Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Job Evaluation Guideline
Job Evaluation Guideline
Clearly defined and identifiable jobs must exist. These jobs will
be accurately described in an agreed job description.
All jobs in an organisation will be evaluated using an agreed job
evaluation scheme.
Job evaluators will need to gain a thorough understanding of the
job
Job evaluation is concerned with jobs, not people. It is not the
person that is being evaluated.
The job is assessed as if it were being carried out in a fully
competent and acceptable manner.
Job evaluation is based on judgement and is not scientific.
However if applied correctly it can enable objective judgements
to be made.
It is possible to make a judgement about a job's contribution
relative to other jobs in an organisation.
The real test of the evaluation results is their acceptability to all
participants.
Explanation:
Job Evaluation is concerned with measuring the demands the job
places on its holder. Most factors that contribute to this job pressure,
e.g. physical strength required, knowledge of mathematics required,
are assessed and the result is a numerical estimate of the total job
pressure. When evaluations are carried out on all hourly paid
personnel the techniques uses include establishing relative wage rates
for different tasks. It is possible to use it for all grades of personnel,
even senior management.
Illustration:
The Time Span of Discretion is an interesting and unusual method of
job evaluation developed by Elliot Jaques for the Glacier Metal
Company. In this method the job pressure is assessed according to the
length of time over which managers decisions commit the company. A
machine operative, for example, is at any moment committing the
company only for the period needed to make one product unit or
component. The manager who buys the machine is committing the
company for ten years.
References:
Job Analysis
Further reading:
Author:
Roger Edgell
Job Analysis
Job Analysis: BSI definition (33206) - the determination of the
essential characteristics of a job in order to produce a job specification
(BSI definition 32212).
Essentially the process of examining a job to identify its component
parts. The detail and approach may vary according to the purpose for
which the job is being analysed, e.g. training, equipment design,
workplace layout (GTT).
Rationale:
Illustration:
A job analysis for a Transport Manager would consider the road, rail,
sea and air responsibilities, the tonnage moved, the responsibility for
decision-making in breadth and depth, the amount of resources
controlled and so on.
Factor 1 Knowledge
Factor 2 Learning Experience
Factor 3 Judgement
Factor 4 Consequence of Error
Factor 5 Financial Responsibility
Factor 6 Responsibility for Goods, Tools, Equipment and Software
Factor 7 Supervision of Others
Factor 8 Contacts
Factor 9 Working Environment
Factor 10 Hazards
Factor 11 Dexterity
Factor 12 Physical Effort
Factor 13 Mental Effort
Factor 1 Knowledge
Degree Definition
Degree Definition
Elementary school or
equivalent training
to top
Up to 6 months
Up to 1 years
Over 2 years
Over 6 years
Factor 3 Judgement
This factor measures the requirement of the position to exercise
judgement in making decisions and carrying assignments within the
parameters and constraints of the position. (i.e., the choice of action
which is within the scope of the job duties)
Degree Definition
Nature of Situations
Typically Encountered
Differing in nature,
requiring search for
solutions among several
alternatives. (i.e., there
may be certain intangibles,
uncertainty or missing
information to assess and
consider.)
Requires President's Office and/or political debate to deal with the repercussions.
Degree
Definition
No responsibility.
Degree
Definition
No responsibility
Degree Definition
Coordinating and scheduling the day to day work of other workers or volunteers in the unit
and monitoring output, and/or
Providing functional supervision to others.
Employee acts as a supervisor or group leader of other workers or volunteers with
responsibilities such as scheduling and assigning work, training staff, providing direction,
checking work in progress and upon completion. This level has input into decision making for
all or some personnel matters such as:
making hiring or promotion recommendations
appraising the work of others
handling disciplinary matters
to top
Factor 8 Contacts
This factor measures the responsibility for effective handling of
personal contacts with students, faculty, other staff, members of other
organizations and with the general public. Consideration should be
given to the nature and purpose of such contacts.
