How to Review and Critique a Job Description Merces Consulting Group, Inc. Royal Oak, MI October, 2012 Merces Consulting Group, Inc. Job Description Review Guidelines A job description needs to be accurate, up-to-date, and a useful management tool. It serves as an understanding between the organization, employees and their managers about what employees are to be accountable for. The job description establishes expectations – and should be worded in such a way that expectations are as clear as possible. Job descriptions also serve as the foundation of the performance management process. Nothing should be on a job description unless we can evaluate performance on it, and anything that we can evaluate performance on should be in the job description. The best way to evaluate the quality of the job description is to actually use it to appraise performance. • If two employees who have very different levels of performance come out the same in your evaluation, something is missing in the job description that would serve to separate them. • If a poorly performing employee appears to be “fully functioning” after being evaluated on the job description, something is missing – either there are elements of the job that aren’t clear, or there is no standard against which you can measure performance. A quick way to see what’s missing is to say “why do I think this isn’t a good employee” and see what’s missing. The purpose of this exercise is to determine if the job descriptions are ready for use as a performance management tool, and if not, to ensure they are fixed and made more useful before the formal performance appraisal process begins. GENERAL STRUCTURE All job descriptions should have: Summary Description The Summary Description is one or two sentences that describe the basic purpose of the job. This should not include statements of how the job is to be done, skill requirements or anything other than simply the responsibility of the job. Think of this as the answer to a stranger’s question “so what do you do for a living?” Here is a critique of a “summary description” for an administrative position (numbers in brackets added as references): This position involves [1] varied complex and confidential tasks [2] essential to the efficient operation [3] of the organization’s administrative office [4]. Good judgment, self-motivation, and responsible decision making are essential in this position [5]. Working with minimal supervision [6], the Administrative Assistant provides [7] administrative support [8] to the Corporate Project Manager and Marketing/Promotion department of the corporation [9]. JJob Descrip ption Revieew Guideliines 2 [1] Typica ally start this summary y with “Responsible fo or” or sometthing like th hat… that iss, make it a direc ct sentence e. Here we are told wh hat the job w will involve, not what tthe job is. [2] “Varie ed complex and confidential tasks s” – this is a good phra ase, as it in ndicates the e overall complex xity of the work w (althou ugh at this point p we do on’t know w what those ta asks are, a and we should, but we hav ve to wait un ntil item 8 below). b [3] Avoid obvious sta atements, or o anything related to how the wo ork is to be done. All w work is expected to be don ne correctly y, efficiently, in a timelyy manner, e etc., so puttting it here is ssary. “Ess sential to the efficient operation” o iis not a function of the e job, it’s the e unneces reason someone s decided to create c the jo ob. [4] It is go ood to inclu ude the func ctional area a, if the job is specific to a functio onal area in n such a way thatt it makes a difference e. Here, it says s “of the e organization’s admin nistrative offfice” but later on we see tha at it is specific to a pers son and a d departmentt. Either re edundant orr inaccura ate. [5] This entire e sente ence relates s to how the e job should d be perforrmed and esssential requirem ments of the e person in it, and sho ould not be included. [6] “Work king with miinimal supe ervision” does give us an important characte eristic of the e job and should be inclu uded in som me form, bu ut can be do one more e efficiently. [7] Repea ating the title is unnecessary, it’s right above e this sectio on. [8] This is s the “furthe er explanattion” of wha at was first m mentioned in item [2] above, but is separate ed from the e qualifier fo ound there. Better language for [[2] and [8] w would be “a a variety of complex and con nfidential ad dministrativ ve tasks.” [9] Define es who the services arre provided d for. Mightt be unnece essary if the e role is deffined better in n the title. L Let’s try a re e-write, kee eping in min nd the comments abovve: “Res sponsible for f independently pe erforming a wide range of comp plex and confidentiial clerical and admin nistrative ttasks to su upport the Mark keting/Prom motion Dep partment.” ” T This is clear, concise, and gives the t reader a very quick answer to o what the jjob is all ab bout. D Duties and d Responsiibilities T This is the heart