Job descriptions are a holdout from the industrial age.They define the repetitive (non-changing) and static responsibilities of a job. So picture a manufacturing process that becomes more effective and efficient the more someone follows a strict set of procedures. This is an ideal environment for job descriptions.
But check out today’s work. The statistic is that 93% of today’s businesses are now service-based; much of manufacturing has moved offshore. Employees have moved from behind machines to face-to-face encounters with customers in the delivery of service. The result is that there is great variety and flexibility needed in each job.Customers want what they want and how they want it. It is up to the employee to perform a variety of tasks (not the same ones over and over) in order to determine which one or ones are needed at this precise moment to successfully complete what a customer needs and to deliver it in a way that inspires customer loyalty. Today, it is better to think of job activities instead of job descriptions.
A change to job activities is critical for two reasons:
1. It shares the range of tasks an employee will need to consider and to be proficient in to succeed in the job (already this reminds the employee of the need to be responsive and flexible).
2. We can look behind these activities to define the behaviors needed to successfully perform these activities.
Ultimately, we use job activities (and the behaviors the require) as a means to define the talents, skills and experience that an employee will need to have to be successful in the job. With a strict job description focus, we only look at skill and experience. We only look at the specific steps needed to be completed instead of considering the thinking, flexibility, personality and attitude also needed to complete the role – and all that the role may include. You can see how this can significantly change how you hire employees who better fit the role.
The most obvious example is in retail or a restaurant. The job descriptions of “wait on tables,” for instance, looks to create a one-size-fits-all approach. Waiting on tables requires a wide variety of activities including proper order-taking, providing recommendations, building personal contact, proper order processing, delivering food, processing payments, etc. Which, when and how each of these are done is ultimately up to the server as he assesses the situation. Following a rote set of steps provides the same approach to all customers – most don’t like this. And by reviewing the activities, we have greater insight into the abilities – talents, strengths and passions – needed by the employee to be successful handling these activities. This improves our ability to hire employees who fit.
Reconsider your job descriptions. Instead, identify job activities – all of the functions that a role may require – sometimes they are done, sometimes not – and include the required thinking necessary to know when and how to deliver these activities. This flexibility and awareness of all that is expected is how today’s best employees deliver service that inspires loyalty. And loyal customers not only come back, but they become your best marketing.
Update with the times. Create job activities, not job descriptions. Allow your employees the freedom to use which activity is needed at which time to improve their performance and response. And from job activities can come performance expectations – how to create job performance accountability (our next newletter and blog post).
Please to learn how to hire based on talents, strengths and passions in an easy-to-learn step-by-step process called our Fire Up! Process. We are hosting one-day workshops that will help you become proficient at attracting and hiring the right employees. We use job activities to help define the behaviors needed in each job.
fire up process, fire up your employees, industrial age, intellectual age, job activities, job descriptions
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 19th, 2013 at 8:44 am and is filed under For Managers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