The following characteristics of the work are to be considered in
selecting a degree:
Degree
Nature
Courtesy
Tact and
discretion
Communication,
Purpose A
Purpose B
To exchange/discuss
information in
accordance with
current policies and
technical practices
To clarify/exchange and
discuss information of a
detailed or specialized
nature requiring
specialized knowledge;
gain cooperation;
coordinate activities or
programs; mitigate
high tension or
emotional situations.
empathy and/or
sensitivity skills
Interpersonal
and
communications
skills
Factor 10 Hazards
This factor is used to measure the frequency of exposure to hazards or
safety requirements under which the work is performed. Refer
carefully to the Notes to Raters for the characteristics of the work to
be considered before selecting a degree. In general, consider the
following characteristics of work:
Degree
Exposure to Hazards
Factor 11 Dexterity
Notes to Raters
This factor measures the level of dexterity required by a job. The
levels of manual dexterity are determined by considering the elements
of hand/eye or hand/foot coordination. Movements can be either
coarse, medium or fine.
Degree
Consequently, it is now used by more organisations on a worldwide basis than any other single type of
evaluation scheme. Hay has over 1000 consultants working from 76 offices in 36 countries around the
world. In the British Isles, the HayGroup are working with over 1000 clients. Wherever the Hay Guide
Chart-Profile Method of Job Evaluation is used it employs a number of well tried procedures and rules.
Procedures
1.Jobs must be properly understood before they can be evaluated hence, good quality information is
required in the shape of job descriptions which make the content and context of the job clear.
2.Job evaluation is a judgmental, not a scientific, process thus every effort must be made to minimise
subjectivity. This is achieved by having people with knowledge of the sector, function or organisation
involved and by having a number of factors to make judgements about.
3.The task of the evaluators is to make consistent judgements and the use of the evaluation method is
the tool which enables this to happen.
4.Each evaluation is checked using the profiling techniques.
5.As patterns of relativities begin to emerge they are reviewed on the basis of reason and fairness
using the step difference and profile techniques to clarify judgements.
6.Each decision is properly recorded in order that the reasoning is documented for future use when
maintaining the scheme as jobs change, or dealing with appeals when job holders consider the
evaluators are at fault.
Rules
1.It is jobs that are evaluated not job holders.
2.The evaluation is based on a fully acceptable level of performance by occupants of the
job.
3.The job is evaluated as it exists today.
4.Present pay, status or grading are not relevant.
5.Jobs can only be evaluated if they are understood.
The Hay Guide Chart-Profile Method has been developed empirically over a period of 50 years and
has a number of key features:-
mental effort and responsibility. The Hay scheme is based on the analysis of three common elements,
each element being measured on a separate guide chart which is set out like a grid. The elements
are:* KNOW-HOW
The sum total of every kind of capability or skill, however acquired, needed
for acceptable job performance.
* PROBLEM SOLVING
*ACCOUNTABILITY
if, after some consideration, the difference is reasonably clear, it is probably two steps;
* if, after very careful consideration and scrutiny, a difference can just be discerned, then the difference
is one step;
* if, after very careful scrutiny and consideration, no difference can be detected between the element
in the jobs, then they are, for evaluation purposes, identical.
Profiling
The Hay scheme also has a facility for checking the soundness of an evaluation by considering the
shape or profile of the job. This is accomplished by testing the distribution of the three elements of
Know-How, Problem Solving and Accountability in the evaluation of each job to see if it makes sense.
Job Descriptions
Duty statements typically contain three parts: 1) the Verb, the Object,
and a Purpose. Examples of these parts of duty statements are shown
below:
Verb
Object
Purpose
Collects
financial data
Conducts
analytical studies
Compiles
enrollment data
Cleans
computer equipment
Drives
to job sites.
Overhauls and
repairs
equipment
daily, or as needed.
