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Writing Job Descriptions for Legal Compliance and Organizational Development Results

Guest post by: Jessica Ollenburg

Article Overview: A well-crafted job description continues to boost productivity and cost-efficiency. Now, more than ever, this instrument is essential to legal compliance and risk management, especially associated with ADA, FLSA and EEOC initiatives.

Writing Job Descriptions for Legal Compliance and Organizational Development Results

Templates exist for best practices job descriptions. Some templates hit the mark and others fall short. Our article outlines the minimum goals to be attained by job description creation as well as some helpful guidelines to writing a custom description. Rarely can an organization pull a job description "off the shelf" from another organization and apply it without essential modification. Consider a job description model only a starting point and invest the effort into customizing the instrument to your organization and your unique job. The exercise of doing so offers value in itself.

For starters, let us explore the goals. A strong job description will...

• Serve as an effective tool for employee selection and orientation to specific position duties and evaluation criteria.
• Establish a training checklist for new hires or incumbent job changes.
• Provide a point-by-point quality of work itemization for performance appraisals and ongoing performance management.
• Document position goals and performance standards.
• Protect the firm from legal risks through written documentation of position requirements. Establish ADA, FLSA and EEOC compliance.
• Benchmark the position for accurate compensation scale review.
• Facilitate a merit-based compensation system by clearly identifying distinguishing characteristics between positions and position levels.
• Communicate recruitment parameters to safeguard the hiring process.
• Effectively distribute workload among team members to ensure organizational "right sizing."
• Manage legal risks in employment law by comprehensively documenting the position requirements and performance requirements.
• Allow team members to measure their own performances between formal performance appraisals.
• Establish individual accountability.
• Internally market the position to each relevant team member through controlled terminology and quick communication of the "keys to success" in the position.
• Enhancetraining and thereby minimize relevant turnover.
• Validate the need for pre-employment testing/screening toward legal risk management.
• Protect team members not selected for promotion from failure to understand selection decisions. Protect the company from challenged decisions.
• Assist supervisors with the performance appraisal system by providing written reminders of the goals and expectations actually communicated to the team members.

Job Analysis should involve both incumbent employees and their supervisors. Not only should the tasks and position goals be documented, but in crafting and weighting such considerations, the keys to success and risks of failure should also be considered. The consideration and the documentation of facts are two different things. The final product will be edited and filtered for content and purpose. As an example, we document what an employee is responsible to do to avert problems, but we do not necessarily document the potential problems themselves.

Typical categories of information include Job Title, Immediate Supervisor, FLSA Status, Mission/Summary, Essential Tasks & Responsibilities, Supervisory Responsibility, Job Requirements, Working Conditions, Physical Demands, Skills & Learning Goals, and Disclaimer of Management Ability to Modify. Some descriptions may include Department, Pay Grade, Work Hours, Location/Site Travel and more.

When crafting language, measurable benchmarks must be present to ensure the standards are meaningful and reliable. Legally compliant language is essential to ensure compliance and perception of compliance at every stage of employment. Desirable behaviors should be documented in detailed description. While somelabel behaviors as"soft skills,"successful leadership recognizes that behaviors drive results often more than skills do. Behaviors need to be measured both on the job and at pre-employment assessment. The HRS Assessment Center supports just that! Owning a characteristic is not as important at appropriately deploying that characteristic when it counts. In order to pay a bill, one needs not only to have the money but also to write the check.

Job analysis questionnaires, sample job descriptions, outsource assistance and more information are available from HRS. We wish you great success with your project!

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Article Tags: ADA, EEOC, Employment Legal Compliance, FLSA, HR, Job Description, Organizational Development



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