How to use your job descriptions in your strategic plan
Most HR professionals look at job descriptions as a summary of tasks for which the employee is responsible, focusing on ensuring that the employee understands what is expected of them on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. These job descriptions can be vague and broad, allowing management to assign any task to the employee as part of their job duties, or they can be highly detailed and specific, to the point that a reasonable employee will assume that the document contains the entirety of tasks for which they are responsible. However, good job descriptions serve a key organizational strategy role. Viewed collectively, they are a framework for you to ensure that your company has effectively laid the groundwork to meet its current objectives.
Here’s a simple example: Store A’s objective is to sell 1000 widgets a month. To meet this goal, Store A must ensure that the following job responsibilities are accomplished:
Finance function (internal controls, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc.)
Lead generation (creating and placing ads, promotional campaigns, networking, etc.)
Sales (telemarketing, following up on warm leads, meeting with prospective customers, closing deals, etc.)
Customer Service (product satisfaction surveys, troubleshooting, ticketing repair requests, etc.)
Management (ensuring that people are doing their jobs, inventory management, facilities management, etc.)
Compliance and quality control (regulatory compliance, conformance with industry guidelines, etc.)
Human Resources (recruiting, employee relations, labor law compliance, benefits administration, strategic planning, etc.)
Within each of the functions above are multiple subfunctions all of which must be performed to ensure the core function is has no weaknesses. For example, the finance subfunction of payroll includes keeping time sheets, collecting W-4s, issuing W-2s, collecting and storing direct deposit information, setting a specific payroll cycle, ensuring there is money to cover payroll on each payroll date, paying employees, etc.).
These functions may be performed by one employee—the business owner, they may be spread over five employees or perhaps 50-500 employees. As tasks get spread across a larger number of employees, the job descriptions should become a lot more specific to ensure that everything that needs to be done to ensure that Store A sells 1000 widgets per month is identified in at least one job description, with a corresponding oversight responsibility in another job description. This means that when someone looks at all the job descriptions in your company they should be able to identify every single thing that must be done for your company to meet its current objectives. Unfortunately this is rarely the case. There are two reasons companies are usually remiss in this area. 1. Each manager prepares the job descriptions for their subordinates and each has a different style or mentality about what a job description should look like, or more commonly 2. HR prepares all the job descriptions without fully understanding the role that each person is stepping into or the tasks that they will need to perform to accomplish the role’s objectives. When responsibilities are overlooked, it’s unlikely the company will meet its objectives.
A comprehensive evaluation of job descriptions requires HR to work hand-in-hand with management and the C-Suite to fully understand what the company wants to achieve, and the tasks that must be completed to attain that end. Too often, executives and managers set goals by implementing performance requirements without thinking through what employees need to meet those benchmarks. For example, if Store A’s goal this year is to have each salesperson increase sales from 80 widgets per month to 100 widgets a month, then they need to ensure that there is sufficient inventory on hand, sufficient lead-flow or other business development effort in place and a task breakdown for the salesperson to meet this requirement. If Store A has a 10% closing ratio on warm leads, they need to ensure that each sales person receives 1000 leads per month so they can meet the company goal of selling 100 widgets per month. If Store A does not raise the bar on lead generation efforts including investing in additional advertising, then their annual goal is meaningless, and will likely result in diminished employee morale within the sales team, likely resulting in turnover, workplace dissatisfaction, and lower closing ratios.