A form, such as the one below may help in identifying the necessary
information to create duty statements.
Worksheet for task statements
Who?
Performs what
action?
To whom or
what?
To achieve what
result?
Subject
Action Verbs
Object of
verb
Phrase
In order to...
the
worker
Task statement
What tools, materials, and equipment are used to perform the tasks in the
job?
What methods or processes are used to perform the tasks in the job?
What are the specific duties for the position? This puts the position in context
and spells out broad responsibilities.
What are the critical tasks and key result areas of the position? The question
helps to isolate the most critical activities that the position holder is expected to
perform.
What are the discrete outcomes of the job for which the person appointed
will be held accountable and evaluated on?
What behaviors, skills, knowledge and experience are the most important to
the program in achieving the key results and outcomes? This question focuses
on the specific personal qualities that are necessary to best meet the job
requirements.
1. Mental Functions
a. COMPARING - Judging the readily observable functional, structural, or
compositional characteristics (whether similar to or divergent from
obvious standards) of data, people, or things.
b. COPYING - Transcribing, entering, or posting data.
c. COMPUTING - Performing arithmetic operations and reporting on and/or
carrying out a prescribed action in relation to them.
d. COMPILING - Gathering, collating, or classifying information about data,
people, or things. Reporting and/or carrying out a prescribed action in
relation to the evaluation is frequently involved.
e. ANALYZING - Examining and evaluating data. Presenting alternative
actions in relation to the evaluation is frequently involved.
f. COORDINATING - Determining time, place, and sequence of operations
or action to be taken on the basis of analysis of data. May include
prioritizing multiple responsibilities and/or accomplishing them
simultaneous-ly.
g. SYNTHESIZING - To combine or integrate data to discover facts and/or
develop knowledge or creative concepts and/or interpretations.
2. Relations with Others
a. SUPERVISION (given) - Coordinating and directing the activities of one
or more subordinates.
b. SUPERVISION (received) - Independence of actions; authority to
determine methods of operation.
c. NEGOTIATING - Exchanging ideas, information, and opinions with
others to formulate policies and programs and/or jointly arrive at
decisions, conclusions, solutions, or solve disputes.
d. COMMUNICATING - Talking with and/or listening to and/or signaling
people to convey or exchange infor-mation; includes giving/receiving
assignments and/or directions.
e. INSTRUCTING - Teaching subject matter to others, or training others
through explanation, demonstration, and supervised practice; or making
recommendations on the basis of technical disciplines.
f. INTERPERSONAL SKILLS/BEHAVIORS - Dealing with individuals
with a range of moods and behaviors in a tactful, congenial, personal
manner so as not to alienate or antagonize them.
g. CONTROL OF OTHERS - seizing, holding, controlling, and/or otherwise
subduing violent, assaultive, or physically threatening persons to defend
oneself or prevent injury. Body strength and agility of all four limbs is
necessary.
3. Physical Demands (strength)
a. SEDENTARY - Exerts up to 10 lbs. of force occa-sionally and/or a
negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push,
pull, or otherwise move objects, including the human body. involves
sitting most of the time, but may involve walking or standing for brief
periods of time.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Contents
[hide]
1 Purpose
2 Methods
3 Results
4 Systems
5 References
[edit] Purpose
The general purpose of job analysis is always to understand the
requirements of a job. However, there is generally a specific purpose
that has a profound effect on the job analysis.
In the fields of Human Resources (HR) and Industrial Psychology, job
analysis is often used to gather information for use in personnel
selection, training, classification, and/or compensation.
The field of vocational rehabilitation uses job analysis to determine the
physical requirements of a job to determine whether an individual who
has suffered some diminished capacity is capable of performing the job
with, or without, some accommodation.
