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Job descriptions are usually essential for managing people in organisations. Job descriptions are required for recruitment so that you and the applicants can understand the job role. Job descriptions are necessary for most people in work. A job description defines a person's role and accountability. Without a job description it is usually very difficult for a person to properly commit to, or be held accountable for, a role. This is especially so in large organisations. As an employee, you may have the opportunity to take responsibility for your job description. This is great, as it allows you to clarify expectations with your employer and your boss. The process of writing job descriptions is actually quite easy and straight-forward. Many people tend to start off with a list of 20-30 tasks. This is okay, but this needs refining to far fewer points - around 8-12 is the ideal. Smaller organisations commonly require staff and managers to cover a wider or more mixed range of responsibilities than in larger organisations. For example, the 'office manager' role can comprise financial, HR, stock-control, scheduling and other duties. Therefore, in smaller organisations, job descriptions might necessarily contain a greater number of listed responsibilities, perhaps 15-16. However, whatever the circumstances, the number of responsibilities should not exceed this, or the job description becomes unwieldy and ineffective. Any job description containing 20-30 tasks is actually more like a part of an operational manual, which serves a different purpose. Job descriptions should refer to the operational manual, or to 'agreed procedures', rather than include the detail of the tasks in the job description. If you include task detail in a job description you will need to change it when the task detail changes, as it will often do. What would you rather change, 100 job descriptions or one operational manual? Similarly, lengthy details of health and safety procedures should not be included in a a job description. Instead, put them into a health and safety manual, and then simply refer to this in the job description. Again, when your health and safety procedure changes, would you rather change 100 job descriptions or just one health and safety manual? A useful process for refining and writing job descriptions responsibilities into fewer points and ('responsibilities' rather than 'individual tasks'), is to group the many individual tasks into main responsibility areas, such as the list below (not all will be applicable to any single role). Bold type indicates that these responsibility areas would normally feature in most job descriptions: Bold type indicates that these responsibility areas would normally feature in most job descriptions:
Plus any responsibilities for other staff if applicable, typically:
Senior roles will include more executive aspects:
You will find that you can cluster most of the tasks on your (initially very long) list into a list of far fewer broad (but still specific) responsibilities according to the above examples of typical job description activity areas. Obviously the level of authority affects the extent of responsibility in the job description for determining strategy, decision-making, managing other people, and for executive roles, deciding direction, policy, and delivering corporate performance. Wherever possible refer the detail of standards and process to your 'operational manual' or 'agreed procedures' or 'agreed standards' rather than allowing the job description to become a sort of operating manual. If your boss or employer is asking for you to detail your tasks at length in a job description, encourage him/her/the organisation to put this level of detail into an operational manual - it will save a lot of time. Writing or re-writing a job description is a good opportunity to frame the role as you'd like it as well as reflect how it is at the moment, so try to think outside of the normal way of thinking, and if this is difficult seek the input of somebody who is less close to things. Importance Job descriptions improve an organisation's ability to manage people and roles in the following ways:
(The list is not exhaustive) Here you'll find job descriptions structure and template, and samples of various job descriptions. Also template and sample 'person-profile', necessary when recruiting. Be very careful to adhere to relevant employment an discrimination law when compiling job descriptions, job adverts and person-profiles. In the UK this means that you must not specify a preference according to gender, race, creed, religion, or physical ability. If you find yourself writing a job description with a bias in any of these areas you should ask yourself why, as none can be justified. In the UK, company directors have personal liability for the activities of their organisations aside from their functional responsibilities, and arguably this accountability should be included in some way in a director's job description. Clarity is vital. People and employers need to have a clear, mutual agreement about the expectations for the job, and the job description is a key instrument by which this is achieved. That said, job descriptions are not operating manuals. I repeat, keep the descriptions of duties concise and free of detailed operating or processing instructions. If necessary, refer to these is a phrase such as 'according to company procedures', or 'according to the operating manual/safety manual', etc. By referencing rather than including specific operating standards or processes, the headache of updating all the job descriptions when procedures change is avoided. Job Description Template
For senior job descriptions it is useful to break key responsibilities into sections covering Functional, Managerial, and Organisational areas. The most difficult part is the Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities section. Large organisations have generic versions for the most common organisational roles - so don't re-invent the wheel if something suitable already exists. If you have to create a job description from scratch, use this method to produce the 8-15 responsibilities:
