Purpose

Job descriptions (JDs) clarify the responsibilities and requirements for each organizational role. They provide a standardized overview of the essential duties, qualifications, and expectations, allowing for consistent evaluation of roles across functions and levels. They help set clear expectations for incumbents. Proper management of job descriptions follows the principle of "write what you do and do what you wrote." In addition to being useful for organizational audits, job descriptions help justify resource allocation, including compensation, benefits, tools, training, and travel expenses, for each role. While job descriptions are created as internal documents, key information can also be adapted to generate externally facing job profiles and postings for recruiting purposes.

How to use this tool

HR will facilitate the job description creation process and offer guidance, but the responsibility for preparing drafts ultimately falls on the function or team manager. The manager is closer to the expected organizational benefits and reasons why an investment should be made in creating a new job or expanding the current scope of a job.