Professionals developing certification exams use job analysis (often
called something slightly different, such as "task analysis") to
determine the elements of the domain which must be sampled in order
to create a content valid exam. When a job analysis is conducted for
[edit] Methods
There are several ways to conduct a job analysis, including: interviews
with incumbents and supervisors, questionnaires (structured, openended, or both), observation, and gathering background information
such as duty statements or classification specifications. In job analysis
conducted by HR professionals, it is common to use more than one of
these methods. For example, the job analysts may tour the job site
and observe workers performing their jobs. During the tour the analyst
may collect materials that directly or indirectly indicate required skills
(duty statemenets, instructions, safety manuals, quality charts, etc).
The analyst may then meet with a group of workers or incumbents.
And finally, a survey may be administered. In these cases, job analysts
typically are industrial psychologists or have been trained by, and are
acting under the supervision of, an industrial psychologist.
In the context of vocational rehabilitation, the primary method is direct
observation and may even include video recordings of incumbents
involved in the work. It is common for such job analysts to use scales
and other apparatus to collect precise measures of the amount of
strength or force required for various tasks. Accurate, factual evidence
of the degree of strength required for job performance is needed to
justify that a disabled worker is legitimately qualified for disability
status. In the United States, billions of dollars are paid to disabled
workers by private insurers and the federal government (primarily
through the Social Security Administration). Disability determination is,
therefore, often a fairly "high-stakes" decision. Job analysts in these
contexts typically come from a health occupation such as occupational
or physical therapy.
Questionnaires are the most common methodology employed by
certification test developers, although the content of the
questionnaires (often lists of tasks that might be performed) are
gathered through interviews or focus groups. Job analysts typically
operate under the supervision of a psychometrician.
[edit] Results
Job analysis can result in a description of common duties, or tasks,
performed on the job, as well as descriptions of the knowledge, skills,
[edit] Systems
The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) lists job requirements for a
very large number of jobs and is often considered basic, generic, or
initial job analysis data. Data available from the DOT includes physical
requirements, educational level, and some mental requirements.
The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a well-known job analysis
method. Although it is labeled a questionnaire, the PAQ is actually
designed to be completed by a trained job analyst who interviews the
subject matter experts (e.g., job incumbents and their supervisors).
Functional job analysis (FJA) was developed by Sidney Fine between
1950 and 1960 as a reaction against task-based questionnaires. This
method involves extensive discussion with focus groups of subject
matter experts
Skills-based job analysis is a reaction to task-based job analysis. In a
task-based job analysis, data are gathered about the tasks performed
by the job incumbents. Typically, subject matter experts rate long lists
The Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ) is targeted toward both exempt and
nonexempt jobs. It has five sections: (1) Background, (2) Contacts with People, (3)
Decision Making, (4) Physical and Mechanical Activities, and (5) Work Setting. The
Background section asks 41 general questions about work requirements such as travel,
seasonality, and licensure requirements. The Contacts with People section asks 62
questions targeting level of supervision, degree of internal and external contacts, and
meeting requirements. The 80 Decision Making items in the CMQ focus on relevant
occupational knowledge and skill, language and sensory requirements, and managerial
and business decision making. The Physical and Mechanical Activities section contains
53 items about physical activities and equipment, machinery, and tools. Work Setting
contains 47 items that focus on environmental conditions and other job characteristics.
The CMQ is a relatively new instrument. It has been field tested on 4,552 positions
representing over 900 occupations in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), and
yielded reasonably high reliabilities. (Harvey, 1993)
Fleishman Job
Analysis
Survey
Functional
Job Analysis
Scales
Beginning in the 1940s, Functional Job Analysis (FJA) was used by U.S. Employment
Service job analysts to classify jobs for the DOT (Fine & Wiley, 1971). The most recent
version of FJA uses seven scales to describe what workers do in jobs: (1) Things, (2)
Data, (3) People, (4) Worker Instructions, (5) Reasoning, (6) Math, and (7) Language.
