Job Analyses Should Be Reviewed Periodically to Be Sure They Remain Current

Jill Bidwell, PHR, senior HR generalist at hydraulic manufacturer Sauer-Danfoss in Ames, Iowa, says her colleagues jokingly call her "the queen of chore descriptions."

"I practice have a passion for them," she admits. "I preach to all our managers and Hr staff that the chore description is the mother of all HR processes. Everything from recruitment and preparation to functioning evaluations and compensation all stems from that document. In one case they sympathise all of the various facets of the employment life wheel the chore description touches, they take it a lot more than seriously and put more thought into it. It's non just a compliance exercise.

"Ideally, what is put in the job clarification can create a job posting and operation goals. It walks into a development plan for training you demand. From a rewards perspective, it helps us benchmark other jobs," Bidwell says. In the Ames facility, she supports i,000 of the half dozen,500 employees Sauer-Danfoss employs globally.

Janet Flewelling, director of 60 minutes operations at Insperity, an HR service provider headquartered in Houston, agrees: "Job descriptions tin have and then much value if used regularly and appropriately. If you have an up-to-appointment job description, y'all tin use it for recruiting, performance management and bounty."

Despite the importance of chore descriptions, very few Hr professionals have a regular policy for updating them, says Michael R. Kannisto, Ph.D., SPHR, director of talent direction and acquisition at JLG Industries Inc. in Hagerstown, Md., and chair of a workgroup developing a voluntary standard for job descriptions.

Updating descriptions is sometimes "the last affair on the list to tackle considering there are then many other issues that require Hour's time and attention," says Cathy Maddox, SPHR, Hr coordinator at Lincoln Surgical Hospital in Lincoln, Neb. But revising job descriptions "is very important, peculiarly when y'all are hiring people," Maddox adds.

The Risks

Unfortunately, job descriptions often aren't viewed as living documents. Once completed, they may be relegated to dusty three-band binders or long-unopened text documents. Experts say this is a error.

For case, "If y'all don't keep it up-to-date and you accept [an employment] claim against you, that nonupdated chore description can do as much harm equally a good one could benefit yous. It tin can work to help in your defense force or it tin piece of work to aid the employee" filing the grievance, Flewelling says.

Kannisto adds, "With the compliance environment and legal implications, the stakes are a lot higher for chore descriptions to be crystal clear with essential responsibilities. If yous have a measure of performance that doesn't appear on the job description and y'all have a case brought against you, depending on the agency [involved], in that location could be punishment," he explains.

Legal implications aside, "y'all aren't operating your business concern as efficiently as possible" if you don't continue job descriptions electric current, Kannisto says. "Job descriptions help with workforce planning. You can run into how talent flows through the organization and holistically how it all fits together."

"Having a bad task clarification is worse than [having] none at all," asserts Tracy McCarthy, senior vice president of HR at SilkRoad, a talent management organization headquartered in Chicago.

The Timing

How often should chore descriptions be reviewed and updated? In one case a year at a minimum, experts say. Only circumstances might call for more-frequent updates.

If zilch significant happens throughout the twelvemonth, "once a year, to coincide with the performance review procedure, is a great time to update," Flewelling advises.

That's what happens at Sauer-Danfoss. "Nosotros have employee reviews on a calendar year. After we finish the reviews, we set goals and objectives for the next review period. During that time, we update job descriptions," Bidwell explains.

"If you are a growing or changing system, information technology'south probable that you lot'll take to exercise it more than often," McCarthy says. Because SilkRoad is "always evolving," for example, it updated descriptions about three times during 2011. A great opportunity to update is when you are hiring for a position, Flewelling adds.

If in that location is a change to the job, exercise not wait until an annual review to make alterations. Updating job descriptions "should be an ongoing procedure anytime something pregnant changes," says Lindsay A. Nienhuser Barton, SPHR, man resources manager for industrial explosives manufacturer Dyno Nobel Inc., in Cheyenne, Wyo.

Even if a job and an incumbent employee have not inverse, or even if incremental changes accept been made to the description annually, Hour professionals may still want to consider a complete job description overhaul every and then often. When Kannisto and his task strength went through the procedure of creating Hour job clarification standards, they explored job descriptions from the 1800s up to the present. He says it became clear which ones were written in which decade.

"The element of the culture and the words you use are obvious a decade later," Kannisto says. He compared it to watching a World State of war Ii picture show fabricated in the 1960s: Even though the movie is well-nigh the 1940s, the film quality, the colors, the hairstyles and other minor details engagement the movie. If yous read a job clarification for a longtime employee, information technology will sound dated if it has been fine-tuned only annually, he notes.

