Once you've completed your job analysis, you're ready to write a job description. The job description is the written outline of what the job entails, based on the research that you've done via job analysis. In essence, the job analysis constitutes the data collection phase of the process. Once the raw data has been collected, it needs to be organized into a readable, useable, format. This, then, is the job description.

Job descriptions are good to have for several reasons. They help in:

• orienting new employees
• evaluating the performance of an employee
• motivating employees
• interviewing and selecting employees
• comparing pay between employees
• providing evidence of your practices, should you ever have to defend them in court

 

When writing a job description, the following questions/headings should help:

• What is the Job Title?
• What is the Grade within the company (indicates level/position within the rewards structure)
• How permanent is the job?
• What travelling is involved with the job?
• What are the formal Reporting relationships associated with it? (up, down, sideways relationships)
  • Reports to who in the hierarchy? (formally - boss and key others?)
  • Responsible for who? (number of full-time and part-time staff and their job titles)
  • What others are there in the formal job network/role set: (list those contacts/other jobs - internal and external - that form the job's network of contacts.)
    • External (customer groups, agencies, suppliers etc)
    • Internal (other departments who are internal clients or who must work with the post holder)
• What are the main responsibilities (routine/non-routine) of the job
  • Routine (daily, weekly)
  • Yearly - and responsibilities that arise from time to time.
  • What meetings do you attend and what roles and contributions do you bring to these meetings
  • What information systems do you (the job holder) put data into and received data from to carry out the job's responsibilities?
  • Other Key events/points in job cycle
  • Now focus on the really important (the key) tasks and critical success indicators of job performance for each of these areas of responsibility
  • For each area of responsibility, LIST the key tasks that have to be carried out
    • describe the indicators that would show that the key results/critical success standards have been achieved i.e. performance requirements have been met
• Information systems
  • which information systems does your boss and others use to monitor your performance and progress in the job?
• Supervision/Support
  • what supervision and support processes are you involved with (e.g. your boss to you, you to your boss, you to your staff, your staff to you, you to others, others to you)
• Authority/Resources
  • What "authorities" do you have over staff and resources (to give instructions, allocate work, make rewards available, fix/change terms and conditions of employment, give feedback, assess and appraise and discipline).
    • Even if you do not have formal authority - what influence are your still expected to have over others? Describe the sources of such influence.
  • What responsibility do you have for the firm's assets or budgets? Describe each of these and give details of what, how much etc.
• Given your present job:
  • what differences in expectation are you currently experiencing
    • Your staff to you and vice versa
    • Your boss to you and vice versa
    • Your customers/clients to you and vice versa (both internal and external clients)
  • What role ambiguity are you facing? -- incompatibilities you perceive between yourself (you make-up and your role)?
    • What strategies are you using to cope with role stresses?
  • What conflicts are you facing? -- What is causing these?
  • What overload are you experiencing? -- What is causing these?
  • What underload are you experiencing? -- What is causing these?
  • What ensignia do you use/display?
  • What scope for achievement (in areas of certainty and uncertainty) do you have?
  • What are the things that are blocking your potential for achievement at the moment?
  • What scope is there for advancement?
    • What is blocking advancement?

Of course, the questions/categories listed above will not be found in all job descriptions. However, when writing a job description, they provide a useful guide to the nature of the information that should be included.

If you're creating a written job description, it is generally not necessary to list any duty that does not take up more than 5 percent of the job holder's time. These seldom-performed tasks shouldn't be considered in writing the job description because they simply aren't a big enough part to warrant consideration.

However, if there is some aspect of a job's requirements that occurs periodically or even just once a year, but has a large impact on the business, it should be included.