Each scale has several levels that are anchored with specific behavioral statements and
illustrative tasks. Like other job analysis instruments, FJA is a methodology for collecting
job information. While it was used for many years as a part of the DOT, the Department
of Labor is replacing the DOT with O*NET and will not be using FJA in O*NET. There is
no current database of jobs (other than the DOT) containing FJA data for jobs in the
national economy.
MOSAIC
Occupational
Analysis
Inventory
(OAI)
The Occupational Analysis Inventory (OAI) contains 617 "work elements." It was
designed to yield more specific job information than other multi-job questionnaires such
as the PAQ while still capturing work requirements for virtually all occupations. The
major categories of items are five-fold: (1) Information Received, (2) Mental Activities,
(3) Work Behavior, (4) Work Goals, and (5) Work Context. OAI respondents rate each job
element on one of four rating scales: part-of-job, extent, applicability, or a special scale
designed for the element. The OAI has been used to gather information on 1,400 jobs
selected to represent five major occupational categories. Reliabilities obtained with the
OAI have been moderate, somewhat lower than those achieved with the PAQ.
Position
Analysis
Questionaire
(PAQ)
Work
Profiling
System
(WPS)
Saville & Holdsworth's Work Profiling System (WPS) is designed to help employers
accomplish human resource functions. The job analysis is designed to yield reports
targeted toward various human resource functions such as individual development
planning, employee selection, and job description. There are three versions of the WPS
tied to types of occupations: managerial, service, and technical occupations. The WPS is
computer-administered on-site at a company. It contains a structured questionaire which
measures ability and personality attributes in areas such as Hearing Skills, Sight, Taste,
Smell, Touch, Body Coordination, Verbal Skills, Number Skills, Complex Management
Skills, Personality, and Team Role. Saville & Holdsworth aggregates information
provided by users into a database when users make those data available. Saville &
Holdsworth does not require WPS users to submit their data.
Current Occupational
Analysis Systems
CATEGORY/ENUMERATIVE SYSTEMS
ISCO-88
The ISCO system uses two key concepts: job and skill. Job is
defined as "a set of tasks and duties executed, or meant to be
executed, by one person." Skill is defined as "the ability to carry out
the tasks and duties of a given job." Operationally, four levels of skill
are defined, entirely in terms of achieved education. The lowest level
approximates primary school (about sixth grade in United States), the
second approximates secondary school (about the twelfth grade in
United States) but includes apprenticeships, the third approximates
college education but not obtaining a degree, and the fourth includes
undergraduate and graduate college education (International Labour
Office, 1990:2-3).
ISCO-88 has superseded ISCO-68 and has become the model for new national
classifications in many countries, even those with previously existing systems.
Levels of reliability of classifying occupations into ISCO categories remain fairly
low, at 75 percent for the most detailed levels of categorization (about 350
categories).
Aggregating to higher levels of categorization improves the correspondence of
across-nation coding (aggregation to about the "submajor" level in ISCO-88
terms).
International comparability of ISCO-88 results is improved through technical
assistance to participating countries in the use of the system.
Australia
The Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO) uses
the same concepts of skill level and skill specialization as does ISCO88 and has eight major groups, 52 minor groups, 282 unit groups, and
1,079 occupations. An occupation is defined as a set of jobs with
The Netherlands
The Netherlands Standard Classification of Occupations 1992
(NSCO'92) also classifies occupations by skill level and specialization,
but it differs primarily in its operational definition of those concepts.
