How to Write a Job Description for Remote Work

On the journey to becoming a remote team, there are many things to consider. Creating job descriptions for remote positions is an essential ingredient to making sure you get the right people in your team. This can be challenging since there are no face-to-face meetings with potential employees and the co-located team has no way of knowing if they would be a good fit. As with all companies, it is essential to write clear job descriptions to attract the best talent.

In this article, we will provide you with a detailed guide to craft the best job descriptions part by part. From the job title itself up to the compensation and benefits, we will help you write your job ad and attract the best candidates that will help your company grow.

Job Title

It is important to make your remote job titles as specific as possible. Rather than generic ones, having targeted job titles is more effective in catching job seekers’ attention. Include key phrases that don’t only describe the role but also answer what people normally search for in job sites.

Most of the time, the reason why recruiters are having trouble filling their vacancies is because of their overly creative and absurd job titles. If you scroll through job sites, you’ll often see posts searching for “rockstar” virtual assistants, SEO “Ninja”, and social media marketing “guru.” But instead of catching people’s attention, this just turns off professional candidates.

While it is true that creativity will help your job title stand out, don’t make it too complicated and misleading to the point that you’re missing out on competitive candidates who are searching for the same job. What you can do is integrate industry-standard language that only real practitioners will know in your titles.

For example, you may niche down when looking for an email marketer and make it, “Klaviyo Expert Email Marketer. You may also just plainly go for job titles like “SEO Expert,” “Analytics Manager,” or “Social Media Specialist.”

Job Summary

When writing a job description, start with a strong and attention-grabbing one-to-four sentence summary. Your overview should perfectly describe the remote position’s main function, its contribution to the company, and how it will help them in their career growth. You should also discuss the expectations for the candidate you will choose.

Most importantly, you should be clear about the location of the job and that it’s a remote work setup. This way, you can filter out all the employees who are not suitable for a work-from-home position and keep those who are comfortable with this.

Responsibilities and Duties

Now that you have your target applicant's attention, the next step is to properly lay out the responsibilities and skills in your job description. In this one, you just have to remember the number one rule in writing job posts: TRANSPARENCY.

List down all the core responsibilities of the position and make sure to make it as concise as you can. Rather than writing in long sentences and paragraphs, emphasize the duties that may be unique to your organization in dot points. For example, if your company is focusing more on podcasts and social media for your marketing, make sure to include this.

Moreover, you should highlight the day-to-day activities that your candidates should expect upon working. This will give them an idea of how their daily work should look like and if they can handle the workload. This way, they can distinguish if they are the perfect fit for the position and will help sift out those who have higher tendencies to leave your company after a few months.

Lastly, indicate where and to whom the position should directly report and how they will function within the organization. It is important to let them know the importance of their role and how they can make an impact on the business.

Qualifications and Skills

Now, let’s talk about how you should indicate the list of hard and soft skills required for the position. Job descriptions should be as concise as possible and this includes the list of qualifications. This will help your audience know if they are fit for the role and if they possess the skills needed for the job. If you fail to include the specific skills and knowledge that’s required for the role, you might miss potential candidates or attract underqualified candidates.

When writing a job description, make sure to specify the level of education, previous job experience, and technical skills you are looking for in the candidate. Let your target candidates know the software and applications you are expecting them to know or use. If needed, you can also include the certifications that aspiring employees should have before applying.

Of course, you should also include the soft skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and personality that suit your company culture best. 

Salary and Benefits

Now that you have an attractive, clear, and concise job advertisement copy, it boils down to the exchange. Of course, this would be the most obvious part that any job seeker will look for, so as much as you can, you should make this part highly attractive while staying realistic to your offer. Unlike before,  applicants expect to get an idea about the salary rate from the job description. If your offer varies depending on experience, you can give a range. 

Moreover, listing down all the perks and benefits that a candidate can have from the position would attract more job seekers to apply. If you’re really interested in providing your team with amazing perks and benefits, you must know the common benefits that you could offer. This may include more days for paid leaves, bonuses, and insurance. A benefit that most remote employees get attracted to almost immediately is health benefits such as HMO provision among other perks.

In the Philippines,  it’s a standard that all employers pay for the social benefits of their employees like SSS, Pag-Ibig, and Philhealth. Aside from this, employers are expected to manage their employee’s taxes along with their payroll and all employees must have their 13th month pay by the end of the year. These are some of what employees in the Philippines get as a standard from their employers which play a big factor when it comes to staying in jobs. We wrote an entirely separate blog discussing employer responsibilities in depth which you can check out here.

This is the biggest factor employees consider when thinking about shifting to remote work. There are a lot of skilled and highly experienced employees who consider shifting working as international employees but stay in their current jobs simply for this reason alone.

We can help you attract the best employees

Providing all these benefits was previously only possible when you register your company as an entity in the Philippines. However, with the help of EORs like Remotify, complying with the legal requirements in remote employment without building an entity in the country is possible and proves as a very convenient choice for most international SMEs

Our services include complete local HR management for all legal compliance, compensation and benefits computation, and management. We also help employers provide HMO and medical benefits to their employees through our partner providers. To know more about our Services, visit our website or send us your inquiry at hello@remotify.ph. We’ll be more than happy to assist you from the start to the end of your hiring process.