What is a JD?
"The outcome of job design may be a job description." (Armstrong, 2006). Preparing a job description is performed at the first stage of the recruitment process where requirements are defined. The JD plays a vital role in employee engagement and setting things right on the first instance.
Components of a JD
Heading information.
Job title
Pay grade or range
Experience
Training, and technical skills necessary for entry into this job.
Reporting relationship (by position, not individual)
Hours or shifts
Overtime or weekend work.
Summary objective of the job.
List the general responsibilities and descriptions of key tasks and their purpose
Relationships with customers, coworkers, and others
Results expected of incumbent employees.
Qualifications
State the educationExperience
Training, and technical skills necessary for entry into this job.
Special demands.
Any extraordinary conditions applicable to the job (for example, heavy lifting, exposure to temperature extremes, prolonged standing, or travel).
Job duties and responsibilities.
Identifying tasks
Identifying tasks
Listing tasks in order of the time consumed (or, sometimes, in order of importance).
Bruce, S. (2012) 5 Critical Components Every Job Description Must Contain [online]
Heywood, N.(no date) Do you Have a Job Description [online] Accessed From, https://www.in-source.org/do-you-have-a-job-description/
(Bruce,S. 2012)
Importance of a JD
1) Lists main tasks to be carried out by the job holder.
2) Reduce mismatches when selecting a candidate as the successful candidate for the job, by allowing to match between the candidate's personality and the job role personality.
3) Allows employees to focus on organizational goals. This becomes a starting point of employee engagement.
4) Helps compare industry job salaries, incentives and benefits.
5) Works as a frame on building KPIs and assists in Performance Management.
Why some Employers do not promote JDs
Despite all the above mentioned advantages of maintaining a job description, some organizations tend to avoid creating job descriptions by purpose. This is sometimes due to the disadvantage of employees being engaged only to the job role and not to the organization. Since sometimes employees tend to create a boundary with regard to the tasks stated in the job description, which could sometimes be an obstacle in achieving organizational goals.
However employers should be mindful to overcome the obstacles of creating job descriptions and reap the benefits of creating a job description for each job role.
References
Armstrong,
M.(2006) Human
Resource Management Practice.10th edition. London:Kogan Page Limited.
Bruce, S. (2012) 5 Critical Components Every Job Description Must Contain [online]
Accessed
From, http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2012/02/15/5-critical-components-every-job-description-must-contain/
Accessed on [14th December 2017]
Heywood, N.(no date) Do you Have a Job Description [online] Accessed From, https://www.in-source.org/do-you-have-a-job-description/
Accessed on [14th December 2017]
An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved, and enthusiastic about his or her work and indeed job description helps the employees to be engaged in their jobs.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that every company follows the concept of JD? And is it practical?
In local context most of the employees are not given a proper JD. In vacancy advertisement there are lot of adjectives and adverbs like “driven, go-getter, multi-tasker, dynamic, amazing, creative, out-of-the-box thinker, “But where is the JD? The truth is every one need to get the job done. The job is not specified.
ReplyDeleteGood topic Dasuni. JD is the basic thing that any organization need to look on broader view. But unfortunately in most cases JD is only limited for job posting.How organizations measure there employees performance without assessing there JDs ? Any position JD needs to be change with time and business requirement. So it is very important to have proper job evaluation (JE)to formulate effective JD
ReplyDelete