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Are job descriptions a hindrance for you too?
I'm finding that I get a lot of fall back from employees who say, "I'm sorry that isn't in my job description," and as result our organization is becoming more and more sluggish. How do I remedy this issue? Is it worth ditching job descriptions?
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2 Answers
No, Job Descriptions are a worthy tool but they shouldn't be a straight jacket, ever single JD should contain something like this phrase "This job description is a guide to the major tasks and duties you are expected to perform, however there are many things you will be asked to do that are not in your job description and you are expected to comply with any reasonable instruction."
And that's the long and short of it, JD's are a guide to the main part of someone's work not the whole definition of every thing they will ever do.
Though it helps if managers lead by example...
Job descriptions are the core of building a really good HR system. One of the issues is that we depend on them to do too much. They tend to be a laundry list of tasks - responsible for this or that - while they should also include the behaviors and other factors that are critical in getting a job done properly. The task is what you do; the behavior is how you do it. They should also be linked to the training that should be done to teach someone exactly what to do and the performance evaluations which tells you whether the individual did what they were supposed to do. The job description is only the beginning of the process and not the end in and of itself. www.hroutofthebox.com is one site that has created a linked and integrated process. When people in an organization see how everything fits together . . . are given the opportunity to understand the appropriate standards articulated in the job description, taught what to do in a learning checklist and allowed to demonstrate how they have performed, you can begin to minimize the sluggishness in most companies.
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