In my view, there are 3 major types of job description software now available. And each has its own purpose. Here they are:
 

1) Candidate Experience Job Description Software

Some clients of applicant tracking systems are not satisfied with the ATS job pages. It might be because:

  • The URL shown is that of the ATS
  • You lose your corporate web site header and footer
  • You can’t easily add a picture
  • You can’t easily a video
  • You have to use the font and color scheme of the ATS (and not your own
  • The ATS job search returns too many false positives
  • The ATS job search requires exact matches

In short, the candidate experience suffers. As I like to point out about ATS’s:

“The applicant tracking system is designed to track candidates, not attract candidates.”

That’s why huge brands like Disney, AT&T, Nike, Nestle and Chipotle invest in candidate experience job software. They treat their job descriptions like job ads.

Talent Brew’s Advanced Job Description and Ongig are 2 solutions that focus on the candidate experience of job descriptions more than anyone else.
 

2) Text Analysis Job Description Software

But the text of the job descriptions also impacts candidate experience and talent attraction.

Text Analysis software can help with such things as:

  • Gender Bias
  • Inclusiveness
  • Readability
  • Job Title Effectiveness
  • Positive Sentiment

There are a couple of great free job description software tools to help you. One is Hemingway App (it’s for any text — not just job descriptions). Hemingway App helps you make your job descriptions more readable. The other free job description software tool is Gender Decoder. It’s purpose is to highlight words that attract men versus women.

These tools are great for one-off job descriptions.

If you want a job description text analysis tool that transforms all your job descriptions, the 2 best options I know of are Textio and Ongig.
 

3) Job Description Management Software

A third category of job description software is talked about a bit less: it is “job description management software”.

Job description management software differs from Candidate Experience and Text Analysis in that it’s less focused on talent attraction.

Instead, job description management software is geared more for the HR/Comp teams, though it still has hooks into TA/recruiting.

A good job description management software solution offers up:

  • A centralized library of job descriptions or job description repository
  • Easy creation of a job description template (for consistency)
  • A faster workflow that allows, for instance, a hiring manager, HR person and recruiter to collaborate on getting a job description created and approved
  • Revisions — Users can track changes

Companies offering job description management software include HRTMS and HRIZONS. Ongig also offers many of these features.

For tips on writing job descriptions, check out How to Write a Job Description — Best Practices & Examples.
 

Why I wrote this?

I love job descriptions and everything related to them! If you need help automating any part of your job descriptions, please consider reaching out. Thanks!

by in Job Descriptions