(Published in the Job Market-Working People section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 10, 2008, Sunday)
By Roel Andag
Contributor
In various points of my early career, I worked as proofreader in a giant printing company, as project officer in a startup NGO, as teacher to non-English speaking Asians, as writer in a publishing company promoting international diplomacy, and as researcher for a television program for children. I recall not receiving a job description in any of these jobs. Being the naïve fresh graduate that I was, I didn’t bother asking for any. Truth is I didn’t have the faintest idea that there was such a thing as job description. Being employed was more important than anything else. At this point in the race, I was scampering around dark minefields. Confusion always ended in voluntary resignations. My employments ranged from one week to six months.
I then moved to a national NGO where I worked first as researcher-writer. I was issued a two-page job description that pretty much spelled out my accountabilities. Its novelty to me felt like they were two tablets hewn in Mt. Sinai. Within my six years of employment, I moved up the organization ultimately becoming a program director. A multinational company then recruited me to become its communications manager. This time, I was handed a five-page role profile. What a fancy name for job description, I thought. After a year and a half in the company, I transitioned into consulting. Today, I design my own job descriptions based on the clients’ requirements. By experience, I have learned that an effective job description is a stabilizing force.
Aside from the stability that it builds in the employee, a job description is a tool of empowerment. In black and white, the company communicates its expectations. Aware of these expectations, the employee has the choice to become proactive in the fulfillment of his duties. A job description provides both the company and employee informed decisions on whether employment should commence in view of the ability of the employee to satisfy the demands of the job. If he accepts the job offer, the job description is the basis of the employee’s subsequent performance appraisals.
Just like in my case, in his excitement to get employed, a new hire usually neglects to ask for a copy of his job description, relying merely on the published job advertisement and on the verbal explanations of whoever handled his job interview. An opportunity of empowerment is missed. It is the responsibility of the company to provide a job description on the first day of employment or within the first week of the probationary period.
As career-oriented people, we obsess over the substance of our resumes. In the same manner, companies will always insist on the precision of our qualifications in relation to their human resource requirements. Isn’t it time we become similarly meticulous with our job descriptions? Here are the 10 essential components of an effective job description:
1. Position and job class – states the employee’s official job title and classification (example: Communications Manager-Middle Manager).
2. Job summary – in one to three sentences, it explains the purpose of the job.
3. Job responsibilities – details the key accountabilities of the position, their prescribed prioritization, activities to be undertaken to realize the accountabilities, and key result areas.
4. Organizational location – a visual representation using an organizational chart that marks the placement of the job in the company structure.
5. Reporting arrangements – identifies the names and designations of the persons to whom the employee is directly and ultimately accountable.
6. Decisionmaking authority – specifies the employee’s role in making decisions – whether he can make and enforce decisions on his own, in concurrence with others, approve those made by subordinates, or make decisions and secure approval of higher officers.
7. Supervisory and financial authority – indicates the quantifiable scope and dimensions of the job. Expressed in numbers, this shows the number of individuals supervised and the financial accountability involved.
8. Workflow and work relationships – communicates in a flowchart the processes that the employee will handle. It plots procedures, participants, lead times and outputs, and describes his work relationships with coworkers and external business partners.
9. Qualifications – enumerates the minimum and ideal educational, skills, behavioral, health and other qualifications for the job.
10. Working conditions – describes the work environment explaining work hours, time spent inside the office, extent of job-related travel, and exposure to identified occupational hazards if any.
Concerning flexibility, the two trickiest cases are when the job description states “Other responsibilities the company may assign” and when the employee reasons that “It’s not in my job description.” In the first, the employee is exposed to potential exploitation. In the second, the employee is either being change-resistant or is simply protecting his rights. A job description is not written in stone. It is a dynamic instrument that evolves with company priorities and innovations that impact on the job.
Winning companies invest time and money to produce effective job descriptions. An employee is wise to examine his job description as he joins a company and revisit this vital document time and again. The importance of a job description is emphasized by the fact that it can be used by either party in labor-related legal disputes. Because it fosters understanding between the worker and the company, an effective job description contributes to better employer-employee relationship thereby resulting in company stability.
My experience taught me that not having a job description is inexcusable, having one is not good enough, having an effective one is ideal.
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