Maintaining Job Descriptions
Sharon Chambers
Strayer University
Dr. Annette West
July 24 , 2011
Current Issue
The InAndOut, Inc., company provides warehousing and fulfillment services to small publishers of books with small print runs. After the books are printed and bound at a printing facility, they are shipped to InAndOut for handling.
The owner and president of InAndOut, Inc., Alta Fossom is independently wealthy and delegates all day-to-day management matters to the general manager, Marvin Olson. Alta requires that Marvin clear any new ideas or initiatives with her prior to taking action. The company is growing and Marvin expects to hire new employees within the next year to meet this growth. Job descriptions for the company were originally written by a consultant about eight years ago. They have never been revised and are hopelessly outdated. As a general, Marvin is responsible for all HR management matters. Since Marvin has to clear new projects with Alta, he needs to prepare a brief proposal that can be used to seek approval of new job descriptions.
Importance of Job Descriptions
Whether you're a small business or a large, multi-site organization, well-written employee job descriptions will help you align employee direction. Alignment of the people you employ with your goals, vision, and mission spells success for your organization. As a leader, you assure the interfunctioning of all the different positions and roles needed to get the job done for the customer.
According to Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Human Resources Guide, effectively developed, employee job descriptions are communication tools that are significant to your organization's success. Poorly written employee job descriptions, on the other hand, add to workplace confusion, hurt communication, and make people feel as if they don't know what is expected from them.
Foster
References: Farnham, D. (2000). Developing and implementing competence-based recruitment and selection in a social services department – A case study of West Sussex County Council. Heneman H. and Judge T. (2009).Staffing Organizations 6th Edition, Middleton, WI: McGraw Hill International Edition Mader-Clark, M. (2008). The Job Description Handbook- Everything You Need To Write Effective Job Descriptions- And Avoid Legal Pitfalls 2nd Edition Roberts, G. (1997). Recruitment and Selection: A Competency Approach. London: IPD.