Tips for Writing Job Descriptions: Reducing the Legal Risk

Are your employee’s at your organization actually performing the tasks that are in their job description?  For most organizations, the overarching answer is, most likely not.  This is a problem and might not be the employee’s fault.   Job duties, responsibilities, skills, etc. change frequently.   Job descriptions that have inaccurate or missing information can cause poor hiring decisions, inaccurate rates of compensation, and legal liability for employers with the EEOC or the Department of Labor.

Tips:

• Schedule regular job description audits-Set up reminders to routinely review the descriptions of the positions that report in to you.  This will help you hire the right employees, manage their performance & can also help legally if needed.
• Perform job description audits at turnover or when duties change-  Audit job descriptions when positions are vacated or when duties changes.
• Ask yourself key questions as you draft or re-write job descriptions.  Consider what a successful employee would look like.  What skills are necessary? What is the true nature of your needs? Is this an existing position or new position to fill? If it’s an existing position, find out how the current employee spends their time and what are the main skills they use.
• Observe the job and seek input/feedback from the employee- Observe the job and seek feedback from the employee in the position when updating job descriptions.
• Write a draft first. Make sure it gives a proper idea of the responsibilities of the job.  It needs to be realistic & accurate.  Inaccurate information can cause legal problems like disability bias claims. If you don’t write a job’s essential functions correctly, then it is difficult to prove that certain disability accommodations are workable for the position.  Sometimes, certain accommodations can adversely effect someone’s ability to perform their core job responsibilities.
• Review the job description samples if needing assistance with job descriptions.  For members of HRandFriends.org, checkout the sample job description on the members only page.
• Hire an HR professional experienced in writing job descriptions- If needing professional HR assistance creating and/or reviewing job descriptions, there are vendors who can help.  Do a search for Job Descriptions in the HRDirectory.com search box.