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Job Description and Requirement Register

Three of those fourteen would have screened out the strongest person already doing the job. The register is what makes that visible.

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A job description is a screening instrument before it is an advert. Every line in the must-have column will be used to reject a named person, so every line needs a test somebody outside the room could apply. This pack takes the requirements as drafted, writes the test next to each one, then runs every test against the people already doing the job, as they were on their hire date rather than as they are now. The surviving column travels forward into resume screening unchanged.

That last step is the one no downloadable template can perform, because it needs data only you have. In the worked example, Marloe Logistics drafted fourteen requirements for a Senior Implementation Consultant from four sources nobody had reconciled. Six survived. Three of the fourteen would have screened out the consultant who now delivers 94 percent of her go-lives on time, because she had two years of experience when she applied, no degree in any listed field, and no certification.

Written for recruiters and people leads who have watched a requisition sit open while everybody agreed the market was tight, and for hiring managers about to inherit four stakeholders' wish lists as one posting. Reach for it before the role opens. If a role has already been open for months, recruiting funnel analysis says whether the requirements are the constraint. For a single posting with no register behind it, the job description writer is the faster path.

Fourteen drafted, six kept, and the three that would have rejected your best hire

Requirement Register, the Incumbent Check that tested it, and the Market Comparison that priced what survived.

Requirement Register

Illustrative for a fictional warehouse software company, Marloe Logistics. Senior Implementation Consultant, 21 weeks open.

#Requirement as draftedSourceObjective testVerdict
15+ years implementing warehouse softwareOld postingCount of go-lives ownedNice-to-have at 2+
2Degree in supply chain or industrial engineeringOld postingDegree on recordRemoved
3Has owned two customer go-lives end to endHiring mgrTwo named, dates, what brokeMust-have
4Can reconcile two inventory extracts unaidedThe team30-min work sampleMust-have
6Experience with the Marloe platformHiring mgrPrior use on a projectRemoved
7Available to travel up to 40 percentHiring mgrStated in screenMust-have
8Writes a status note a VP reads uneditedThe team200-word writing sampleMust-have
9Has worked in 3PL or retail distributionHiring mgrNamed employer or engagementMust-have
10PMP certificationCEOCertificate numberRemoved
11Can train 20 warehouse staffHiring mgrLive 10-min walkthroughMust-have
14Strong executive presenceHiring mgrNone could be constructedRemoved
14 drafted from 4 sources. 6 must-have, 4 nice-to-have, 4 removed. Rows 5, 12, 13 not shown.

Row 14 is the one to watch. It has no test, so it cannot be reworded into something vaguer, only removed. Rows 8 and 11 are the observable things it was reaching for, and both of them survived.

Incumbent Check

Every drafted must-have against the three people currently in the role, evaluated as each was on their hire date rather than as they are now.

RequirementIncumbent A
hired 2019, 6 yrs exp
Incumbent B
hired 2022, 3 yrs exp
Incumbent C
hired 2024, 2 yrs exp
1. Five years experiencePassFailFail
2. Degree in listed fieldFailPassFail
3. Two go-lives ownedPassPassPass
4. Reconcile extractsPassPassPass
6. Platform experienceFailFailFail
7. Travel 40 percentPassPassPass
8. VP-readable status notePassPassPass
9. 3PL or retail backgroundPassPassPass
10. PMP certificationFailFailFail
11. Train 20 staffPassPassPass
Go-lives delivered14119
Delivered on time71%76%94%

Incumbent C is the best performer in the role and fails three of the drafted must-haves: the five-year rule, the degree and the certification. Rows 6 and 10 are failed by all three, which makes them removals rather than demotions. Nobody currently doing this job had either one at hire.

Market Comparison

Eight live postings for the same work, recorded verbatim with the date seen. A range that is not posted is never estimated.

ComparablePosted rangeMidpointYrsDegreeTravel
WMS vendor, 600 staff120-150k135,0005+Yes50%
3PL, 2,000 staff105-125k115,0003+Yes25%
Supply chain platform, 180125-145k135,0004+No30%
ERP integrator, 90 staffNot posted5+Yes60%
WMS vendor, 350 staff115-140k127,5003+No40%
Retail distribution, 5,000112-134k123,0005+Yes20%
Logistics software, 120Not posted2+No35%
Freight tech, 800 staff130-160k145,0004+No45%
6 of 8 disclose a rangeMedian 131,250Med 44 of 8Med 37.5%
Marloe: 118-142kMidpoint 130,0001,250 low2+No40%

None of the eight postings says what its years figure stands in for. That is worth knowing before conceding a five-year requirement to the market: the market is not applying a standard you are failing to meet, it is copying the same proxy you just removed.

