The Importance of Job Descriptions

Creating and maintaining accurate and up to date job descriptions is one of the essential functions of HR. However, it is not the sole responsibility of the HR department, it requires input from everyone involved in getting the job done. As Kathryn Tyler pointed out, “creating and maintaining job descriptions should involve employees, managers and HR. Each person has a role, often with overlapping responsibilities”. Drawing from my own personal experience working as an HR manager in a small business, I know how important it is to get input from a variety of people when creating a job description. No one person can be expected to know the details of every job in the business, even in fairly small businesses. Thus, we always make sure to involve the person who is actually doing the job, their manager, as well as the HR manager.

Keeping those descriptions up to date can sometimes be a challenge because it often does not feel pressing. If you only use a job description any time there is a discrepancy or when you are hiring a new person then those descriptions are only getting updated on the fly and often do not have the full input of all the people that should be involved. Additionally, the times when job descriptions really need to be updated are generally times of significant change in the business. Often these are very busy times, especially for managers and the idea of taking the time to update everyone’s job description to fit the new way of doing things feels daunting.

On the other hand, there are also issues that can arise if you do not have up to date job descriptions. As Tyler pointed out, one serious problem that can occur with out of date job descriptions is when it comes to employment claims. “that nonupdated job description can do as much damage as a good one could benefit you” (Tyler). Keeping those descriptions up to date may not feel like a big deal until it is too late so it is better to update them preemptively.