Putting a job description together

A good job description typically starts with an overview of the role. This section of the job description should include:

The job title

This is usually the first piece of information that the potential applicants will look at and as a result, it can either encourage them or put them off! Thinking carefully about the job title can pay dividends in making it clear from the outset what you are looking for. Archivists looking for professional work will tend to expect to see the word ‘archivist’ or ‘archives’ in the job title. Here are some examples of job titles which convey a clear sense of the scope and level of the role in question.

Archivist

The successful applicant will have followed one of the recognised routes into the archives profession (Archives and Records Association (ARA) accredited postgraduate diploma or, Master’s Degree or Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeship). They will use professional judgement and advocacy to ensure or support the acquisition, management, preservation, security and accessibility of archive material (analogue and digital).

Additional words could be added to clarify the level of experience expected. The phrase ‘Assistant Archivist’ is used to convey an entry-level post for a professional archivist but this is less common practice now. An ‘Archives Assistant’ is usually a clerical or para-professional role which supports aspects of service delivery but without a qualification.

Senior Archivist

The successful applicant will have followed one of the recognised routes into the archives profession (ARA-accredited postgraduate diploma or Master’s Degree or Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeship). They will use professional judgement and advocacy to ensure or support the acquisition, management, preservation, security and accessibility of archive material (analogue and digital).

They will be able to demonstrate consolidated relevant experience and have the skills and attributes needed to oversee the work of others and take responsibility for planning and delivering more complex workstreams.

Archives Manager / Archives Service Manager / Archives Lead / Archivist / Borough Archivist / County Archivist / University Archivist

The lead archive professional role within the service, usually with responsibility for service standards and policies, strategic planning, staff, budgets, collections, premises, service delivery, etc.

Archives Cataloguer/Cataloguing Archivist

A role which focuses exclusively on creating catalogues and other finding aids for the archival collections. This may be a specific role within a fixed term project or, within larger services, a role which concentrates on cataloguing activities and is less involved in other aspects of service delivery such as searchroom duty or audience engagement.

Digital Archivist/Digital Preservation Specialist

The successful applicant will use professional judgement and advocacy to ensure or support the acquisition, management, preservation, security and accessibility of digital archive material.

A role which focuses on digital holdings is likely to specify skills, experience and expertise pertinent to the management of digital archives in preference to more traditional formats. As this is a developing area of expertise, there may well be a requirement for someone to be willing and able to undertake significant continuing professional development in order to monitor emerging good practice and implement change in their own workplace.

If you select one of these job titles, it would be useful to specify whether you expect candidates to have followed one of the accredited routes into the archives profession (postgraduate diploma, Master’s Degree or Level 7 apprenticeship).

Project Archivist

The successful applicant will have followed one of the recognised routes into the archives profession (ARA-accredited postgraduate diploma or Master’s Degree or Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager apprenticeship). Uses professional judgement, skills and experience to carry out specific archival tasks in support of a fixed-term project involving archives.

Film Archivist

The successful applicant will have a postgraduate qualification in ‘Film Studies with Film Archiving’ or equivalent experience. Uses professional judgement, skills and experience to carry out specific archival tasks with respect to film archive collections.

Heritage Manager

A generic term, typically used for senior posts, where the post-holder uses professional judgement, skills and experience to oversee the management of a wide range of heritage assets which might include, but are not limited to, archives.

Local Studies Manager

Uses professional judgement, typically with a background in librarianship to manage Local Studies materials. Likely to work closely with an archivist in larger organisations but is more likely to hold a qualification in Librarianship rather than archives.

Records Manager

May be a professional archivist but not necessarily. Undertakes a series of tasks relating to the management of current and/or semi-current records.

Archives Conservator

Uses professional judgement and skills to plan and manage a series of workflows to secure the physical preservation of archival materials. These posts require different professional qualifications and skills to those of archivist posts, such as ARA’s Certificate in Archive Conservation.

The following job titles require additional thought and explanation to clarify what you expect from candidates:

Metadata Specialist

A term which does not obviously convey whether the post is intended to be held by a professional archivist.

The post-holder is likely to be asked to use knowledge and skills to apply metadata to digital objects so that they can be located, read and understood both by humans and technology, but the job title does not make it clear whether the digital objects in question are or relate to archives, and whether archival experience and skillsets are also a key requirement of the role. Adding an explanation will help potential applicants to understand the requirements of the role and assess their suitability for it.