Do not put targets into a job description. Targets are a moving output over which you need flexible control. Do not put 'must achieve sales target' into a job description. This is a pure output and does not describe the job. The job description must describe the activities required to ensure that target will be met. Do not have as one of the key responsibilities 'And anything else that the manager wants'. It's not fair, and no-one is ever committed to or accountable for such a thing. Job Description Example Example 1 - SNP Co Ltd Title: Sales and Marketing Executive Reports to: Sales and Marketing Director, Newtown. Based at: Sparkly New Products Co Ltd, Technology House, Newtown. Job purpose: To plan and carry out direct marketing and sales activities, so as to maintain and develop sales of SNP's ABC machinery range to UK major accounts and specifiers, in accordance with agreed business plans. Key responsibilities and accountabilities:
Scale and territory indicators: Core product range of four ABC machines price range £50 to £250. Target sectors: All major multiple-site organisations having more than 1,000 staff. Prospect database c.10,000 head offices of large organisations. Customer base of c.150 large organisations. Typical account value £20-50k pa. Total personal revenue accountability potentially £4.5m. Territory: UK. (date and reference) More job description typical responsibilities are listed at the foot of this page. If you are recruiting to fill a role it is important to formulate a person-profile to help with job advert wording; psychometric profiling; shortlisting; interviewing points to assess; and final selection. Person-Profile Template
An example is shown here for the role above: Sample Person-ProfilePerson profile - Sales and Marketing Executive Personality: Self-driven, results-oriented with a positive outlook, and a clear focus on high quality and business profit. A natural forward planner who critically assesses own performance. Mature, credible, and comfortable in dealing with senior big company executives. Reliable, tolerant, and determined. Empathic communicator, able to see things from the other person's point of view. Well-presented and businesslike. Sufficiently mobile and flexible to travel up to a few days a month within the UK. Keen for new experience, responsibility and accountability. Able to get on with others and be a team-player. Personal Situation: Must be mature and domestically secure. Able to spend one or two nights away per month without upsetting domestic situation. Able to commute reliably to office base. Able to work extended hours on occasions when required. May be striving financially but not desperate or in serious debt. Must have clean or near clean driving licence. Specific Job Skills: Able to communicate and motivate via written media. Understands the principles of marketing and advertising cost-effectiveness, including market sector targeting, product offer development, features-benefits-solutions selling, cost per response, cost per conversion, etc. Appreciates need for consistency within company's branding and marketing mix, especially PR and the Internet. Experience of managing marketing agency activities useful. Computer skills: Must be adept in use of MS Office 2000 or later, particularly Excel and Word, and ideally Access or similar database to basic level, Internet and email. Literacy and Numeracy: Able to understand profit and loss calculations and basic business finance, e.g., gross margin percentages and calculations, depreciation, capital and revenue expenditure, cash-flow, overheads, etc. Must be a very competent writer of business letters, quotations and proposals. Business and Selling Skills: Must be an excellent face-to-face and telephone communicator. Able to demonstrate success and experience managing major accounts customers and large contracts or even a business, particularly achieving genuine sales development. Ideal background would be in business support services; experience of washroom and contract cleaning industries would be particularly helpful. Experience of tenders would also be useful. Management Ability: Though internal staff management is not initially part of the job, responsibility and opportunity could grow with the development of the business, for example the prospect of recruiting and managing support telesales staff. Some people-management skills, experience and natural ability will be useful. Creating, Introducing and Agreeing Descriptions There are several ways to approach the need for new or updated job descriptions within an organisation or department, and these methods can achieve some other useful benefits too. The workshop method is particularly effective and time-saving. Workshop (see the sections on workshops and brainstorming) - people brainstorm and draft job descriptions in pairs or threes - ideas are shared, best formats agreed and senior management is able to participate, guide and approve. This process for creating or revising job descriptions is also very good for creating a sense of ownership of responsibilities and accountabilities, and for clarifying mutual understanding and expectations. Cascade a basic empty template down through staff, asking for each staff member to draft what they believe is there own JD, and for each person to provisionally agree/modify JD with their line boss. These drafts then come back up to centre for review, adjustment and re-issue. Also promotes useful discussion and clarification of expectations between staff members and their line-managers. Draft provisional generic formats at centre - then cascade through staff via line managers for comment/agreement, between staff members and line managers. General points on creating or updating job descriptions: Where you