Rakesh Patidar Vice-Principal, JCN

Introduction
Job Specification involves listing of employee qualifications, skills and abilities required to meet the job description. These specifications are needed to do job satisfactorily. In other words it is a statement of minimum and acceptable human qualities necessary to perform job properly. Job specifications seeks to indicate what kind of persons may be expected to most closely approximate the role requirements and thus it is basically concerned with matters of selection, screening and placement and is intended to serve as a guide in hiring.

Definition
A statement of employee characteristics and qualifications required for satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job or function. Job specification is derived from job analysis.

A job specification describes the knowledge, skills, education, experience, and abilities you believe are essential to performing a particular job. The job specification is developed from the job analysis. Ideally, also developed from a detailed job description, the job specification describes the person you want to hire for a particular job.

Purpose of Job Specification

Described on the basis of job description, job specification helps candidates analyze whether are eligible to apply for a particular job vacancy or not. It helps recruiting team of an organization understand what level of qualifications, qualities and set of characteristics should be present in a candidate to make him or her eligible for the job opening. Job Specification gives detailed information about any job including job responsibilities, desired technical and physical skills, conversational ability and much more. It helps in selecting the most appropriate candidate for a particular job.

Components of a Job Specification

Experience: Number of years of experience in the job you are seeking to fill. Number of years of work experience required for the selected candidate. Note whether the position requires progressively more complex and responsible experience, and supervisory or managerial experience. Education: State what degrees, training, or certifications are required for the position.

Required Skills, Knowledge and Characteristics:State the skills, knowledge, and personal characteristics of individuals who have successfully performed this job. Or, use the job analysis data to determine the attributes you need from your ideal candidate. Your recruiting planning meeting or email participants can also help determine these requirements for the job specification. High Level Overview of Job Requirements: cite the key components and requirements of the job you are filling.

Advantages of Job Specification

It is helpful in preliminary screening in the selection procedure. It helps in giving due justification to each job. It also helps in designing training and development programmes. It helps the supervisors for counseling and monitoring performance of employees. It helps in job evaluation. It helps the management to take decisions regarding promotion, transfers and giving extra benefits to the employees