h of the e job descrip ption. It should be pre esented in a an organize ed “outline” form, n not a scatte ered list of tasks. The basic struc cture should d look like tthis: © Merces Consulting Gro oup, Inc. JJob Descrip ption Revieew Guideliines 3 1. State ement of responsibility y a. Task/dutty in supporrt of respon nsibility b. Task/dutty in supporrt of respon nsibility ement of responsibility y 2. State a. Task/dutty in supporrt of respon nsibility b. Task/dutty in supporrt of respon nsibility M Most jobs will w have between two and six res sponsibilitiess. Some m more comple ex manage ement p positions may have mo ore (but unlikely any would w ever h have ten), ssome very routine jobss may o only have one. o A “responsibility” is a single sentence d description of somethin ng the emp ployee in tthe job is ch harged with h completing g. For example: • “main ntains the operation o off the compa any’s netwo ork server” is a respon nsibility • “issu ues login pa asswords” is s not a resp ponsibility… … it is a taskk Y You can usually tell a responsibil r ity from a ta ask, becausse with a re esponsibilityy, it is natural to e expand the statement by explaining what it means, m usu ually with a series of le esser rresponsibilitties or task ks that are part p of the major m respo onsibility. F For example e, the rresponsibilitty noted ab bove might further be explained e li ke this: • Main ntains the operation of the compa any’s netwo ork server. o Loads up pdated netw work softwa are and enssures it is operating pe er standards o Performs s periodic maintenance m e on netwo ork hardwarre and softw ware accord ding to pre-estab blished procedures o Monitors hardware performanc ce and reco ommends p purchase off new hardw ware when req quired by ne eed for add ditional capa acity or to rreplace equ uipment no longer functionin ng o Provides s recommen ndations to manageme ent on pote ential upgrades to servver hardware e and softw ware. W Writing a se eries of sub b-bullets forr “issues log gin passwo rds” would simply be tthe steps re equired tto issue a lo ogin password, which is not appro opriate for a job descrription. The e reality is tthat ““issues login password ds” might be e considere ed a bullet u under “maintains the o operation o of the ccompany’s network se erver.” S Some good d tests of wh hether something shou uld be inclu uded in this section incclude: • • • • Can you objectiively evalua ate perform mance on the statemen nt? s unique u to th his job, rath her than som mething tha at is expectted of everyyone in Is it something the organization o n? Is the e item really y essential to performing the job? ? Is it something s that t should really be in n another ssection, succh as the se ection on know wledge and skills? © Merces Consulting Gro oup, Inc. JJob Descrip ption Revieew Guideliines 4 E EXAMPLE: This is a critique c of a list of duties and resp ponsibilitiess from an a actual job d description for a Medic cal Records s Technicia an, with com mmentary o on each item m. First notte that tthere is no distinction d between b responsibilitie es and taskks, the item ms are in no o order whatsoever, a and that the ey include ittems that should s be in n different p parts of the description n. The critiq que m may appearr harsh, butt is done to o deliberately highlight why certain things should, or sho ould n not, be inclu uded in a jo ob description. 1. Main ntains confid dentiality, security s and d standardss of ethics w with all med dical records inform mation. [C Comment: unclear u as to whethe er this referrs to ensurring that th here are policies p in place, or following f them t – if it is followin ng them, th he gist of tthe state ement is “ffollows pro ocedures,” ” which is obvious, b because alll jobs are supp posed to fo ollow procedures. This Th is not a an essentiial stateme ent.] ponsibilities s in accorda ance with C Corporate policies and procedures, 2. Carriies out resp including HIPAA A and state e/federal reg gulations an nd laws. [C Comment: s same as in n item 1 ve; all emp ployees sho ould carry out all res sponsibilities in acco ordance wiith abov polic cies and prrocedures and goverrnment reg gulations a and laws. It is appropriate to mention m what policies s or regulattions are b being follow wed in som me cases, so that it is understoo od what rulebook to follow.] f 3. Deve elop and ma aintain expertise of reg gulations fo or proper re elease of information. [Com mment: thiis is a state ement of th he knowled dge requirred to perfo orm the job b, not the duties d of th he job. Thiis should be b in the qu ualification ns section.] 4. Evalu uates inform mation to determine co ompliance o of the law. [Commentt: this is a valid task, k, not a resp ponsibility y, but is un nclear as to o what it m means.] e stamps alll requests and a highligh hts pertinen nt data to fa acilitate pro ocessing. 5. Date [Com mment: thiis is a little e specific, but b less so o for a clerrical job, w which is wh hat this appe ears to be.]] 6. Valid dates reque ests and authorizations s for releasse of medica al information accordin ng to estab blished procedures. [C Comment: this is a va alid statem ment of a re esponsibillity, indic cates that there shou uld be som me sub-bulllets (which h it doesn’tt have), an nd inforrms the rea ader that th his respon nsibility is performed d following g a set of guid delines.] 7. Retriieves medic cal records from EHR and hard ccopy charts. [Commen nt: this is a task state ement, tied d to a respo onsibility. Avoid abb breviations s or inside e lingo, eve en wherre you thin nk they willl be underrstood; if u used repeatedly, on tthe first use, spell it ou ut. Examplle: electron nic health records r (“E EHR”).] 8. Work k in a consc cientious manner m while e releasing medical re ecords in an n efficient, effec ctive, and accurate ma anner. [Com mment: sta atement off how the e employee is s supp posed to work, w and content c is redundant. r t. All emplo loyees sho ould work iin a cons scientious manner, and a all worrk should b be done eff fficiently, e effectively a and accu urately.] © Merces Consulting Gro oup, Inc. JJob Descrip ption Revieew Guideliines 5 9. Perfo orms quality y checks on n all work to o assure acccuracy of tthe release e, confidentiality, and proper p invo oicing. [Com mment: good thing to o include, but promp pts a questtion – “is th he employ yee perform ming qualitty checks o on their ow wn work, o or on the w work of othe ers? Makes s a big diffference, an nd is uncle ear here; es ssential th hat it be cla arified.] 10. May receive req quests inclu uding assistting walk-in ns and telep phone inquiries, and retrie eving inquirries. [Comm ment: be ca areful with h “may” – ““may” cou uld mean “iit is poss sible that” or it could d mean “th his is one w way it happ pens.” If itt’s only pos ssible that something g would ha appen, it prrobably isn n’t an esse ential part of the job. Here it’s relatively r clear c that itt’s describing a way that inquirries might come in th he doorr, although h the last phrase p is confusing.]] 11. Proc cesses invoices and maintains wo orking know wledge of exxisting state e fee structture. [Com mment: thiis contains s multiple items, i one of which iis a statem ment of dutties and the other o a kno owledge sttandard. By B definitio on, all emp ployees are e required to main ntain the ap ppropriate e amount of o knowledg dge for the tasks they y perform, so puttiing this he ere in unne ecessary. While it miight be obv vious to so omeone on n the insid de, the phrrase “proce esses invo oices” does s not prov vide much informatio on on the complexity c y or difficulty of the task.] t 12. Perfo orms day-to o-day admin nistrative ta asks such a as maintaining informa ation files and proce essing paperwork. [Co omment: simple s basiic stateme ent of a dutty.] 13. Notiffies HIM Dirrector if una able to adhere to dailyy schedule. [Commen nt: an emplloyee hand dbook type e statemen nt, not relevant to a jo ob descrip ption. All e employees s should be re equired to inform the eir superviisor if they y are unablle to keep u up with wo ork.] a comprehend simplle, healthca are/medicall terminolog gy. [Comm ment: 14. Abilitty to read and neith her a duty or respons sibility, should be a s statement in the qua alifications s secttion.] 15. Work k profession nally, effecttively, and efficiently e in n a team en nvironment with customers, mana agement an nd co-workers. [Comm ment: gene eral statem ment aboutt how the emp ployee shou uld work; could c be a part of the e “how the e job is don ne” part off a job desc cription tha at is used for f perform mance app praisal, butt does not belong in this secttion.] 16. Main ntains a nea at, clean, an nd professio onal person nal appeara ance and o observes estab blished dress codes. [Comment: [ : employee e handboo ok statement, all emp ployees mus st do this.] 17. Main ntains a clea an and orde erly work area, ensure es that reco ords and file es are prop perly store ed before le eaving area a. [Commen nt: potentia ially decep ptive statem ment. The imm mediate resp ponse is “employee “ handbook k statemen nt;” howeve er, this cou uld referr to a spec cific duty of an emplo oyee in this s job that iis respons sible for en nsuring the security s off the medic cal records s office. Sh hould be c clearly statted if this iis a spec cific job req quirementt or just wh hat is expe ected of ev veryone.] © Merces Consulting Gro oup, Inc. JJob Descrip ption Revieew Guideliines 6 18. Main ntains and operates o offfice equipm ment. [Com mment: all e employees s operate o office equiipment of some s sort;; very few actually a “m maintain” e equipmentt. If approp priate, shou uld describ be what off ffice equipm ment, and what “maiintain” mea ans. It’s liikely that “maintain” here mea ans “fills paper p tray,”” “changes s toner,” ra rather than “con nducts diag gnostic pro rocedures on o faulty m machinery and repairrs accordin ng to man nuals, inclu uding wirin ng, program mming, etc c.”] 19. Answ wers incoming calls. [C Comment: all employ yees answ wer incomin ng calls. T This may y be a recep ptionist fun nction in th his job, orr indicates that an em mployee in this job is i responsible for answering an nd routing g calls to otthers in the department.] 20. Perfo orm other re elated dutie es as assigned or requ uested. a. Demonsttrate behav vior of coop peration and d profession nalism whe en assisting g with other ass signed dutie es. b. Perform and comple ete special assignmen nts in a time ely, accuratte and orga anized manner. c.. Demonsttrate ability to adapt to o change in n workload a and assignments. [Com mment: the requirem ment of “otther related d duties” o or “anythin ng else as assig gned” sho ould be und derstood for fo all jobs,, but is freq quently inc cluded to m make a poin nt. The bulllets follow wing the sta atement arre employe ee handbook items.] H Here is all of the content from the t task lis st above, a and how it w would look k properly fformatted: dates reque ests and authorizations s for releasse of medica al information, followin ng non1. Valid discrretionary es stablished procedures p . a.. Receives s inquiries for f requests s for releasse of medica al information through mail, electronic communication or in n-person co ontacts b. Evaluate es requests to determin ne complia nce with leg gal and reg gulatory requirem ments; deterrmines if release of infformation iss appropriatte c.. Date stam mps all requests and highlights h p pertinent da ata to facilita ate processsing and retrieval of information d. Retrieves s medical records from m electronicc health reccord (EHR) system and hard copy cha arts/files s medical in nformation to t inquirer in appropria ate format. e.. Provides f. Processe es invoices for informa ation retrievval, followin ng defined C Corporate p policy and state e fee sched dule guidelin nes g. Conducts s quality reviews of the e work of o other emplo oyees involvved in the re elease of medical informatiion [POSSIBLE DUTY Y, NOT CLE EAR IF AN ACCURAT TE MENT] STATEM h. Explains reasoning for denial of o requests for informa ation, provid ding inquire er with policy infformation or o describing g correct w way to reque est release.. 2. Prov vides clerica al and admiinistrative support s for tthe medica al records offfice a.. Answers calls to the e departme ent; providess response e or forward ds to other sstaff as ate appropria © Merces Consulting Gro oup, Inc. JJob Descrip ption Revieew Guideliines 7 b. Maintains files, proc cesses hea alth record rrequests an nd related p paperwork, makes copies, sends s faxes s and performs other b basic clerica al functionss as needed d. c.. Ensures that the wo orkspace is clean and free of deb bris or pape erwork; ensures all files are returned to o their securre locationss. d. Provides s additional as assistan nce and support as dirrected. [note: th his does no ot constitu ute a “revis sed job des scription;”” it simply organize es the thou ughts in th he original list, supple lemented w with what might be e considerred “obviou us” conten nt for a job b such as tthis.] T There were 20 items in n the original list. Of those 20, se even were cclearly statements of tthe g general way y in which employees e should worrk (including g the “all otther duties as assigne ed”), ffitting the “e employee handbook” definition. d Two, T and pa art of a third d, were qua alification ite ems. Of tthe remainin ng eleven, one was an n actual res sponsibility,, and the re emaining ten were taskks, or p parts of task ks. S Some statements (“atttends meetings,” “proc cesses pape erwork”) sh hould neverr appear in job d descriptions s unless the ey are spec cific and unique to a jo ob or a funcction. All em mployees w will likely a attend meetings from time t to time e, and we don’t d apprai se perform mance on “a attends mee etings.” O On the othe er hand, “attends state e and nation nal conferen nces in ord der to prese ent Corpora ate m methods or approache es” is a clea ar statemen nt about the e requireme ents of a job b. Rememb ber that tthe purpose e of a job de escription is s not to rep peat the em mployee han ndbook, or tto include e everything a person do oes. K Knowledge e and Skills s Required d T This section n should inc clude all knowledge an nd skill elem ments required in orde er for an em mployee tto perform all a of the responsibilitie es of the job, at a fullyy functioning g level. It D DOES NOT T d describe the e entry leve el requireme ents, or what qualifica ations mightt appear in a want ad or job p posting. Forr this reaso on, the word d “preferred d” never app pears in a jjob descripttion – some ething is e either needed or it is not. n It does not matterr whether th he knowledg ge/skill is a acquired outside tthe job, or on o the job. Whenever listing a sk kill, be clearr as to the level of the skill, preferrably h how it would d be applied. E Education – If there is s an educattion require