The Benefits of Having Clear Job Descriptions

Written by: Stephanie Burford, PHR, M.S., HR Manager at Advisor HR

Establishing clear job descriptions can often be viewed as a dreaded, time consuming task. It takes time, effort, and may even challenge organizations to think about what the employee actually does and expectations for the role. However, the value of having a clear job description is often overlooked. Regardless of the organizations size, a job description is an essential document that provides numerous benefits to both the organization and employee serving as a cornerstone for effective communication, alignment, and productivity.

Just like following a recipe when cooking, a job description is the employee’s recipe for success. It clearly outlines how to achieve satisfactory job performance. A detailed job description provides a summary of the job, essential functions, knowledge, skills, and abilities, qualifications, and physical requirements. Without this document, how do employees truly know what’s expected of them?

This document serves as the official record for outlining responsibilities and every position should have a job description on file. Once a job description is completed, like a cooking recipe, it should be reviewed periodically and updated if anything changes. When this happens, employees should be made aware and receive the most up to date copy. This becomes critical when discussing performance reviews, bonuses, promotions, or demotions.

Although this task can often be undervalued, there are many key advantages to having comprehensive job descriptions.

1.     Clarity of Roles and Responsibilities: A detailed job description clearly outlines the tasks, duties, and responsibilities that are associated with the role. It provides an insight to how their role aligns with the bigger picture and overall success of the company. This allows employees to see the value of their work and understand how it connects to the bigger picture. A detailed description reduces confusion and mitigates the potential for duplicative work.

2.     Higher Recruitment Success Rate: Understanding what the organization is looking for in a candidate and clearly outlining it in the job description can reduce the number of unqualified applicants. This creates a more efficient hiring process with stronger candidate pool ultimately ending in a higher candidate success rate and lower turnover.

3.     Legal Protection: This document can serve as a valuable tool during legal disputes from both a liability and compliance standpoint. By having a job description that clearly outlines the expectations of the role and its essential functions, if an employee claims they were doing work outside the scope of their role, the description can protect organizations from potential liabilities.   

4.     Opportunities for Growth: Job descriptions outline the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are required for the role. By having a clear a clear understanding of what’s expected to achieve satisfactory performance in each role can determine appropriate training and development for advancement. On the flip side, it can address skill gaps.

Taking the time to create a clear, detailed job description can improve organizational effectiveness and provide a foundation for communication, organizational alignment, and higher productivity benefiting both the organization and employees. The Advisor HR platform has a documents center where job descriptions can be filed in each individual employee’s electronic file so they can be accessed at any time. If your organization doesn’t currently have job descriptions on file, are outdated, or new positions have been added, Advisor HR can help get these completed, updated, or uploaded. Reach out today to learn more about how we can help!