Tips for Writing a Job description
The components of a job description are:
- Title
- Reports to
- Responsible for
- Purpose of the position
- Key result areas
- Tasks
- Measurements
- General Duties ie. compliance with Company Policy and Procedures, Health & Safety in Employment Act, other reasonable duties as directed by the employer
The purpose of the position should be 1 – 3 short bullet points describing the main purpose or function of the role in a specific context and where possible indicating an end result. For example:
Financial Controller
- To take full responsibility for the integrity and efficiency of the accounting and administrative functions of the Company
- To implement and maintain systems to ensure the warehousing and administrative functions run effectively in line with sales planning and execution
Business Development Manager
- To take responsibility for the sales function of the Company
- To lead and motivate the sales team to achieve sales targets
- To develop and implement marketing strategies supporting Company goals to achieve strong brand profile and effective marketing and promotion of the Company
Writing the job description begins with thorough job analysis, collecting job facts concerning the reason the job exists and what the expected deliverables and accountabilities are.
One way of gathering this information is to ‘interview’ the current incumbent (if there is one), as well as the Supervisor / Manager that position reports to, in this way ensuring all aspects of the job requirements and deliverables are obtained.
To begin the ‘interview’ the first question to be asked is:
“What do you view as the key areas or responsibilities of your role? For example a Sales Assistant may say ‘client liaison’, ‘sales ordering’, ‘sales processing’, and ‘sales budget achievement’”
The areas should be noted and then specific areas delved into to get a real understanding of what the responsibilities or duties of each area are. Try to get the interviewee to talk as much as possible by asking open-ended questions regarding the scope of each area. For example, “Tell me about sales processing – what is involved?”
To ensure the job description is as specific as possible, pick up on key words such as ‘system’, ‘reports’, ‘meetings’ and dig deeper. For example, “What is the system called? What is the purpose of the system? How often should orders be placed in the system?” / “What reports are you specifically talking about? How often do these reports need to be prepared? What kind of timeframe do you have to prepare the report/s? Who do you present them to?” / “What is the purpose of the meeting? What preparation, if any, do you need to do prior to the meeting? How frequent is the meeting – weekly? Monthly?”
Collecting as much information as possible by using triggers to ‘dig deeper’, no matter how relevant or not it seems, will enable the writer of the job description to have more than enough information to write a detailed JD.
The answers to the questions above will enable the measurement of the task to be documented as a clear and measurable task. For example:
| Task | Measurement of effectiveness |
|
Preparation of sales reports:
|
Reports are completed to standard and presented to the MD by 5pm every Friday. |
If it is difficult to grasp what the measurements of each task may be, simply ask “and how do you know if you have achieved this task to the required standard/s?”
Subsequent to the collection of job specific information, the job description can be drafted.
We can assist clients fully in preparing Job Descriptions, setting up your own templates, and help you identify Key Result Areas and measurements of success.