This system uses the "most adequate training program, that is the
training program that best prepares for the tasks and duties in the job"
(Bakker, 1993:273) as the method to identify skill level and
specialization for each job. To do this, the Netherlands Standard
Classification of Education is used as the basic information to conduct
the coding. Skill specialization coding is made according to the major
(and minor) educational sectors in the Netherlands, e.g., agriculture,
mathematics and natural sciences, and language and culture. Skill
level is coded with a five-point scale that combines formal education
and length of on-the-job experience. Beyond these higher-level criteria
for coding, they include two interesting concepts: main tasks and
specific skills. If level and specialization are not adequate, then a list of
128 main tasks is used to differentiate the occupation. Examples of
these 128 "task clusters" include "managing supervisors and decisionmaking general policy," "check, inspect, examine, verify, test, sort,"
and "navigate a ship." If still further differentiation is needed, then a
list of 11 specific skills are used (e.g., quantitative skills defined as
activities in which it is important to perform calculations; serviceability
defined as activities in which it is important to render service to other
people). These concepts are similar to the "generalized work activities"
and "basic and cross-functional skills" included in the Occupational
Information Network (O*NETTM), the Department of Labor's
replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. In operation, the
five skill levels crossed with the 13 major skill specializations produce
43 occupational "classes."1 With the invocation of minor skill
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom replaced two earlier classification systems, the
Classification of Occupations and Dictionary of Occupational Titles
(CODOT) and the 1980 version of the Classification of Occupations
(CO80) with its Standard Occupational Classification. This effort was
coincident with the revision of ISCO-68, so an effort was made "to
achieve the closest feasible harmonization" between the British SOC
and ISCO-88 (White, 1993). Beginning with the 350 entities in the
1980 Classification of Occupations, modifications were made to fit with
ISCO classification criteria. These new code groups were tried out
against data from the 1981 census of population and a sample of job
vacancies sent to job centers. The resulting structure had 9 major
groups, 22 submajor groups, 77 minor groups, and 371 occupational
unit groups.
Canada
Canada replaced its Canadian Classification and Dictionary of
Occupations (CCDO) in 1991 with "two classifications described as the
National Occupational Classification and the Standard Occupational
Classification" (Nijhowne and Silver, 1993). The two classifications
share a common framework: a hierarchical structure with 514 "unit"
groups and 139 "minor" groups in common. The minor groups are
organized into 47 major groups in the Standard Occupational
Classification (SOC 1991) and into 26 major groups in the National
Occupational Classification (NOC 1991). Both have 10 broad
occupational categories at the top of the hierarchy.
The SOC 1991 is primarily used for enumeration purposes (e.g., for
the Canadian census coding of occupations). The 514 unit groups are
described in terms of the principal tasks and duties of the jobs in the
unit group. The NOC 1991 also contains other characteristics of the
group, such as educational requirements, consistent with its purpose
of classifying and describing occupations for labor market transaction.
The titles shown as examples are generally the same for the two
systems, "but some are unique to each classification" (p. 305).
Regarding the military, the SOC 1991 includes just two groups,
commissioned officers and other ranks. The NOC 1991 has these two
groups, but they include only those military jobs that do not have a
estimate pay rates based on normative wage data for similar jobs in
the U.S. economy.
The PAQ has been widely used by human resource professionals
and researchers. It has spawned a substantial body of research
studies. Major advantages of the instrument include its broad
applicability across occupations and availability of the normative
database. Numerous criticisms have also been raised by reviewers,
including its advanced reading level (a college graduate reading level is
required, according to Ash and Edgell, 1975), its content geared too
heavily toward manufacturing occupations for an instrument that
purports to apply to all jobs (DeNisi et al., 1987), and results that are
too general in nature to specify the type of work actually done in a job.
In response to the criticism that the PAQ is too heavily weighted
toward blue-collar occupations, in 1986 the PAQ's authors introduced a
second worker-oriented instrument called the Professional and
Managerial Position Questionnaire (PMPQ). Designed for analysis of
managerial, scientific, technical, and staff jobs, the PMPQ consists of
98 items assessing 6 job functions (planning/scheduling, processing of
information and ideas, exercising judgment, communicating,
interpersonal activities and relationships, and technical activities),
personal requirements (e.g., education and training required), and
other information (e.g., personnel supervised). As with the PAQ,
computerized scoring services and normative data are also available
for the PMPQ.
car, van, or light truck. Items are rated on scales of time spent,
importance, and effect of poor performance. Part two, job context,
addresses 28 topics, such as education, training, and experience levels
needed to perform the job, responsibility for financial resources, types
of interpersonal contact, and job-related travel.
