Identify Criteria

Base your target candidate on information such as:

• What skills and qualities does the candidate need?
• What special competencies, knowledge, skills, or abilities (KSAs) does your department currently need?
• What are the essential criteria for doing the job — and for doing it well?
• What competencies/behaviors are critical to success in the position?

Responses to these questions will provide information on the education, work history, job skills, professional affiliations, and behavioral competencies of the employees to be targeted. This job-related selection criteria is used for the following:

• Developing the job posting announcement and/or advertisement
• Screening out unqualified candidates
• Determining who will be interviewed
• Developing interview questions
• Determining whom to hire

Minimum qualifications are the critical knowledge and skills/education and experience that an applicant must have to perform the core responsibilities.

Describe critical entry-level qualifications for this position. These qualifications must relate to what the employee actually needs to do in the job within the first few months.

• Be objective and accurate.
• Try not to overstate or inflate information about the job.
• Base qualifications on the typical duties and responsibilities of the job under normal conditions, not on unusual circumstances or temporary assignments.

Include KSAs — or knowledge, skills and ability — which a new employee must have within the first six months on the job.

• Knowledge: A body of information applied directly to the performance of a function (usually factual or procedural in nature), such as knowledge of generally accepted accounting or budgeting principles.
• Skill: A proficiency in a present, observable learned psychomotor task, such as driving a semi-truck or having specific computer operation skills.
• Ability: The demonstrated ability to perform a certain observable aspect of a job, such as prioritizing multiple tasks or handling emergencies in a fast-paced environment.
• Competency: A behavior, knowledge, or skill that directly and positively impacts the success of employees and the organization; for example, customer service, teamwork, and communication skills; achieving results; and personal effectiveness and leadership.
• Special licenses, registration, and certification: Required by Colorado law to perform the job duties; for example, documentation required for such professions as nursing, medicine, or law enforcement
• Education: Educational background or training, if required by law;
• Experience: The level and type of work experience needed to perform the work of the position.

Preferred qualifications are additional ranking of KSAs, education, experience, credentials, competencies/behaviors that are critical to success:

• Allow the hiring department to rank applicants in terms of qualifications
• Narrow down a pool of applicants
• Identify the most promising candidates

Preferred qualifications include additional job-related education, experience, credentials, and behavioral competencies desired by the hiring department. They may include the following:

• Education (if not required by law state that a combination of experience, education and/or training may be substituted)
• Types and degrees of experience (but not specific years of experience)
• Specific experience in the important job duties and responsibilities of the position
• Critical technical skills and competencies of the position
• Critical behavioral competencies, including interpersonal and interactive skills of the position
• Professional affiliations

Applicants who possess these advanced credentials would be considered the top candidates for the position. Other ways to phrase the preferred job skills including the following:

• Ideal candidate will have the following…
• Previous experience desired in…