In the fast-paced world of recruitment, the ability to find and keep clients is key – especially during tougher times in the market. And whilst it might feel like adding yourself more work with writing job briefs, it’s the opposite. A well-written brief is your key to the client’s heart – it shows initiative, expertise, and paints you as the expert in your field who not only knows what they’re doing but is proactive in their approach. In the end, it might just be what sets you apart from your competitors.

You might wonder if writing job adverts isn’t enough work, but while job ads perform better when they’re short and snappy with an 8.4% higher application rate for short ads, job briefs should be anything but brief. More importantly, the target reader is completely different. Job ads focus on candidate attraction, and job briefs are meant to make your clients’ lives easier – and relationships stronger. They're not just paperwork; they're your roadmap to success. A well-crafted job brief can streamline your sourcing efforts, enhance candidate matching, and ultimately lead to more accurate and faster placements – and happier clients.

How job briefs can skyrocket your results

As mentioned above, a good job brief can win your client’s trust and long-term commitment. After all, they help with setting clear expectations for the role, which makes the entire recruitment process cleaner and easier for both sides.

Understanding the client's needs - clear view of expectations

A job brief helps you gain a clear understanding of the client's specific requirements and expectations for the position that they want to be filled. This includes skills, qualifications, experience, and qualities desired in the ideal candidate. Without a comprehensive job brief, you might make assumptions based on your previous experiences with similar roles that lead to matching the wrong candidate to the job role which in turn can result in a lot of time or money wasted. After all, you have to remember that even if the role title is the same, each client has different company culture, needs, and vision for the role and its perfect candidate.

Efficient sourcing

With a detailed job brief, you can focus your candidate search efforts more effectively. You can target candidates who closely match the requirements, saving time and resources that might be wasted on irrelevant candidates. Even more – with a good CRM, you can pop the requirements detailed in the job brief in and get a set of matches that perfectly fill the needs of your specific client!

More accurate job descriptions

The job brief forms the basis for creating accurate and compelling job descriptions. Well-crafted job descriptions help to attract more suitable candidates and deter those who do not fit the criteria. Want to make it even better? Pop your requirements into an AI Advert Generator, and it will create the perfectly tailored ad for your client! Having a job brief in front of you, you can clearly state what are the company values and tone of voice, what specific responsibilities, education, and experience are needed, and more – which makes the ad perfectly personalised.

Evaluate candidates more effectively

The job brief helps you develop proper evaluation criteria for assessing candidates during the screening and interview process. This ensures that candidates are measured against the specific skills and attributes needed for the role. Your CRM can automatically detect candidates that fit the description, saving you hours of scrolling through CVs – but only if you know what are the exact requirements to look for.

Better candidate experience

When candidates are presented with accurate and well-defined job roles, they have a clearer understanding of what is expected of them. This contributes to a more positive candidate experience as you are removing any doubt about the role from the candidate's side. It will then help build trust between the candidate, the company, and the recruitment process. After all, you want what’s best for your client- but a great review of your recruitment services won’t hurt the business either, right?

Allows you to customise your recruitment strategy

Each job role is unique and a well-constructed job brief allows you to tailor your recruitment strategy accordingly. This might include using specific job boards, reaching out to certain networks, or using specific Boolean strings or keyword searches within your database to help find relevant candidates.