Job Descriptions – Let Encompassing Visions Help Expedite Your Process!

Most managers and employees have a love/hate relationship with job descriptions. Employees view them as a ‘creative writing contest’; and managers perceive them as a bureaucratic nuisance. Why? Typically, organizations require them for one purpose – to define the job for classification purposes, which in turn determines pay. Once the job description is written, they are stored in a cabinet and seldom referred to again.

Accurately captured job information can be the mother-load for HR processes; from creating job descriptions, job postings for recruitment, helping create corporate job levels and expectations, as well as pay bands.

Let’s consider the applications:

Job Classification / Job Evaluations

In a 10-person organization, the General Manager has a view of all the jobs and can assess the relative worth of each job. In a much larger organizations, job information is required to determine relative worth, inherent in the job classification or job evaluation. Job classifications/evaluations are an important step in the HR process, but employees and managers often don’t see the return on the time invested.

Recruiting and Posting 

Recruiters require job information to determine the specification for vacant jobs. Many organizations use job description to craft the recruiting postings. However, the quality is often poor or out-dated, so the recruiter needs to validate the current job information and requirements with the manager prior to publicizing.

If only there was an easy way to capture and update job information…. there is - Encompassing Visions questionnaire and software.

Setting Job Expectations 

Board of Directors have figured this out. Good governance practices require CEO’s to have a job description. Why? The Board and the CEO need to agree on the key responsibilities of the job; and good governance requires that the CEO be held accountable for those responsibilities. Too bad that practice is not generally applied at lower levels in the organization.

Learning and Growth 

How about learning and growth? How many managers actually use a job description to provide the employee with learning and growth feedback? Good job information actually describes the expected deliverables of the role. However, most managers (when they provide feedback) base it on the six or seven annual objectives for the role. Implicitly, the manager is considering how the individual did relative to the wider array of responsibilities for that role – but that is seldom discussed.

Talent Planning 

If only an organization could infer the talents attained by an employee by virtue of performing various jobs. That inventory of individual talents could certainly help identify the pool of talent available for key jobs that require staff planning. Guess what? It exists – check out Encompassing Visions at encv.com.

Talent Assignment 

Most organizations rely on job postings to source internal candidates for vacant jobs. Some organizations attempt to identified and solicit preferred candidates for these postings. How much better would it be if an organization had preferred candidates for every job, based on fact-based credentials of the employees. If talents/skills/learnings /experiences acquired by employees based on jobs they have held could be documented and automated, the system could identify the best candidates for a vacancy. Again, this process exists – check out Encompassing Visions at encv.com.

THE SOLUTION:

Encompassing Visions has invented a more efficient way to collect Job Data. An online, multiple-choice, Job Analysis Questionnaire that collects job information across 27 attributes of the job. The software technology enables storage, as well as, easy and efficient management of the job information to produce system generated job descriptions, recruiting tools and job evaluations. Job Data is also used in Learning and Growth, Talent Assignment and Talent Planning modules (see Encompassing Visions at encv.com).

The time and effort invested in collecting job information can yield corporations/ organizations significant returns when harnessed to technology; and will improve HR processes.