While reading  the materials and applying them to my own experiences, I am reminded of a job that I was employed at, for all of four days, until I resigned due to a lack of clear job descriptions. For myself, the biggest challenge that came along with not having a clear set of expectations were the constant corrections of my work, along with the never ending miscommunication between my boss, manager, co-workers and the person training me. It felt like people were constantly arguing over what I should be doing or learning, there were even points in my day when I would be told to roam the store while they discussed what I should be trained on. The main reason for  such lack of clarity shown in my job description was the timing of when I was hired and the point of evolving that the company was in at that time (Tyler, 2018). This particular company had gone through three changes in ownership over the course of 30 years and they still used the same training and job descriptions that were created when they initially opened, so it was all very outdated. With this business in a constant state of growing and changing, the terminology that was used to describe the position, such as the desired knowledge, skills, ability and job related licenses was no longer relevant to the tasks that were being asked of me once I actually started the position (Swift, 2022.  It was as if they had sold me on a job, had me sign the papers, then placed me in a completely different position than what I had signed up for. Lastly, the job analysis was not up to date on what it truly entailed. I think that this company would be much more successful in hiring and retaining employees if they collected data from their current employees on what their impressions the job description consisted of and then cross checked that information with additional data collected from the supervisors and what they expected from employees (Swift, 2022). After doing that, they would be able to develop an accurate and up-to-date job description and specific task expectations to present to potential employees that would put them in a position of being prepared for what’s to come and overall see more success in their work environment. 

References:

Swift, M. (2022, October). Job Analysis and Job Design. [PowerPoint slides]. 

Tyler, K. (2018, April 11). Job worth doing: Update descriptions. SHRM. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/Pages/0113-job-descriptions.aspx