What is in the pack

01

Requirement Register

Every requirement anybody said out loud, with who asked, what the proxy stands in for, and the objective test that decides it. Fourteen rows in the worked example. Six of them end up mandatory.

02

Incumbent Check

Each drafted must-have run against the people currently doing the job, evaluated at hire-date state. Today's version of your team was produced by the job, not selected by the posting, so today's version cannot test the filter.

03

Market Comparison

Eight live postings with the range quoted verbatim or marked not posted, the years asked for, the travel figure and the date seen. Nothing estimated and no pay figure attributed to a company that did not publish one.

04

Job Description

The posting, written from the register only, with every requirement stated as its test rather than its proxy, travel as a number, and the pay range that California requires at fifteen employees.

05

Internal Levelling Note

Why this level, why this band, and the three-question equity check: would a midpoint hire out-earn an incumbent, out-earn whoever trains them, and is the strongest performer in the role currently the lowest paid.

06

Sourcing Angles

The adjacent populations that satisfy five of the six surviving must-haves as a side effect of the job they hold now, ranked by ramp cost rather than by how easy they are to search.

07

How a Requirement Earns Its Place

The four conditions, three of which restate the only federal definition of a basic qualification: established in advance, non-comparative, and objective enough for a third party to apply.

How it works

  1. 1

    Send what you have

    The requirements in whatever shape, including the ones nobody wrote down, plus resumes and hire dates for the people already doing this job. Two of them is enough.

  2. 2

    The test column gets filled

    Every requirement gets the specific thing that decides it. Anything with no test is marked unresolved rather than reworded into something vaguer, and it does not proceed.

  3. 3

    The check runs

    Each drafted must-have against each incumbent, at hire-date state. The finding names which requirements would have rejected your best performer, and who added each one.

  4. 4

    The posting gets written

    From the register and nothing else. The pre-publication pass lists every ability the prose implies and flags the ones that trace to no surviving row.

Frequently asked questions

Why not just download a job description template and fill it in?

Because the template cannot run the step that matters. A generic template hands you a requirements section to populate, and populating it is exactly where four stakeholders' wish lists become fourteen mandatory lines. The check against your own incumbents needs your hire dates and your performance data, so no template can ship it.

What if nobody currently holds this job?

Use the nearest adjacent role and say which one you used. A first hire into a function has no incumbents, so the check runs against the person whose work this role takes over, or it is marked blocked. The register still forces a test onto every requirement, which is most of the value.

Does this mean I have to lower my standards?

No, it means stating them. Six requirements every current performer passed at hire is a harder bar than fourteen nobody checked, because all six get tested rather than skimmed. What comes out is proxy inflation: years figures and degrees standing in for abilities the register can test directly.

Do I have to put the salary range in the posting?

In a growing number of places, yes, and the trigger is generally where the work can be performed rather than where the company sits. California requires the pay scale in the posting at fifteen or more employees, and the same section bars asking an applicant for their salary history.

The hiring manager will not accept a shorter list. Now what?

Show them their own data. The strongest sentence available is that the requirement they are defending would have rejected the person currently doing this job best, named, with what she had at hire. That argument lands earlier at intake, where level, speed and budget are priced against each other before the requisition opens.

What comes in the download, and what does the AI add?

The download is the four documents and three sheets as Word and CSV, with the worked example left in place so the shape is visible. The AI fills them from your material: your requirements, your incumbents, live postings for your role. The method is in the files either way.

Where does the register go after the posting is live?

Into the screen and the loop. The six surviving must-haves become the columns the resume screen marks met or missed with the evidence quoted, then the weighted competencies on the interview loop assignment sheet, one owner each. The debrief synthesis checks each interviewer tested the one they owned. Rewriting requirements downstream is how a screen filters on something the posting never said.

Find out which requirements would reject your best hire

Send the requirements as drafted and whatever you have on the people already doing the job. The first thing back is the list of filters your own team would have failed.

Test my requirements