Important reminders when building or modifying your position descriptions:
- Make sure your position title is not too vague or “creative”.
- When deciding on a title (if necessary), do some quick research to see what other businesses or universities are calling this job. This will make it easier to determine whether or not your employees are getting paid a competitive or fair rate compared to the rest of the market. A good resource for this is O*Net
- Appropriate job requirements
- When selecting the classification for your position, double-check the “Qualification/Knowledge/Experience Required” section. This area has the potential to be overlooked and should always be checked for accuracy before submitting.
- Ensure that the Physical Requirements section appropriately fits the position you are trying to fill. If a position requires that an applicant have a physical examination prior to being hired, the testing location will take these physical requirements into account and whether or not the applicant can meet them. If they are incorrectly listed on your job description, this could result in an otherwise excellent candidate not getting the position.
- Job Essential Duties
- This is the “meat” of your position description and is by far the most important part. Some important things to remember:
- Make sure your position summary is concise, yet describes the most important aspects of the job and what its role is within the university.
- When listing job duties, put a percentage amount next to each to show approximately how much time each week is spent performing this task or tasks. This is a new but vitally important addition to the position description building/modification process.
- Example: “Opens, sorts, scans, tags for response, and distributes all incoming and outgoing mail. (15%)”
- List the duties in order from highest to lowest importance (or frequency). They do not have to be numbered.
- Be specific. Some job duties, while essential, can be described in a very abstract or confusing way. Make a concerted effort to ensure that an applicant reading the position description can understand exactly the type of work that they will be performing.
- Example of a vague job duty: “Responsible for covering front office.”
- Set aside some time twice a year to review your existing position descriptions.
- Positions change or evolve now more quickly than ever before. Take some time once every six months or so to review your descriptions in relation to what each your employees are actually doing. Keeping your position descriptions up to date, even if you are not looking for new employees at the moment, will keep you from having to do a complete reconstruction when that time inevitably comes.
For any questions on this topic, please contact Charlie Baucum. Phone: 405-974-2669/Email: