Marissa Cuno

One of the biggest challenges I have seen from job descriptions is the physical writing of the position and how it is communicated. Normally the person recruiting for the position will struggle to write the position, then if that responsibility falls to human resources they struggle with capturing the job duties necessary. I recently saw a TikTok where a person was applying for jobs. They found one for a Scrum Master, but they had no idea what that was and the position description was no help.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRM5QMG1/?k=1

Another challenge is that companies aren’t regularly updating position descriptions. I have come across several instances where after a person leaves a company, their manager and peers don’t know all of the job duties they performed. Especially if a position has been held by the same person for an extended period of time. A majority of position duties change over time with advancing technology and knowledge. It may not always be an option to use the same position description the person before had, then again comes the struggle of writing a new description that I explained earlier.

A way to combat some of these challenges is to incorporate writing a position description in a yearly review. This would help clearly illustrate how a position evolves over time, ensure the manager and employee have clear expectations for job duties, and remove barriers for when the position becomes vacant in the future for any reason. It also makes employees and managers better writers as they have to regularly perform the task.