Information Manager

May be a professional archivist but not necessarily. This job title could refer to a number of different roles, such as someone who undertakes a series of tasks relating to the management of current and/or semi-current records, or someone managing a range of IT services, projects or functions. This is a job title that does not obviously convey that it is suitable for a professional archivist looking to work in the archives sector. Adding an explanation will help potential applicants to understand the requirements of the role and assess their suitability for it.

Archives Officer

A term which does not obviously convey whether the post is intended to be held by a professional archivist. Potential applicants would not know what to expect from this role. If your organisation requires you to create job titles of this kind, consider adding information which confirms whether a formal qualification in archive administration is required and the level of responsibility for the post.

Key purpose of the role

Typically a concise paragraph which conveys the essence of the job. This might include the type of archive service and the main focus of activity for the post-holder. You could use this section to add in any clarifications, such as those featured in the ‘Job title’ section.

The working hours

This section should state the number of hours per week that the post-holder will be contracted to work and any requirements about when those hours are worked, such as evening or weekend work, out-of-hours call-outs, etc. It is also useful to include a statement about any flexible working practices that might be in operation, such as a flexitime system.

Location

Potential applicants will find it useful to know where their work would be based and if there is a requirement to work across multiple locations. If multi-site working is a key part of the role, include details of the number of sites and how often the post-holder will need to travel there.

Be careful to avoid discriminatory statements such as ‘must be able to drive’ or ‘must have access to a vehicle’. It is preferable to explain clearly which locations the post-holder will need to visit so that applicants can assess for themselves how effectively they can travel there.

If there is an opportunity to work from home, adding some information about the balance between working on site and from home and your expectations about how this is managed will help applicants assess whether the work pattern suits their personal circumstances.

Reporting line

Include the job title of the line manager for the post. It is also helpful to include the name of the employing organisation and the team or section within which the vacant post will be based.

Contract information

You should state clearly whether the post is permanent or fixed term. If the latter, you should state the duration of the post and when you expect the post-holder to start work. If you have any information about whether the fixed term post may be made permanent, it is helpful to include this. You might also wish to include in this section information about whether part-time or job-share applicants will be considered for full-time posts.

You should also mention whether the post is subject to any political restriction, i.e., that the post-holder is effectively prevented from having an active political life inside or outside the workplace.

Salary and pay grade

Applicants will want to know the rate of pay for the role. This should be stated both in terms of the annual salary and the pro rata amount if the role is part-time. Including details of any performance related pay scheme or annual increments is also useful information for applicants.

The Archives and Records Association publishes salary recommendations. Employers are strongly advised to adhere to these recommendations. Advertising roles at lower rates than those recommended is likely to result in difficulties in placing job advertisements in professional forums and publications and may attract censure and/or risk of reputational damage within the archive and broader cultural sector. You may also struggle to recruit and retain talent within your service.

Other information

Either in this section or elsewhere in the recruitment pack, it is helpful to say something about the culture of the employing organisation. This is an opportunity to include some welcoming words, perhaps talking about how the organisation supports staff in maintaining a healthy work-life balance, values diversity within the workplace or the employment benefits associated with the post such as the pension scheme, subsidised childcare, etc. Specify any different rules that apply to fixed term contracts.

Some organisations now include a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion statement such as ‘We would particularly like to encourage applicants from backgrounds currently underrepresented in archives, including those who identify as Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT+), from Black, Asian and minority ethnic cultural backgrounds, those who are neurodivergent, and those with hidden or visible disabilities.’

If the job description is for a fixed-term project role, applicants will find it helpful to know something of the background to the project, its objectives, key milestones and deliverables. Details like these bring a job to life and encourage people to apply because it helps them to visualise themselves in the role. It is also useful to include information about the archive itself. Is it an approved Place of Deposit? Is it an accredited archive service? What digital preservation system does it use? What types of archive collection does it hold?

Do I need a qualified archivist?

The Archive Service Accreditation Standard Guidance (PDF, 1.4MB) includes a clear statement on where a qualification is required for an archives post:

“It is expected that all publicly funded archive services will employ one or more staff with a post graduate archives qualification. Accreditation recognises that for some services non-archivists will be engaged in caring for archive collections, e.g. curators and librarians.

