Introduction
- Do you know what is expected of you in your job?
- How does your manager know what to discuss with you during your performance interview?
Your job description or position description provides this information.
A job description contains information about the job and helps you identify the skills and knowledge you need to be able to perform the tasks in the job. The information is often broken into two parts although it can be presented as one document. The skills and knowledge identified often form the basis of the selection criteria organisations use when deciding the best candidate for the vacant position. Competency profiling will help with this.
Job description terms
- A job is a collection of tasks and responsibilities that an employee is responsible to conduct. Jobs have titles.
- A task is a typically defined as a unit of work, that is, a set of activities needed to produce some result, e.g. vacuuming a carpet, writing a memo, sorting the mail, etc. Complex positions in the organisation may include a large number of tasks, which are sometimes referred to as functions.
- Job descriptions are lists of the general tasks, or functions, and responsibilities of a position. Typically, they also include to whom the position reports, specifications such as the qualifications needed by the person in the job, salary range for the position, etc. Job descriptions are usually developed by conducting a job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job. The analysis looks at the areas of knowledge and skills needed by the job.
- Note that a role is the set of responsibilities or expected results associated with a job. A job usually includes several roles.