Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Say Goodbye To The Job Description
What is a job description?
A job description is a statement detailing what the job title is, what the job entails, what is required from the person employed and what qualifications are needed to be able to do the job. A person is employed to do the job specified, the employee follows what is set out in their job description, nice and straight forward, but rigid. You’ve probably heard of the phrase “jobsworth” Wikipedia describes a jobsworth like this:
"Jobsworth" is a British colloquial word derived from the phrase "I can't do that, it's more than my job's worth", meaning it might lose the person their job: taking the initiative and performing an action, and perhaps in the process breaking a rule, is beyond what the person feels their job description allows.
Have you ever met a “jobsworth”? I have many a time! One time I had to deliver an important item to a company, I was told that the person who it was for was in a meeting. I thought that would be fine as I would just leave it with this person to pass it on, oh no! This gentleman did not have it written anywhere in his “job description” to hold onto deliveries and refused! Luckily I found someone who was more flexible and I reported the not so flexible gentleman for being a moron!
There are many employees who use the “it’s not my job” get out card to never go the extra mile, these employees are not there to work on the mission at all and it’s heartbreaking.
For businesses to survive in such a fast paced world where technology is changing how we do things daily, having a job description, which in many cases is taken literally just wont hack it anymore. A job description can also limit an employees potential. The employee may be capable of contributing to a particular project, but it’s not in their job description, so they avoid adding their ideas or knowledge because they feel it’s better left up to the people of that department. A job description can discourage innovation because it’s structure doesn’t allow for innovation. What happens when the job description has to change? They can’t stay the same forever. When changes happen, the employee who lives and dies by their “job description” tend to become annoyed, they feel put upon because of the changes made, they may even refuse to do the new way of doing things, it’s not pleasant and can be frustrating for employers.
Perhaps it’s now time to say goodbye to the “job description” and have a job outline for the mission instead.
I know, Job outline for the mission is a bit of a mouthful, we could eventually call it a “job outline” but initially we need to emphasize how important working on the mission is. If all employees work on the mission, which will mean sometimes being innovative and doing something completely different, then companies will be more productive.
The job outline will be flexible, fluid, agile, some days doing more, some days doing less, some days it may even mean going into another department to give them a hand, because everyone is working on the same mission that means everyone will work together.
Because of technology jobs are changing faster than you can re write the job description, it’s about time to stop wasting time rewriting the job description and try a more agile approach!
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Julie Bishop Jobhop.co.uk
In:- Jobs