Goals for the system include providing an integrated and userfriendly system for job analysis and providing a knowledge base that
can serve as the basis for matching people to jobs. Worker attributes
are inferred from task ratings using an expert system derived from
ratings of attribute-task linkages provided by experienced occupational
psychologists. In addition to person-job match, this information base is
intended to support such human resource applications as job
descriptions, job classification, performance appraisal criteria, job
design, and human resource planning.
As is the case with the CMQ, the WPS is a recent product that does
not yet have a substantial professional literature concerning its usage.
Its objectives as stated by its developers are ambitious, providing a
comprehensive methodology for building human resource systems.
Note
Not 65, as might be expected, since some of the possible cells are not used
because of inadequate sample sizes for purposes of statistical reporting. A
lower bound of 5,000 job incumbents in the population was set for inclusion of
an occupation.
1
job descriptions (and job analysis) are, their uses and applications,
and how they can be used to improve performance.
Reporting/Record Keeping
( ) What records or reports are you accountable for?
( ) For whom and what purpose are they kept?
Supervisory Responsibilities
( ) Do you supervise other employees?
( ) If yes, how many and what are their job titles?
If you were promoted, what type of educational training, job-related
experience or other abilities would your replacement need? How much
time would be needed for the training or experience (6 months, 1
years, 2 years, etc.)?
While most answer this questionnaire seriously, periodically someone
will break the monotony of seeing "how important" various job are by
listing, "Primary Responsibility = Making coffee." "Why does your job
exist? = Because I'm the only one willing to do it." "Who supervises
you? = Everybody." "How long would it take to train a replacement? =
Regular coffee, 1 day; decaf, 1 day; espresso, 2 years plus a B.A. in
coffee management and grounds."
Do not be surprized if some employees, especially in a large company,
do not know who their supervisor is. It's one of the reasons the
question is put at the top of the form. And, the answer or lack of an
answer sometimes points to real management problems such as whu
performance reviews are six month late in being done.
Also, do not be surprized if the responsibilities listed are different than
the perception of the job by a supervisor or manager. Quite often we
find employees assuming responsibilities and authority which is not
theirs: it's how mini-empires are built.
We actually look for such inconsistencies, and when time permits we
do so by have the immediate supervisor answer the same
questionnaire for the position, then compare the answers.
How long does it take to "do" a job description? The employee and
supervisor may take up to an hour (sometimes more) to write a
meaningful job description. When we do have supervisors writing
descriptions for all subordinates, we often give as much as two weeks
So, what's a job description look like when it's done? I am only going
to reproduce one here, this from a bank, used because banks are so
nicely structured and have such a great history of having descriptions.
But, it should be noted that the job description adds order, if not more
structure, to structure...and that's not bad in a chaotic world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------POSITION: SENIOR ACCOUNTANT Rev. 8/31/95 REPORTS TO: VP
Controller
PRIMARY FUNCTION: External reporting including SEC forms 10Q &
10K, OTS TFR, and the Bank's audited financial statements. Maintains
the Bank's departmental budgeting system. Performs complex month
close procedures including testing interest income and expense
reasonableness and accounting for MBS investments. Performs special
projects as assigned.
A. Departmental Responsibilities
Operational Accounting
a. Performs monthly interest income and expense reasonableness
tests.
b. Accounts for monthly P&I payments on mortgaged-backed
securities.
c. Updates monthly departmental budget templates.
d. Reviews fixed asset schedules quarterly.
e. Reviews monthly back reconciliations.
f. Reviews month-close procedures and performs a detailed analytical
review.
g. Updates operating expense budget bi-monthly.
Financial Reporting
a. Conducts quarterly TFR reporting.