Job Descriptions

Throughout my college career I have only worked during the summers and when it came down to looking for summer internships job descriptions was the number one thing I looked at. This helped me to pick the best internships that matched my past experiences with their job descriptions and my personal interests. However, when it came down to find a typical summer job, I was more focused on earning money and not really what job seemed the most appealing to me. As a result, for the beginning of my college years I worked as a palletizer for a fruit packing warehouse that was relatively new and had rapid expansion throughout the years. When I first started of course I read the job description, but it was quiet broad with what tasks were required for the position. If you have worked as a palletizer for a warehouse the tasks are relatively the same stack the merchandise, wrap the pallet and move it to the designated pick up areas. As the company started to grow and expand throughout the years the tasks as a palletizer became more demanding and were beyond of what was first described. For example, sometimes palletizers had to drive forklifts and move pallets something that was not on the job description. In a work environment where every area of work is equally as important and they depend on one another, simply not doing a task that is not in the “job description” can stall the whole operation. Throughout the years the company didn’t update their job descriptions and as a result it led to confused employees and disagreements between employees in regards to which position had responsibility of completing a given task.

The obvious solution for this problem is for the company to update their job descriptions. I would suggest the HR department to hire an agency or a temporary consultant to analyze every work area and to revise the job descriptions for every company role. This may cost the company more money than doing it in house however, doing it this way removes the problem from the HR department and lets them focus on other tasks. Doing it this way can be beneficial for the HR department given that they already have a lot on their plate with a company that is currently going through rapid expansion and change.