The Importance Of Proper Job Description

Job Descriptions are a written explanation of the expectations an employer has for employees, it is an integral piece in the hiring process for both legal, moral, and practical reasons. A job description outlines duties, responsibilities and requirements, along with what conditions the potential job must be worked under. An employer must determine the bona fide workplace prerequisites and make sure they are also in align with the Human Rights Expectations and Compliances in their jurisdictions as a legal precaution. Without doing so they are susceptible to law-suites and human rights claims being filed.

A clearly stated job description may also be used as a guideline used to assess the performance of employees which can be used for promotions, discipline or termination; which can be protection regarding human rights claims being filled. It can also be a helpful tool for employees to understand better what the standards and rules are in the workplace. The morality concern with lacking a job description is how will an employee be able to determine their success without a clearly stated list of tasks. Disciplining someone without providing the proper tools for success such as the initial job description is wrong and unmoral l- also illegal I may add.

Without a job description there are many moral and legal concerns raised. The duties of a job should be defined and well outlined to abstain from confusion and increase productivity. Legally it is hard to terminate or discipline someone if they were unaware of their job expectation, without the due diligence of a job description you could be help legally accountable for disciplining or terminating an employee.

A recent example of a lack of Job description and duties is the lawsuit against Walmart for $65 million dollars. According to the Los Angeles Times the 9year class action suit over making cashiers stand during shifts was just recently settled. 100,000 cashiers former and current, in Walmart are eligible to receive money from this law suit. Walmart maintained the stand point that the nature of cashier work does not allow employees to stand, however the persistent employees stated that they violated a 2001 California Wage order that employees must be given access to “suitable seating when the nature of the work reasonably permits”. Due to the fact the Walmart cashier job description does not states that you are required to stand, they lost the law suit and must now provide stools for the cashiers.

Job analysis is known as the “cornerstone of HRM”, a pillar for this is job descriptions, in my opinion we need to update, develop and rigorously work on the job descriptions to forgo any moral or legal future conflicts a firm might encounter.