Knowing who does what is essential in any business. Job descriptions are often used to centralize tasks, responsibilities, and skills. How can you formalize them? How can you keep them up to date?
Discover a seven-step method, successfully applied with our clients, to write your job descriptions.
What is a job description?
A job description is a document that outlines all the tasks, responsibilities, and skills of an employee.
The job description is a valuable tool for human resource management and organization. It serves as a common reference between employees and managers and ensures better communication.
1/ Define a job description format
For an effective job description, choosing the format and the information to include is crucial.
Here are the elements generally present in job descriptions:
- Job title
- Employee information (name, first name, position, occupation rate, etc.)
- Hierarchical attachment
- Missions and responsibilities
- Skills
- A comment field, which can be useful for adding other information or annotations during evaluation interviews
The content of the job description should be structured with a clear and coherent presentation. Use headings and bullet lists to facilitate reading. Moreover, maintain a common structure for all job descriptions within your company.
2/ Identify the positions
Once the format is established, the next step is to identify the positions. To do this, we recommend working in collaboration with department heads to compile a list of positions.
This approach will greatly simplify the writing of job descriptions, allowing for a detailed and clear description.
3/ Inventory of the missions
To ensure the success of this step, you can consult with managers and a sample of employees. Ask them to detail the activities carried out daily, weekly, monthly, and annually.
This approach will provide a complete and precise list of the missions associated with each position.
4/ Set success criteria
It’s time to identify the skills required to effectively accomplish the missions of the position. A four-level scale can be applied: beginner, autonomous, efficient, and expert.
These success and skill criteria will play a central role in evaluation interviews. Make sure to specify them for each position or employee and adjust them if necessary.
5/ Validate the job descriptions
This step will help ensure that all descriptions are compliant and meet the needs of the company. For this, organize a meeting with department heads, the HR manager, and/or the management to validate the content of each job description.
6/ Distribute and promote
Once the job descriptions are validated, you can communicate them to the employees. It’s not enough to just send them by email; you should clearly explain them and open the door to potential suggestions for improvement.
7/ Ensure job descriptions are updated
At least once a year or when positions are taken up, job descriptions must be updated to reflect reality.
Although it may seem tedious, solutions such as job description management software exist. For example, Optimiso Suite allows for the automatic creation of job descriptions. With just a few clicks, you can choose the information to display, such as missions, tasks, skills, and their evaluations, thus facilitating the updating process.
Job description generated with the Optimiso Suite software
In conclusion, applying these 7 steps for writing job descriptions will ensure smooth internal communication, objective evaluations, and effective human resource management.
