion.
- The joining date you are working back from. This sets the notice period filter, which is the single hardest constraint in Indian hiring.
- Who they report to, and how big the team is. Candidates ask this on the first call. A recruiter who cannot answer it loses good people.
The line most people leave out
What usually goes wrong in this role.
This is the most useful sentence in any brief and almost nobody writes it. If the last two people in the seat left because the reporting was messy, or because the volume spikes at quarter end, or because the stakeholder is difficult, say so. It does not scare good candidates away. It lets a recruiter screen for the person who can handle that specific thing, and it stops you paying twice for the same mistake.
Separate the must haves from the nice to haves
Write two lists and keep the first one short. Three or four genuine must haves is normal. Anything longer is usually a wish list, and a wish list shrinks your pool enormously while removing people who would have done the job well.
Be specific about which certifications are real requirements and which are preferences. In India that distinction moves the available pool by a very large margin.
Say how you will decide
If the interview panel is three people across two weeks, say so. If there is a task stage, say what it is. A recruiter who knows your process can set candidate expectations, and candidates drop out of processes whose length surprises them, usually right at the end.
A ten minute brief beats a two page job description
Job descriptions are written for compliance and for the careers page. Briefs are written for the person doing the sourcing. Six lines, one paragraph on what goes wrong, and a short must have list will get you a better first shortlist than any amount of formal documentation.
Our brief form asks for exactly these fields, including the one about what usually goes wrong, and you can see the seventy five roles we cover with indicative bands before you write yours.