How Do You Write a Good Job Description?

Excerpted from Complete Hiring and Firing Kit by Charles H. Fleischer ©2005

Once the decision to hire has been made, the employer’s very next step should be to prepare or update a job description. An accurate and complete written description of the job to be filled is an invaluable tool for many reasons. Some of the most important reasons are the following.

? It helps identify the skills and qualifications the employer should be looking for in a candidate.
? It provides a convenient reference for recruiting. It assures that all potential candidates receive the same information about the job.
? It provides a basis for determining whether the position is exempt or nonexempt under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage-and-hour laws.
? It informs candidates what will be expected of them if hired and it demonstrates to candidates that the employer is organized, businesslike, and professional.
? It provides a standard against which candidates can be compared with each other.
? It provides a standard against which a candidate, once hired and on the job, can be evaluated.
? It helps employers establish fair compensation ranges for various jobs.
? It provides powerful ammunition in defending later discrimination claims by identifying essential job functions before any candidates are considered.

This last point merits emphasis. In cases of disability discrimination, for example, the ADA requires courts to consider the employer’s judgment as to what functions of a job are essential. Consequently, courts generally will not second-guess the employer’s judgment, as long as functions identified as essential are job-related, uniformly enforced, and consistent with business necessity.

On the other hand, if the employer has not prepared a job description in advance, then the employer is much more vulnerable to a claim of disability discrimination. As the following example shows, courts will likely be skeptical of an after-the-fact employer determination that a particular function is essential and that rejection of a disabled candidate was justified.

Example: The manager at a truck repair shop in Ohio was diagnosed with lung cancer and took extended leave for surgery and radiation treatment. He returned to work about a year later, but his breathing remained seriously compromised. After being back on the job only a short time, the manager was discharged because, according to his supervisor, he was not physically fit to do the work. When pressed about this statement, the supervisor mentioned the need to lift and move batteries and tires weighing 150 pounds. At the time, the manager’s job was mainly supervisory, although his written job description did mention lifting (min. 50 lbs.). The manager sued under the ADA and recovered a jury verdict for $950,000. On appeal, the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict, ruling the employer had failed to establish that repetitive lifting of 50-pound truck batteries and 150-pound truck tires was part of the job. In fact, according to the evidence, such lifting was relatively rare, and therefore not an essential function of the job. U-Haul Co. of Cleveland v. Kunkle, 165 F.3d 29 (6th Cir. 1998)

Contents of Description
A good job description should contain the following elements:

? the title of the position;
? a description of the essential functions of the position—that is, the functions that the employee must be able to perform;
? a description of other functions that, though not essential, are normally or occasionally performed by persons holding the position;
? any skills the employee will need and any equipment or tools the employee will be required to use;
? any unusual aspects of the job, such as substantial overtime required, occasional overseas travel, or security clearance needed;
? a description of where the position falls on the company’s organizational chart—that is, the position to which the employee reports and the positions that report to the employee;
? whether the position is exempt or nonexempt under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage-and-hour laws; and,
? the date it was prepared or most recently updated.

Job descriptions might also state the method of compensation (salaried, hourly, commission, etc.) and the compensation range. An ending tagline such as and other duties as assigned is fine, so long as those other duties are not considered essential.

Minimum educational or other qualifications are sometimes included in job descriptions, such as bachelor’s degree required or three years’ experience needed.

Unless the employer can show that such qualifications are essential, they pose a danger of being discriminatory. However, if the qualification is essential, it should be stated in the description.

Employers should also keep in mind that jobs change over time. For example, the company’s products and services may evolve, duties may be eliminated or expanded, or technology changes may require new skills. A periodic review and updating of job descriptions is therefore essential.

Describing Duties
A number of companies sell commercially prepared job descriptions. A search for job descriptions on the Internet will return dozens of sites, some of which even provide descriptions for free. Another useful resource is the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, published by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. It is available from the Government Printing Office at http://bookstore.gpo.gov.

While these sources may be a helpful starting point, your job descriptions need to be specifically tailored to your organization. An off-the-shelf description that does not accurately describe what your employee will be doing is worse than no description at all.

A good job description requires job analysis—an in-depth study of the job. The analyst should interview employees who are currently performing the job, perhaps ask them to fill out a questionnaire, observe them at work, and interview other employees and supervisors who interact with the position being analyzed.

A draft description is then circulated to the incumbent and his or her supervisor for comment. At this point, the supervisor may want to suggest that the job be restructured by adding duties that the employee could be expected to perform or by eliminating duties that could be more efficiently performed by others. A final description is then submitted to management for approval.