have a number of similar job functions, try to limit the main job description types to as few as possible. Reflect job differences in levels of authority, seniority and scale etc, in the parameters section of the main job description. Encourage line managers to hold their own workshop meetings to arrive at shared best ideas and consensus. Your trade association(s) might be able to assist with some generic job description samples. It's also worth asking large partners/customer organisations if they can show you their equivalent job descriptions, where they have similar jobs. Directors' and Corporate Responsibilities Arguably there are some special aspects of a company director's role which should be reflected in job descriptions aside from normal functional duties or job tasks. This is not least because board directors are personally liable for corporate activities, and so issues of ethics, morality, legality, safety, duty of care, etc., are the responsibility of all directors, in addition to their normal functional responsibilities. How you incorporate these aspects into directors' job descriptions (and logically into directors' appraisals too) is a matter of interpretation and policy. A catch-all phrase is an option, for example: 'Execute the responsibilities of a company director according to lawful and ethical standards, as referenced in ... (whatever director policy and standards document you might use). And/or with growing significance, for example: 'Uphold, safeguard and promote the organisation's values and philosophy relating particularly to ethics, integrity, corporate (social) responsibility, 'Fair Trade', etc., as referenced in ... (whatever organisational values and philosophy standards document you might use). However, in this modern age, there is an increasing need for organisations to be more specific about what all this means for directors. Most (if not all) of the great corporate scandals of recent times can be attributed one way or another to directors neglecting or being unaware of their responsibilities for some of less obvious but crucial areas of ethics, integrity, morality and organisational responsibility. When such responsibilities are spelled out clearly, and the assessment of directors' performance against them made properly transparent, then organisations are far less open to risks of corporate scandal, fraud, and other disasters. In addition, employees and customers are growing increasingly aware and demanding of corporations' performance in these non-financial 'humanity and planet' areas, and the increasing visibility of corporate culture and behaviour, through the development of modern communications and phenomena such as blogging, grows each year. There are few corporate secrets any longer - nearly everyone has access to nearly everything. Soon, there'll be no corporate secrets at all. It makes sense therefore for all organisations to assess and improve their own standing in relation to corporate responsibility, before the world at large does it for them. Directors' responsibilities, their relative importance and how they are shaped, in the 'non-functional' areas (ethics, environment, people, planet, community, etc) naturally reflect the corporate philosophy of the organisation concerned, and this is the mechanism by which change and improvement can be made. In other words, the organisation needs to have a clearly stated position (from which stems the culture and 'spirit' - the philosophy - of the corporation) that clearly explains the relative priority within organisational aims of responsibility to staff, customers, shareholders, community, environment, etc., and also the significance of morality and ethics within the organisational ethos. These critical non-functional 'humanity and planet' responsibilities stem from the philosophy at the top of the organisation, not the PR department. Corporate Responsibility (or whatever description you care to use) is a challenging and fluid subject, surrounded by much debate, characterised by various converging perspectives, notably, the 'Triple Bottom Line' (Profit People Planet), ethics and integrity, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility - increasingly shortened simply to Corporate Responsibility), sustainability, Fair Trade, etc. Interpreting all this and creating a workable platform for it all within an organisation is the responsibility of the CEO (or equivalent). In an institutional not-for-profit organisation the trustees or governors would ultimately carry the can for any serious failures. In a club it would be the committee members. The buck always stops somewhere, and if it's with you then check that your responsibilities and remit adequately reflect your accountability. In conventional profit driven corporations the accountability rests with the directors, which is why directors' job descriptions need to spell out these responsibilities - to whatever extent the organisation (the CEO typically) deems appropriate. Middle managers trying to make sense of of it all and wondering how to apply it to their strategic planning and decision-making will find it tricky to fill a vacuum in this area one exists, which is often the case. The default 'corporate philosophy' is usually profit alone, with no genuine reference to humanitarian and planetary issues, which is ultimately a recipe for disaster. The bigger the corporation and its potential liabilities, then the greater the disaster when and if it occurs. Chemicals, healthcare, transport, automotive, pharmaceuticals, financial services, food and drink, consumer technology, and tobacco products are obvious examples of high-liability industries, each of which has produced at a number of massive corporate debacles in recent years, and these won't be the last. Directors, (and thereby managers and all other staff) need a wider and more subtle frame of reference than profit alone, to enable and encourage them to plan, direct, manage and act in a more inclusive and philosophically