Job Description Management: Challenges You May Be Facing

Job descriptions touch every part of the total rewards process. They are woven into compensation, benefits, and bonuses, for employees. They help ensure the right people are aligned with the right roles within a company. And, they help answer the most basic question, “What does this person do?”.

Job descriptions are necessary for many reasons. Here are just a few:

• Pay equity and transparency

With a well-written job description, employees and candidates know that the compensation offered is fair (internally equitable, externally competitive, and transparently communicated). Plus, accurate job descriptions are the foundation for identifying comparable jobs during a pay equity analysis.

• Setting expectations

When the responsibilities, necessary skills, and success criteria of a job are defined and communicated, employees understand how to be productive in their role.

• Attracting qualified candidates

Detailed qualifications, skills, and experience needed help people decide if they are a good fit for the job.  The quality of your job descriptions makes a difference in the talent you attract.

• Performance management

Job descriptions provide a benchmark for evaluating employee performance, keeping the process fair and based on well-defined criteria.

• Communicating career progression

Giving your workforce access to published company job descriptions helps employees plan their professional growth, driving retention in the long run.

• Identifying skills gaps

With up-to-date job descriptions, employers can see where their current workforce may be missing needed skills. Training programs, recruitment strategies, and upskilling plans can be put in place.

• Legal considerations and compliance

Misunderstandings, regulatory fees, and potential legal disputes regarding job duties and expectations can be avoided when job descriptions are proactively communicated and acknowledged.

Job Description Management Challenges

As critical as job descriptions are to HR functions, managing them is not easy, especially in large organizations. Large companies can have many job titles, descriptions, and stakeholders. Some of the challenges faced by those who are doing the management (like compensation professionals and HR associates) include:

• Lack of ownership
• No stakeholder agreement
• Too many jobs
• No consistency/format across organizations or locations
• No central location or formal structure to maintain them
• No version control
• No formal approval process
• No historical audit trail

The Right Solution to Job Description Management:

If you are tasked with managing job descriptions in your company, you may feel like you are fighting an uphill battle. It does not have to be that way. Bringing in the right technology and expertise can help. From building standardized job descriptions to enabling manager approval and employee sign-off, the right solution can make managing job descriptions a breeze.

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Need a streamlined way to create, share, acknowledge, and track job descriptions …minus the manual work? Schedule a demo to learn more.