A useful job description tells a candidate what the role is for, what they will do and where their responsibility ends. Start with the completed office-administrator example below, then copy the editable outline into your own document. Check the duties and terms with the person responsible for the role before advertising.
Completed example: office administrator
This employer and all terms are fictional. The example combines a job description, person specification and advert information, with each part labelled.
Job description
Job title: Office Administrator
Employer: Cedar Office Support, York
Reports to: Office Manager
Location and working arrangements: York office, on site Monday to Friday
Hours: 35 hours a week, 9am–5pm with a one-hour unpaid lunch break
Contract: Permanent
About the organisation: Cedar provides bookkeeping administration and appointment support to local trades businesses. The administrator works with an office manager and three account coordinators.
Purpose: Keep customer records, appointments and routine office requests accurate and up to date so account coordinators can complete client work on time.
Principal responsibilities:
- Monitor the shared inbox, answer routine enquiries using agreed information and pass complex requests to the appropriate coordinator.
- Book appointments and confirm changes with customers and colleagues.
- Check incoming documents against the customer record and follow up missing information.
- Maintain the office supply list and submit orders within the manager’s approved budget.
- Prepare a weekly list of unresolved requests, showing the owner and next action.
Authority and boundaries: The administrator may arrange appointments and answer routine service questions. Changes to fees, complaints and spending outside the approved budget go to the office manager.
Person specification
Essential on appointment:
- Ability to enter and check information accurately, assessed through a short record-checking task.
- Clear written and spoken explanations, assessed through an example customer email and interview discussion.
- Ability to prioritise competing requests, assessed through a realistic inbox scenario.
Evidence may come from employment, study, volunteering or other relevant activity. A degree is not required for these duties.
Desirable: Experience using a shared appointment system. Training in the employer’s system will be provided.
Information for the advert
Pay: £28,000 a year
Leave: 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
Working pattern: The stated office hours; no homeworking arrangement is included in this example
Development: Initial system training and a weekly check-in with the office manager during the first month
Before publishing an actual advert, add your real application route, deadline, recruitment contact, adjustment-request route and candidate privacy information. Do not publish the fictional employer or example terms unchanged.
Job description, person specification or advert?
- Job description: the role’s purpose, responsibilities, reporting line and working arrangements. It gives candidates and colleagues a shared account of the work.
- Person specification: the capabilities needed to carry out that work, with essential and desirable criteria. It provides the basis for assessment.
- Job advert: a concise invitation to apply, including the role, pay, location, principal requirements, application process and deadline. Link to the fuller description when space is limited.
They can sit in one document, as above, but perform different jobs. A company introduction gives context; it need not come before the role’s purpose. “Forward-thinking consultancy” tells a candidate less than the type of client, service and team described in the example.
Editable outline to copy
Copy this outline into Word, Google Docs or your usual editor. Replace every bracketed prompt, delete anything that does not apply and obtain approval for the final terms.
Job title: [Recognisable title]
Employer / team: [Name and short factual description]
Reports to: [Role, not an unexplained abbreviation]
Location / working arrangements: [Where the work happens and any agreed hybrid pattern]
Hours / contract: [Hours, working pattern, permanent or fixed term and duration]
Role purpose: [What needs to be achieved and for whom]
Principal responsibilities:
[Action + object + useful outcome or standard]
[Next main responsibility]
[Continue only while the duty is a real part of the role]
Authority / escalation: [Decisions the person can make and what must be referred]
Essential criteria: [Capability needed on appointment + how it will be assessed]
Desirable criteria: [Helpful capability that is not a barrier to appointment]
Training available: [What will be taught and when]
Advert details: [Actual pay range, leave, benefits, application route, closing date, contact, adjustment-request route and privacy information]
Approved by / review date: [Responsible person and date]
For a downloadable blank document, Acas provides free editable Word and OpenDocument templates. Use the completed example here to decide what belongs in each field.
Make the drafting decisions explicit
Choose principal duties without padding
Ask the manager which tasks recur, which decisions the person owns and what a satisfactory result looks like. Combine closely related tasks; separate duties that need different capabilities. There is no minimum number of responsibilities. In the example, “keep everyone happy” becomes “prepare a weekly list of unresolved requests, showing the owner and next action”: a candidate can picture and discuss that work.
Decide what must be available on day one
Accuracy is essential in the example because unchecked customer records affect appointments immediately. Experience with the employer’s exact booking system is desirable because training is available. If a particular licence or qualification is necessary for the actual job, name it precisely and explain the requirement. Do not replace a genuine legal or professional requirement with vague transferable skills.
Use assessable, inclusive criteria
“Excellent communicator” needs an assessment method. A short customer-email task tests the relevant behaviour more directly than a degree requirement unrelated to the duties. Provide suitable adjustments to the recruitment process and check that criteria describe what the work requires. Avoid age-coded phrases and requirements that cannot be justified by the job; see GOV.UK’s recruitment discrimination guidance.
State the actual terms
Replace “generous leave” with the number of days and whether bank holidays are additional. Replace “flexible hours” with the arrangement genuinely offered. The example states fixed office hours; it would be misleading to advertise flexibility unless an actual alternative had been approved.
Check before advertising
- Can the manager and a colleague recognise the role from the duties?
- Does each essential criterion connect to a duty and an assessment method?
- Are the reporting line, authority, location, hours and pay internally consistent?
- Have all example details and bracketed prompts been replaced?
- Does the advert provide a working application route, deadline and contact?
- Have the recruitment team agreed adjustments, selection criteria and candidate-data arrangements?
Use our recruitment guide for England and Wales to plan the next stages.