acceptable way than simply being focused on profit or costs. Shareholder return (or financial performance) is vital of course, but it must never be the sole aim. As regards the more straightforward issues (safety, legal etc), in the UK various bodies can help in determining the traditional director's responsibilities. The Institute of Directors produce specific guidelines on responsibilities of directors (www.iod.com). Other possible sources of input from different perspectives: ACAS - Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (www.acas.co.uk), Government departments/agencies and their websites (e.g., www.gov.uk). I mention these because they provide a certain level of advice free. If you are new to the HR or personnel role, check whether your organisation (or for example your parent company) has corporate membership to IOD, CIPD, etc., or retains the services of a specialist employment advisory consultancy. You'll need help in interpreting a suitable response to these new challenges, both in persuading senior people that these are significant issues, not just a PR thing or passing trend, and also in formulating a practicable and relevant approach to it all. As regards corporate responsibility, in a truer wider sense (people, planet, ethics, etc), standards and terms of reference are still fluid - it's difficult to measure the benefit of these things, therefore they are taking a long time being accepted and adopted (like the abolition of slavery, votes for women, etc). But that doesn't mean you cannot take the lead and formulate your own standards. Organisations which seek to pioneer ethical and humanitarian standards and practices will increasingly be the suppliers and employers of choice for all right-minded people. Organisations which fail to address these vital questions of ethics, humanity, social and environmental responsibility, etc., and which fail to reflect these accountabilities within director's (and thereby all other employees') responsibilities, are taking some big risks, whereas the organisations which embrace and adopt these 'higher-order' values will almost inevitably create for themselves a more sustainable future. Typical Job Description Examples Here are some typical job description responsibilities for other roles. Please note that these lists of responsibilities do not constitute full job descriptions, you need to add/refine responsibilities to reflect your own organisation's situation, and then add the other job description elements detailed above, i.e., the 'reports to', 'based at', 'job purpose' and scale indicators. I always recommend strongly to build your own job descriptions due to the need to have something that properly fits your own requirements. Job titles are terribly vague - especially roles relating to customer service, and any role with interfaces across the organisation and/or externally - the functions and descriptions mean different things to different companies, and it's so easy to make wrong assumptions using somebody else's standards. Start by thinking about what you actually want the role to do for your organisation, not what the role might do for other companies. Imports and Exports Administrator/Manager The import/export manager or administrator job is potentially a vast one covering a wide range of responsibilities. Also, import/export manager/administrator job descriptions vary considerably according to country, local import/export laws and procedures, and the role required within the organisation, in which the role can have emphasis on any or all of the following aspects: sales, purchasing and buying, finance, legal, administration. There are far too many duties here for a single job description; pick the duties from the examples below to create a job description that suits your own situation.
Business Development Manager/Executive/Director The 'business development' job title can mean various things. Some organisations refer to sales and account management jobs as 'business development', in which case refer to the account manager job description below. The business development job description - and especially the extent of strategic and authority responsibility - depends on whom the role reports to, and the scale of and complexity of the 'business' (markets, products/services, territory, etc) to be developed. This is an example of typical responsibilities of a senior business development role, or business development director:
Account Manager/SalespersonThe account manager or sales-person job has many variations. These are the typical responsibilities of a modern office-based or field-based salesperson. This list is probably too long for a normal job description - it includes similar variations of individual responsibilities which you can select as appropriate.
Administrative AssistantAn administrative assistant job description varies according to the role and organisation. Use this outline as a basis to create a job description that is relevant to your own situation.
Switchboard Operator/Receptionist Job purpose outline (example): The primary objective of the Switchboard Operator is to answer a multi-line switchboard quickly (ideally within 3 ring cycles) and direct calls to their destination without delay. Greeting customers, answering questions, announcing calls or providing directions are secondary objectives. The key to the role is in always providing the primary objective whilst delivering the secondary objectives wherever possible but always in such a way that positively affects the customer's perception or call/visit experience. Outline duties:
(Ack T Booth) Health and Safety Manager/DirectorAdjust and refine these core responsibilities for the health and safety function to fit your organisation context and the authority of the role. These responsibilities typically reflect a director's responsibilities and so need developing into more specific duties to form a relevant health and safety manager's job description relevant to your own situation.
