We learned in lecture that a Job Description is a written document that states the essential responsibilities and expectations of a job. The information included in the documents are job identification such as title, department, and position, a job summary explaining why the job exists, a task statement, competencies required to perform the job, physical demands needed, and the working conditions such as if is it outside in the weather elements of inside in an office. But what are the challenges in creating and maintaining job descriptions?

Once a job description is created, there isn’t anything further that needs to be done, right? Unfortunately, that is the truth for many companies and job descriptions aren’t viewed as a living document, but job descriptions shouldn’t be static documents. Regularly reviewing and updating them to reflect changes in the job’s description, expectations, and requirements should be part of the Human Resources practice. Not having a job description of having bad job descriptions can cause a company to perform at a lower level than they could be and on the legal side, if a company doesn’t keep their job descriptions up to date, an employee could file a claim against that company.

Annually or semi-annually reviewing job descriptions can help ensure accuracy. Additionally, engaging employees in the process of developing and updating job descriptions can be beneficial since the employee can provide valuable insights into the day-to-day realities of their job and ensure descriptions are accurate. Using a consistent format for all job descriptions, ensuring job descriptions align with the overall objectives and values of the organization, and in addition to technical skills, describing the soft skills and competencies required for the job, such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving abilities will all help create strong and clear job descriptions.

Overcoming the challenges associated with job descriptions requires a proactive and ongoing effort by the organization but organizations can create and maintain more accurate, useful, and relevent job descriptions that will benefit both employees and the organization as a whole.

Workday, Stryker, Southern Ohio Medical Center, and EY are all organizations listed in the 2020 Fortune Best Companies to Work For.

Listed at #5, Workday delivers financial management, human capital management, and analytics applications designed for the world’s largest companies, educational institutions, and government agencies.

Listed at #8, Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies and offers innovative products and services in Medical and Surgical, Neurotechnology, Orthopedics and Spine that help improve patient and healthcare outcomes.

Listed at #22, Southern Ohio Medical Center is a state-of-the-art, 233-bed, rural community hospital located in Portsmouth, Ohio providing a full continuum of health care services to their local communities.

Listed at #25, EY works across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax, and transactions to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets.

Regardless of where the organizations are on the list, they all have one thing in common: their employees say it’s a great place to work. 93% of employees at Workday say it’s a great place to work and that exercutives are very transparent, always around, and easy to talk to. Stryker employees state that leaders have a genuine interest in employees’ engagement and enjoyment of work. SOMC employees state that complaints and incidents are considered gifts to learn from and everyone is important no matter their position. Lastly, EY employees state the culture promotes excellence, creativity, innovation, and teaming.

Based on the employee comments and the Fortune survey results for each of these companies, their HR practices encourage engagement and commitment, show strong leadership and employee relations, and they prioritize continuous improvement which all lead to high levels of employee satisfaction. As a future manager, I am going to strive to be a leader that contributes to happy employees and positive work environment, but I do think a challenging part of that is keeping the line between being friends and being a manager of an organization. Another challenge is trying to do what is best for the employees while also following the instructions and policies set by upper management.