This is the second of two blogs on resurrecting the job description as an important part of your organization. In February 18th’s blog we talked about the purposes of a well-written job description. These included providing a basis for a job advertisement, the content and form of a selection process, staff training and development and staff appraisal – all in the interest of alignment.

At that time we noted that job descriptions were often costly to produce (if outsourced) and, because of length, complexity and somewhat confusing terminology, they were rarely used for the purposes for which they were intended.

To address these issues of form and content, Bendel Services has developed a very useable form as its model – and one that allows a job description to be created with a two-to-three-page (maximum) limit. Here, in a nutshell, is what it looks like:

Part 1: “Tombstone Data” which simply includes the name of the position as it appears on the organizational chart, the section or department and the office to which the holder of the position reports.

Part 2: The “Heart of the Matter” which includes four areas or general competencies. These are Knowledge, Skills, Personal/Professional Characteristics and Mission Advancement. Before going into these areas in more detail, let’s make two points:

1. The number of statements under each competency need not be extensive. They should be built around two considerations – Most Important and Most Observable Duties/Qualities – as a way of limiting a potentially elongated list that makes other tasks related to the job description (like employee assessment) far too complex.
2. There is a close relationship among meaning, clarity, language and logic. This means that the statements should reflect what a person does, needs to know, is as a professional and aims at to advance the organization’s mission and goals.

So let us start by way of examples. The position is “Manager of Human Resources” in a company called Elliot Technology Services Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Knowledge: The Manager of Human Resources must:

• Have a detailed understanding of all Ontario employment legislation including, but not limited to employment contracts, unfair dismissal, conflict of interest, discrimination, safe working conditions, etc.

Knowledge describes what a person must know and understand what is required in the job. Therefore, the most important words in this competency must be nouns because they describe sets of understandings. They are the “what” of the role.

Skills: The Manager of Human Resources must:

• Hire, train and oversee the assessment practices of all full and part time employees in the organization.

Skills describe what the person must do to carry out her/his responsibilities. Therefore, the most important words in this competency must be verbs because they describe the “carrying out” of the role.

Personal/Professional Characteristics: The Manager of Human Resources must:

• Be able to work cooperatively with managers, staff, and union personnel to ensure employees are managed in a safe, respectful, and cooperative atmosphere.

Personal/Professionals/Characteristics describe how the person is to carry out the role in terms of dealing with tasks or people. Therefore, the most important words in this competency must be adverbs or adjectives because they describe the values and attitudes an individual must call upon to do the job. They are the “how” of the role in terms of personal deportment.

Mission Advancement: The Manager of Human Resources must:

• Develop policies, practices and programs that will support an engaged workforce to advance more effectively and efficiently the company’s strategic goals and mission.

Mission Advancement statements take the individual out of the role as an individual and place her/him in the context of an important and essential part of the company moving forward. They confirm what an individual must do to make the organization a more successful enterprise. Therefore, the Verb is again the most important word because it describes the “carrying out” of that responsibility.

In the end, each of the four competencies should be supported by no more than 6-8 statements. If these follow the guideline of “most important; most observable” they will certainly suffice. In this case “more” is not “better” and in fact will create too wide a basis for training and assessment activities will likely be ignored because they are overly complex. The “KISS Principle” is best followed here: Keep it simple, stupid!

Dr. Dan