Everyone Has a Part

Creating and maintaining job descriptions should involve employees, managers and HR. Each person has a role, oft with overlapping responsibilities.

Employees. "Apparently, the person performing the piece of work has the all-time thought of the scope and size of the job," Kannisto says.

"Employees can vouch for what they actually do and should accept input into their descriptions," McCarthy agrees. "Nevertheless, the manager must also exist a part of this process to ensure that the responsibilities and requirements are aligned with actual activities."

Managers. At Sauer-Danfoss, managers use a template to write or update chore descriptions that are reviewed by 60 minutes, Bidwell says. The director is in accuse of keeping descriptions up-to-date when someone leaves and as office of the performance management process.

At Lincoln Surgical Hospital, "HR would never assume that they know more nearly the position than the person who is actually doing the chore or managing the job. The manager is asked for his input. HR will then put the information into the standardized format and send that back to the manager for his approval or input on farther changes," Maddox says.

60 minutes professionals. "HR's responsibility is to coach and facilitate the process of updating," Barton says.

Information technology'southward but natural that 60 minutes "owns" job descriptions, Kannisto says, because "a job description touches then many pieces of the organization—recruiting, succession planning, training, legal, compliance. Hour is the only one who can be responsible for that."

While HR professionals may not know the essential functions of every position, they are in a unique position to see how each job description fits into the larger organization and the organization's legal obligations.

For instance, Hr can "look for consistencies across departments to compare similar jobs to set consistent wording and responsibleness levels," Flewelling says. In addition, "60 minutes is responsible for keeping [chore descriptions] live and using them during recruiting and performance processes." She notes that HR is likewise responsible for ensuring that job descriptions comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Americans with Disabilities Human action.

At Sauer-Danfoss, "HR's role is to review the job description and see if information technology makes sense in layman's terms," Bidwell says. "Considering we're a manufacturing company, we use a lot of engineers who like to speak technically. We want to look at specific skill sets and understand the reasons why those exist."

Potential Bug

Alexandra LeBlanc, lead sourcing specialist at Seven Step RPO, a recruitment outsourcing firm in Boston, places task description maintenance into a larger context. "Keep an open line of communication with employees and so y'all're aware of incremental changes as they occur. Keeping task descriptions current isn't merely nearly redefining a office. It'due south also about understanding how and why job functions are changing, and anticipating whatever possible job description updates to reflect those changes."

What if an employee'due south job clarification and daily tasks do non match? Experts say employees should be encouraged to enquire Hr for a task clarification review if in that location appear to be inconsistencies between what the task description says and what they practice. These situations demand to be handled carefully, however, and with the manager's input.

At Sauer-Danfoss, "when we get requests from employees to review a chore description, we directly them back through their leader," Bidwell says. "We enquire the leader to come up to HR to work through the issue. If someone feels they aren't existence recognized for actress piece of work they are doing or the telescopic of their job has expanded, we can have a conversation with the leader to validate that and, if necessary, update the description. We tin can adjust compensation appropriately at that time."

Bidwell adds that it is of import to review the chore description and not but lucifer the description to the person currently doing the chore.

Kannisto concurs, warning "Yous should not build a job description effectually an individual. If an employee brings an enhanced skill set to the job, that does not mean that those special skills demand to be written into the job description or the compensation needs to be increased, unless you determine that this is a core chemical element of the job."

If, upon review, the task description turns out to be accurate, there is an opportunity to have a discussion most whether the employee is spending time doing something that isn't role of the job, Flewelling says. If the employee argues that his or her qualifications are much higher than what is in the job description, "that is the time to have a discussion nearly how the employee tin can move up in the organization to take better reward of his skills or education."

Similarly, LeBlanc says, "HR should be enlightened of whatsoever inconsistencies with workload distribution and raise the issue accordingly. If in that location is ane employee doing the work of many, or employees who are unable or unwilling to do what'southward asked of them, there needs to be serious discussion about each job description, role and how those fit in with the business goals."

Flewelling concludes, "If you regularly apply a job description, rather than just take one on file, you're more likely to keep it up-to-engagement. If you pull out a task clarification every time you work on performance reviews, compensation planning, succession planning, training and evolution needs, you lot are a lot more likely to maintain it."

The author is a freelance writer and former Hour generalist and trainer in Wixom, Mich.

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Source: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0113-job-descriptions.aspx

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