Shop or Retail/Wholesale Store Manager Depends on the level of commercial and managerial authority and responsibility, but could include potentially these points:
Organisational Development Manager
Trainer/Training Manager
Training and Development Manager
HR Head or Director
Sales and Marketing Director
The position reports to the CEO/MD/General Manager. The purpose of the role is to plan and implement sales and marketing activities in order to meet company targets for retention growth and profitability, and to contribute, as a board member, to the executive management of the company.
Quality Manager/Director
Finance Director or Chief Financial OfficerThis role's responsibilities and authority level depends on what your company is and requires, and, if the role covers statutory administration and reporting, elements of the the role also depend on your country's company laws (reporting, shareholders, tax, dividends, etc).
Chief Operating Officer or Operations Director
Purchasing/Buying Manager/ExecutiveThe following areas of responsibility are potentially included in purchasing/buying function. How you form these into purchasing and buying job descriptions depends on the scope of your purchasing department's responsibility; your purchasing department's interface with other departments; how your purchasing roles are to operate, and the job(s) autonomy, authority and reporting levels:
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Managing Director
Chairman/ChairpersonThe chairman is appointed by and reports to the board of directors.
A good job description must be a brief concise document - not lots of detail of how each individual task is done, which should be in an operational manual, which can of course then be referenced by very many different job descriptions, saving lots of time, especially when operational details change, as they inevitably do. A job description is in essence a list of 8-15 short sentences or points which cover the main responsibilities of the role, not the detailed processes. Follow the job description structure and guidelines on this web page - don't get side-tracked or persuaded into writing an operational manual. Detailed tasks belong in an operational manual, not a job description. If your boss or organisation thinks your job description should contain the detail of how you do your job, then encourage him/her/your organisation to produce an operational manual instead, and explain the logic and time-saving benefits that are shown on this page. Use the job description structure on this web page as a template into which you should put your main 8-15 responsibilities. If you need to re-write job descriptions (or your own job description) then structure it in terms of main responsibilities - not the detail. If you wish, or if helpful to arrive at your main responsibilities, you can list the detail of your job tasks elsewhere, as this effectively represents a section in an operations manual - which shows the detail of how the job is done. You can use use the detail to indicate (to yourself) the main responsibilities, but for the job description you must summarise the detail into broad descriptions, for example: All the detail concerned with, for instance 'invoicing', could be covered by: 'manage and report on all invoicing activities using agreed systems and processes (as defined in the operational manual).' All the detailed process concerned with, say 'cash management', could be included in 'manage movement, security and accounting of cash in accordance with agreed processes and standards (as defined in the operating manual).' See what I mean? Try to identify the main activities by type, not the detail. Where appropriate refer to where the detail is held (for example the operational manual, safety manual, or say 'agreed procedures/standards') - do not attempt to include the detail in the job description. It might help to see things in terms of the main types of activities (rather than your specific task detail), as listed at the top of the web page and listed here again: Bold type indicates that these responsibility areas would normally feature in most job descriptions:
Plus any responsibilities for other staff if applicable, typically:
Senior roles will include more executive aspects:
You will find that you can cluster most of the tasks on your (initially very long) list into a list of far fewer broad (but still specific) responsibilities according to the above examples of typical job description activity areas. The tendency when having to create or re-write job descriptions is to under-estimate the strategic nature of the role and responsibilities, and to be too detailed. If writing your own job description, especially if you perform a wide range of responsibilities in a small company, then try to be bold in the way you describe what you do - use the sort of terminology that is found in senior-level job descriptions - it is likely that you could have a similar type of strategic responsibility without realising it or being recognised for it. Doing this will help you and others to recognise, formalise and acknowledge the importance of what you do, and therefore your value to the organisation. It will also suggest several ways in which you could grow and to develop (into) the functions involved, and also indicate ways that the responsibilities activities can be developed, whether you do them or not, although you may be surprised at the high level of your own influence to drive and decide these decisions. Empowerment is often what you make it. Related Materials
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