ement, state e it clearly, e.g., “Bach helor’s Degrree with a major in Accounting A or Finance e. An altern native would d be “thorou ugh undersstanding of the ttheory and practices of accountin ng, typically acquired th hrough com mpletion of a Bachelorr’s d degree prog gram with a major or concentratio c on is accou unting or finance.” Do not list a de egree rrequirement unless the ere is either 1) a speciific major, cconcentratio on or area o of study) orr 2) the d degree is “s shorthand” for f some more m genera al body of kknowledge, e.g., “basicc level of re eading, w writing and mathematical skills typically acqu uired during g completio on of a high h school pro ogram” o or “advance ed verbal an nd written communica c ation skills, a and a highe er level of g general kno owledge ttypically acq quired in a college deg gree progra am.” © Merces Consulting Gro oup, Inc. JJob Descrip ption Revieew Guideliines 8 C Certificatio ons – List certifications c s or license es only if the ey are requ uired for the e job. If ccertification itself is not required, but a certifiication accu urately describes a levvel of skill, yyou m may use it as a an exam mple, e.g., le evel of know wledge of n network ope erations con nsistent witth a acquiring Microsoft M Windows Netw work Admin nistration C Certification. K Knowledge e of Laws/R Regulation ns/Policies s – State the e specific re equirementts and the d depth of kknowledge required. Each E organ nization sho ould have a “glossary” of what terrms like ““understand ding” “in-depth knowledge” or “ex xpertise” me eans, so tha at the terms can be ap pplied cconsistently y. To ensurre clarity, th hese statem ments can a always have e the qualiffier of “curre ent” to indicate tha at employee e have to maintain m their knowledg ge. Example: “Possessses thorou ugh kknowledge of current Federal F and d State laws s and regullations gove erning the e employere employee re elationship, and the way w in which h these are applied to the Corporration” N Non-educa ational kno owledge (“e experience e”) – Neverr simply ind dicate a certtain numbe er of yyears of exp perience. There T are various v reas sons. The o obvious on ne is that evveryone lea arns at a d different ratte. The sec cond, perha aps more im mportant rea ason, is tha at what an e employee le earns d during a sett number off years is based on the eir job and the way the ey are used d. What on ne e employee may m experie ence in one e year may take anothe er ten. It iss better to sstate a speccific b body of kno owledge, with a qualifie er. Instead of saying ““must have e 10 years o of superviso ory e experience”” (which isn n’t even a good want ad a statemen nt), it would d be better tto say “possesses h high level of superviso ory skill and expertise, including th he manage ement and d development of m multiple staff members s performing jobs of va arying respo onsibility an nd level, typ pically not a acquired in less than five years of progressiv vely greater levels of rresponsibiliity.” S Specific sk kills – State e specific sk kill sets in a way in wh hich it is eassy to measure whethe er the e employee possesses p the t skills, and if he or she s does n not, to be ab ble to expla ain exactly w what the e employee needs n to do in order to o prove abiliity with the skill. Manyy skills are important in a m medical env vironment in n order to be b fully func ctioning on a job, altho ough emplo oyees may not n need to be specifically y trained. For F example e, it is reaso onable for m many jobs tto have stattements ssuch as “mu ust be familiar with and conversa ant in basic medical terminology u used in ccommunica ating to patie ents. S Some skills are more general, g but it is imporrtant to be sspecific – “ccomputer litterate” is no ot a sstatement of o a skill. A statement such as “ability to use e Microsoft Word sufficcient to pro oduce ssimple corre espondence and basic c reports an nd docume nts” is a go ood stateme ent. List an ny sspecific softtware progrrams used, and the de egree to wh hich an emp ployee musst know how w to use tthem. If the ere are specific progra ams used in n a departm ment, list the em and the degree of e expertise ne eeded, e.g.., “employee must hav ve thorough h knowledge e of all the major functtions of X XYZ billing software, in ncluding the e ability to change c dattabases succh as fee schedules.” N Nature of Work W T This section n of the job description n includes a variety of items that will vary fro om job to jo ob. T These may include sta atements ab bout the lev vel of directtion (e.g., “w work is perfformed und der only limited guidance) or the complexity of the wo ork (e.g., “w work involve es extensivve research to d determine the nature of o the situattions encou untered, and d to determ mine an app propriate co ourse of a action”). A glossary off these term ms should be b develope ed for the C Corporation over time. © Merces Consulting Gro oup, Inc.
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