Job Description and Requirement Register

Requirements arrive from several places at once: the hiring manager, the team doing the work, the old posting, and an executive who mentioned something in a meeting. Nobody reconciles them, so the list grows and every line starts to read as mandatory.

Record each one in the asker's own words, with their name beside it. Split compound lines, since "five years' experience and strong stakeholder management" is two requirements. The name pays off later: cutting a line becomes a conversation with one person, not an argument about a document.

If the hiring manager and recruiter haven't agreed on what the role must deliver, settle that first in a hiring manager intake meeting.

A test is whatever tells you whether a candidate meets the requirement. It might be a number on a resume, a named system, a work sample with a pass mark, or a reference question with a right answer. If someone outside the hiring team couldn't apply it and reach your verdict, it isn't a test yet.

Prefer tests that look like the work. The US Office of Personnel Management, the federal government's HR agency, reports that performance on work sample tests relates highly to performance on the job¹. It adds that scores from rating applicants' past training and experience² generally don't relate well to how people perform.

Now run every drafted must-have against the people already doing the job well, as they were on the day you hired them. They know more now because the job taught them. A requirement filters candidates, and candidates arrive the way your people did on day one. For a brand-new role, use the closest existing one and note which you used.

The US Supreme Court made a version of this point in 1971. In Griggs v. Duke Power³, it ruled against a high school diploma rule and an intelligence test that disqualified Black applicants at a substantially higher rate. Neither was shown to relate to job performance, and employees hired before the rule without diplomas had "continued to perform satisfactorily and make progress."

Sort each line by what the check shows.

• Must-have: every strong performer met it when hired, and it has a test.
• Nice-to-have: useful and learnable, but some of your best people started without it.
• Remove: nobody doing the job had it at hire, it can't be tested, or a direct test already covers what it stood for.

Collect live postings for the same work at employers your candidates would consider. Record each range exactly as posted, with the date you saw it, and write "not posted" rather than guessing. Note the years and degrees they ask for too. If none says what those stand for, they're the same kind of proxy you're cutting, not a standard you have to match.

Check the range against what your current people earn. If a new hire at the midpoint would out-earn your strongest performer, fix that person's pay rather than lowering the range. A salary band template helps if you don't have bands yet.

Some US states require the range in the posting itself. California requires employers with 15 or more employees to include a good-faith pay scale in any job posting⁴. Its Labor Commissioner applies that to remote roles that could be filled from the state, and California also bars asking applicants about their salary history.

Draft the posting last, from the sorted list alone, and state each must-have as its test. "Has owned at least two customer go-lives end to end" tells a strong candidate with three years of experience to apply. "Five years required" tells them to move on.

Candidates take the list literally. Tara Sophia Mohr surveyed more than 1,000 mostly American professionals and reported the results in Harvard Business Review in 2014. The most common reason for passing on a job they didn't fully qualify for⁶ was "I didn't think they would hire me since I didn't meet the qualifications." That was the top answer for 41% of women and 46% of men. Mark nice-to-haves as optional, and consider listing what you removed.

Before it goes out, reread the posting for cut requirements that crept back in as prose. "You'll be comfortable presenting to senior executives" is executive presence in disguise, and a screener will still use it.

Carry the same list into screening. A 2024 Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School study found that about 45% of employers that dropped degree requirements made no meaningful change in who they actually hired⁷. Screen against the must-haves you published, for example with a resume screening tool.

The same must-haves become the skills your interview process tests, one interviewer each. Open the template on this page with Edit with AI, and River builds the register and runs the check from your notes.