Furthermore, Accreditation accepts that the smallest services may be limited in both the number of professionally qualified archivists and paid staff generally. It may be that volunteers deliver certain responsibilities. However, every service applying for accreditation is expected to have access to professional archival expertise appropriate to the type and nature of the organisation and collection.

Some small private archive services may not employ a professional archivist on staff but will be expected to have access to professional archival advice e.g. formally contracted support from a professional archivist.”

You should also note accreditation’s position regarding the replacement of long-serving staff without an archives qualification.

It had been considered appropriate to accredit services where a long-serving staff member did not have an archives qualification but was qualified in a related area, had demonstrable equivalent experience to an archives professional and had pursued an employer-supported development programme to acquire the specific skills needed to care for archive collections. This would not be acceptable when seeking to recruit or replace staff, and actions would be set to reflect the requirement for professional archive expertise in future job descriptions.

Terminology and writing style

Your organisation is likely to have its own in-house style and terminology for its job descriptions and you should be able to spot easily the section in which you list the core tasks that the post-holder will be expected to carry out.

For generic archivist roles you may find it helpful to group related tasks together. For instance, grouping all the collections management tasks together rather than mixing them in alongside tasks which relate to engaging with service users might help applicants get a clearer feel of what’s expected.

Taking care about the wording you use can really help convey the level of responsibility the post-holder is expected to take on. An entry-level archivist post suitable for someone who has just completed their training might include words like ‘maintains’, ‘undertakes’, ‘applies’, ‘supports’, or ‘organises’.

Whereas a role which requires more experience would be more likely to include words and phrases such as ‘supervises’, ‘confident use of’, ‘undertakes complex tasks’, ‘plans’, ‘manages’, ‘trains’, and ‘analyses’.

And service manager and leadership roles will be expressed in terms such as ‘decides’, ‘prioritises’, ‘creates’, ‘accounts for’, ‘innovates’, ‘leads’, ‘advocates’, and ‘justifies’.

Additional duties and responsibilities

Many organisations use this section to refer to occasional additional duties, wrapped up in a phrase such as ‘other duties commensurate with the grade of the post’.

This section can also be used to highlight aspects of working life which all employees are expected to take responsibility for, such as Health and Safety, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Environmental Sustainability, etc. If your organisation has specific expectations or codes of conduct to which this post is subject, it is useful to include them here, perhaps with a link to the documentation so interested applicants can read up in more detail.

Some employers make reference in this section to employees being expected to adopt a positive attitude to continuing professional development (CPD). For archivists, conservators and records managers this could include a reference to the Archive and Records Association’s competency framework and any expectations that staff will work towards professional registration scheme.

Please note that not all archivists, conservators and records managers are members of the Archive and Records Association; phrasing any requirements around CPD in an inclusive and flexible manner is likely to lead to a bigger pool of candidates. If your organisation links CPD to progression through pay scales, it is useful to include information about this.

For archivist roles, employers may also wish to make reference to the Archive and Record Association’s Code of Ethics which sets out the standards of professional behaviour expected of its members (archivists, archive conservators, records managers and those occupied in related activities).

Specific management/resource responsibilities

It is helpful to include information about any specific management responsibilities or resources for which the post-holder will be accountable. These might include:

• Line management responsibility for other staff and/or volunteers
• Budgets
• Specific financial or performance targets
• Collections
• Premises
• Cataloguing systems and web resources
• Digital preservation systems

Key relationships

This section of a job description gives employers a chance to demonstrate the key individuals and organisations that the post-holder is expected to work with as they carry out their role. These might be internal colleagues from different teams who are working on complementary workstreams or external stakeholders with whom the archive service is undertaking some joint activities.

Including information like this gives potential applicants a sense of who their new network of contacts will be, once again helping them to visualise themselves in the role.

Planning and organisational expectations

Some organisations include a statement to show the level of independence a post-holder is expected to assume and the typical planning horizon within which they will operate. This again gives an indication of the level of seniority of the post. An entry-level post-holder may be working on a rota which tells them what activities they will be undertaking on a week-by-week or month-by-month basis. More senior posts will have a longer planning horizon and a greater degree of autonomy in planning and prioritising their work.

Administrative responsibilities

It is good practice to include the job title of the person responsible for maintaining and updating the job description and the date it was last reviewed.