My husband recently came to work where I work, as a Production Supervisor. He has no job description - the specific position is relatively new and management isn't completely sure what his scope of responsibilities are (beyond getting good parts out the door). This has been a huge source of frustration for him.
Bingo - you've put your finger right on it. It's incredibly frustrating for someone if they don't actually know what they're supposed to be doing, and
if management isn't clear about it. [/quote]
Yup, I empathise. I've been told more times than I can count (by clients) that they don't need function/position/job descriptions - or whatever else you call them. That 'everyone knows' what they have to do.
Yet when I go and ask the people themselves (who 'know') I've only
very rarely found that is so. The manager/owner may think so - the employee disagrees but often only in private.
They only need be 1/2 - 3/4 page long, but it at least sets out some agreed points. If you don't have something like this, how on earth do you communicate to someone what they're supposed to do? And forget verbal communication - it isn't a system, it's subject to change and the vagaries of memory, and it leaves no record trail behind it. I suspect sometimes managers resist JDs because it's an effort to be clear, and perhaps even that lack of clarity can be convenient.
An annual review by the employees would help keep them current and remove discrepencies, and would ensure that communication of duties is very clear.
Exactamundo.
And the JD/PD should be supported by some sort of targets/metrics/KPIs against which performance can be assessed. So both employee and manager are on the same page.