Who Does What?

“How do I know what needs to be done,” is not a reasonable excuse for delaying the task of defining job descriptions. If you, or the correct person below you, do not know what your people should be doing, how do you expect them to know?

In order to effectively delegate you must clearly define what people need to do. We have heard every excuse imaginable as to why people don’t accurately record job descriptions including, “the tasks change too rapidly”, “if they are really good we will want to give them more work”, and finally, “how do I know what needs to be done.”

The best way to define tasks is to carefully write down each step as it is done for each defined task. Find a logical starting point and a logical finish point for the task. Once you have written down what is done you may want to get together with staff and talk about how the process might be improved. Staff will often have great time and step saving ideas that improve efficiency and results.

The definitions can often be covered in one or two pages. They do not have to be huge books. Start with your critical complex tasks then work down to the simple ones. Defining one job a month for a year will cover most small businesses.

Part of the definition process is to define acceptable variances and to define how to fix issues once they fall out of an acceptable range. Include how the work will be measured. This may be spot-checking at certain times, going over summary reports or other methods. It is important to keep the process as simple and self-correcting as possible.

As a thought to keep your employment lawyer comfortable make sure you always include the following legal disclaimers. All descriptions and tasks are subject to change without notice. Nothing in this description is intended to change the relationship known, as employment at will between the employee and the employer. We suggest you check with your employment lawyer for exact wording in your jurisdiction.

The final step is to actually implement the job descriptions. The measurement and reporting should tie into periodic performance reviews. They also should be updated yearly.