Job descriptions

A written description clarifying the main duties and responsibilities of the job holder.

Job descriptions are rather out of vogue at present as organisations seek to find ways to be more flexible and more responsive to their customers. The complaint has always been that attempts to specify a job in writing is a recipe for unnecessary rigidity and invariably fails to capture the essence and true spirit of the job itself. Cynics would say that the sentence '... and does other duties as required' covers a multitude of sins and is probably the only accurate statement in the whole description.

Of course, it is true that jobs evolve and are dynamic and that sticking to the letter of a job description would be ridiculously restrictive, but that only argues for frequently updating job descriptions rather than having none at all. The advantage of job descriptions is that they clarify the main duties of a job holder and in doing so reduce misconceptions and misunderstandings. Everyone has a basic right to know what is expected of them and job descriptions, whilst not the whole answer, are a useful starting point.

The best way to get learning mileage out of job descriptions is for everyone to write their own and then to go through the process of agreeing the job description with interested parties. No-one should ever have their job description written for them by someone else. To do so deprives them of a valuable learning opportunity. The act of describing, in fairly precise terms, your key objectives and responsibilities is a worthwhile discipline in its own right as well as providing an explicit check that what people think they are supposed to do more or less matches the expectations of other interested parties.

It is best to adopt a standardised format for job descriptions. The description should include the overall purpose of the job and principle duties or tasks which constitute the job. If you regard the job description merely as a starting point, and not a definitive document, it can be kept simple and straightforward. Other important aspects are best clarified by discussion and agreement, things such as specific objectives nested within the overall job purpose, priorities, and levels of authority needed to carry out those duties.

The learning flows from a combination of compiling the initial job description and, more importantly, the ensuing discussions that add finishing touches and lead to unambiguous job clarification. Job descriptions thus become a means to an end, not an end in themselves.

Jobs, of course, are dynamic so job descriptions must not become static and out of date. The whole process of description and clarification bears repetition and is not a one-off exercise.