People Don’t Get Job Descriptions

posted in: People 0

One of the most common misconceptions about a job description is that everyone gets one that fits perfectly what they do all week. In a lot of cases, this works, especially in large companies. But in smaller companies where one person may be asked to do a variety of jobs, it is very common that no one job description will fit an employee.

Job descriptions are just that: descriptions of a job in an organization. They do not necessarily describe the job that a given employee has. An employee who works in two places – say an office person who fills in on the production floor occasionally – will have two job descriptions, one for office work and one for the production floor. Each job description will cover one of the jobs that they do, including skill and credential requirements, but no one job description will be sufficient for them.

Don’t try to write your job descriptions for your employees; write them for the jobs you need done. As employees turn over, you will apportion the variety of tasks differently depending on their experience – the next office person may not be qualified to work on the production line but great with bookkeeping. If your company grows, you will eventually have separate people for each of those jobs.

It is easier to think of each job as a set of coherent tasks than to look at the employees you have today, and it makes your life easier down the road. So write descriptions for your jobs and let versatile employees have more than one.