Writing Job Descriptions

No document is more important for an employee’s productivity and engagement than his/her job description (JD). Without it, an employee is likely to spend time on tasks and responsibilities which add little or no value to his/her performance or that of the organization. That is why, having a comprehensive up-to-date JDs is considered by most organizations a prerequisite for effective and sustainable performance

At Meirc Training & Consulting, we have been helping organizations produce fit-for-purpose job descriptions since 1958. In fact, some of the initial major consulting assignments which were exclusively handled by Meirc back in the 1960s and 1970s were the design and production of JDs for some of the major oil companies in the Gulf. That is why our competence in this domain is second to none in this region and why we are proud to be one of the few regional companies which has its own JD system with its corresponding job evaluation methodology. The system which Meirc uses follows a process made of the following 6 steps:

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The Process - Explained
1
Analyze organizational strategy, structure and existing JDs by going through the relevant documents and/or meeting with senior management

In Step 1, Meirc will focus on reviewing the organization’s strategy and structure and then meet with key stakeholders. The purpose of the review and the meetings which follow, is to understand the organizational culture and to determine drivers and likely obstacles related to the project.

2
Meet with JD project sponsors to determine the key objectives of writing or reviewing the JDs

In Step 2, Meirc will meet with the project sponsors to confirm the main reasons for the project and the key deliverables.

3
Decide on optimal job analysis method and the corresponding JD format

In Step 3, Meirc will utilize the information gathered from the first two steps to decide on the most suitable approach for conducting the job analyses, and the ensuing JD format. This step is critical in the long term because it will have a big impact on how the rewritten JDs get evaluated once they are done, and how the salary scale changes as a result.

4
Conduct job analysis for roles which require JDs

In Step 4, Meirc will proceed with analyzing the roles by meeting with role incumbents and/or their direct supervisors/managers. These face-to-face meetings are designed to gather a comprehensive understanding of the job being analyzed. At the end of the meetings, Meirc will have the content needed to produce the drafts for the required JDs.

5
Prepare draft JDs and share them with stakeholders

In Step 5, Meirc will compile all the information gathered from the job analyses meetings and then use it to produce a draft for each of the required JDs. These drafts are then shared with all stakeholders who will be asked to provide their feedback.

6
Review and finalize JDs

In Step 6, Meirc will utilize the feedback to produce the final JDs and then present them to the project sponsors.

The Deliverable

Each Job Description produced by Meirc will be presented on a single sheet of paper (double-sided). The purpose from the conciseness is to ensure that the document only reflects what is vital and value-adding, for both jobholder and organization. Below is an example of a template recently produced:

In preparation for our call

We strongly recommend that you have as many of the following inputs ready as possible:

  • The current organizational strategy documents including the vision, mission and strategic goals OR access to the senior management team accountable for delivering the organization’s results.
  • The existing job descriptions (if available) and access to role incumbents and their direct supervisors/managers.

The availability of the above will expedite the process of creating a custom fit proposal for your consulting need.

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