One challenge that I have personally experienced regarding job descriptions is that I was hired for a job in the medical field several years ago that I assumed was based off of the job description that was listed on the job search engine Indeed. This job description was briefly touched on in the interview process. When I actually started working there, I was then informed that certain things about the job description were no longer accurate. In reality, approximately half of the job description was accurate. This created some confusion for me and made me wonder why this was not kept up to date. Looking back I wonder if the human resources department at that company really kept their descriptions up to date across the whole company in general and if they realized how this may impact the company and the individuals who work there. I understand that for a lot of individuals, updating job descriptions may not seem like something deserves high priority status on a to-do list, but I think that regular updating of job descriptions seems like a great way to make sure that not only the right people are attracted to the job, but that those employees will feel like what they are asked to do at work is reflective of their actual job description. This idea is mentioned in Job Worth Doing: Update Descriptions (Tyler, 2013) by director of HR operations for Insperity, Janet Flewelling. Also mentioned is the hypothetical situation in which an employee’s job description and actual work day don’t match. I have experienced this and I know that it can reflect poorly in the employee’s mind on the organization of the company. One way to make sure that job descriptions are updated on a regular or annual (at minimum) basis is to schedule this. It’s one thing to say that it “should” be done, but it shows more initiative to actually schedule these job description reviews and for this schedule to be visible to all of human resources and management so that everyone makes an effort to prioritize it.
