Job Descriptions free essay sample

Running Head: Staffing Organizations – Job Descriptions Maintaining Job Descriptions Sharon Chambers Strayer University Dr. Annette West July 24 , 2011 Current Issue The InAndOut, Inc. , company provides warehousing and fulfillment services to small publishers of books with small print runs. After the books are printed and bound at a printing facility, they are shipped to InAndOut for handling. The owner and president of InAndOut, Inc. , Alta Fossom is independently wealthy and delegates all day-to-day management matters to the general manager, Marvin Olson. Alta requires that Marvin clear any new ideas or initiatives with her prior to taking action. The company is growing and Marvin expects to hire new employees within the next year to meet this growth. Job descriptions for the company were originally written by a consultant about eight years ago. They have never been revised and are hopelessly outdated. As a general, Marvin is responsible for all HR management matters. Since Marvin has to clear new projects with Alta, he needs to prepare a brief proposal that can be used to seek approval of new job descriptions. We will write a custom essay sample on Job Descriptions or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Importance of Job Descriptions Whether youre a small business or a large, multi-site organization, well-written employee job descriptions will help you align employee direction. Alignment of the people you employ with your goals, vision, and mission spells success for your organization. As a leader, you assure the interfunctioning of all the different positions and roles needed to get the job done for the customer. According to Susan M. Heathfield, About. com Human Resources Guide, effectively developed, employee job descriptions are communication tools that are significant to your organizations success. Poorly written employee job descriptions, on the other hand, add to workplace confusion, hurt communication, and make people feel as if they dont know what is expected from them. Foster Thomas Blog, Complete HR Solutions states, â€Å"it is essential to maintain accurate job descriptions. † Job descriptions are important both from a legal and practical standpoint. From a practical point of view, job descriptions help the jobholder understand the responsibilities of the position and provide a sense of where the job fits into the company as a whole. From a legal perspective, job descriptions aid in the compliance of several laws. Job descriptions provide a basis for job evaluation, wage and salary comparison and equitable wage and salary structure (Equal Pay Act). Job descriptions are often used as supporting documentation when it comes to establishing a job’s exempt or non-exempt status (Fair Labor Standards Act). Job descriptions provide a basis from which to determine whether an applicant with a disability is qualified for the job and to determine if any accommodation is required to perform the essential functions of the position (ADA analysis). Outdated job descriptions lead to risky business decisions. For example, if an employee is terminated because he/she could not perform a job function but that function is not on his/her job description, the company risks a wrongful termination charge. Similarly, if a disabled employee is terminated due to inability to perform an essential job function, but the essential job function is not listed on the description, the employee may claim that he/she was terminated due to his/her disability, not a legitimate business reason. Job Descriptions Format From a format perspective, job descriptions should contain the following sections and statements: Essential duties and responsibilities; * FLSA classification; * Job specifications (i. e. , education requirements, other skills required); * Physical demands, work environment * Job Summary or purpose * Signature and date section for the employee and supervisor. * Physical demands statement: â€Å"Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential f unctions. † Updating Job Descriptions Organizations could undergo restructuring, expansion, downsizing or relocation. Companies, departments and teams change and also business priorities as well as technologies. This could result in the job functions of employees changing to accommodate the changes in their organizations. Employees might assume new responsibilities or leave out tasks that were not working very well. Such changes should not be ignored and strict adherence to the old job descriptions would be counterproductive to organizational well being. In the event that the job functions of the employees change, it is imperative that their job description change as well. In essence, after writing initial job descriptions, there are a number of good reasons to update them n accordance with the changes taking place in the job functions of the employees (Mader-Clark, 2008). The bottom line is that just as it is important to write new job descriptions when an employer is planning to hire new employees, it is equally important to continually update job descriptions to keep them relevant with the real job functions of employees in the organization ( Mader-Clark, 2008) and (Gan and Kleiner, 2005) . Another compelling reason for updating job description is the hiring process would suffer if one were to hire new employees based on obsolete job descriptions. One of the important factors determining effective recruiting is successful prescreening of applicants. This involves listing of job’s requirement in the advertisement or providing realistic preview of the job during initial call. Job postings using obsolete job descriptions will not attract the right candidate for the job. Job interviews are used to select the candidates for the job. Questions that are asked during selection interviews are structural, behavioral and job related. In order to have predictive validity the questions have to be based on authentic job descriptions. Job analysis has to be arried out and job description written on the actual job duties. Management could encounter legal problems if job offers and employment contracts are prepared on job descriptions that have not been updated (Roberts, 1997; Mader-Clark, 2008). Freeman (1996) and Mader-Clark (2008) have specified a number of reasons to update a job description and these are listed below: * Where a fun ction is added or deleted from the job. * Where someone that is hired possesses new skills that does not track the old description. * Where a higher level of contribution from a position is required, such as a new skill or a body of knowledge. Where there has been a change in the requirements of the job, like a special certificate to carry out the job Process of Developing a Set of Thorough and Current Job Descriptions According to Heneman and Judge (2009), as far as the process of writing new job description or updating existing ones is concerned, it should encompass the following elements: * Defining the need to revise job description format. * Job analysis. * Updating or creating new job descriptions for every classification and making sure that they are premised on current and proper information. Making an assurance that the description meets all legal standards for every position. * Job evaluation. * Updating. The first step here normally concerns making a comprehensive definit ion of the need to revise the job description format and this is done while using pre-existing information and format as much as possible in order to minimize costs and time as well. Beth Bulger, Director of HR Services (Foster Thomas), advises, a practical way of updating job descriptions is to ask managers to confirm that the job description is up-to-date as part of the performance review rocess. You may also give employees a copy of their job description and ask them to give feedback to their managers. Review all job descriptions on a set schedule, such as during the annual performance review. Conclusion Whether you’re hiring someone new, evaluating a current employee or determining compensation, a job description provides consistency and clarity for everyone involved. Taking the time to write an accurate job description now will save you money, time and energy in the future. References Heathfield, Susan, Employee Job Descriptions: Why Job Descriptions Make Good Business  Sense. Retrieved July 24, 2011 from About. com: http://humanresources. about. com/od/glossaryj/a/jobdescriptions. htm Bulger, Beth, The importance of Accurate Job Descriptions. Retrieved July 24, 2011 from Foster Thomas Blog. com: http://www. fosterthomas. com/blog/bid/33742/The-importance-of-Accurate-Job-Descriptions Farnham, D. (2000). Developing and implementing competence-based recruitment and selection in a social services department – A case study of West Sussex County Council. International Journal of Public Sector Management,13(4), 369-382 Gan, M. and Kleiner, B. (2005). How to Write Job Descriptions Effectively. Journal of Management Research News, 28(8), 48-54 Dessler, G. (2008). Human Resource Management. New Jersey: New Jersey. Heneman H. and Judge T. (2009). Staffing Organizations 6th Edition, Middleton, WI: McGraw Hill International Edition Mader-Clark, M. (2008). The Job Description Handbook- Everything You Need To Write Effective Job Descriptions- And Avoid Legal Pitfalls 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Nolo. Roberts, G. (1997). Recruitment and Selection: A Competency Approach. London: