Job Descriptions and Procedures Manual

In my last post, I mentioned the idea that Institutional Memory can be captured in permanent records outside of the employees themselves. Two of the common methods for doing so are humble documents you’ve probably seen around the office before, and never thought much of: Job Descriptions and Procedures Manuals. Like many other business school staples (mission statements, operating philosophies, business plans, etc.) these two documents are often seen as some kind of magic bullet, as in “All we have to do is document all of our procedures, and everything will be perfect!”

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Very few documents can effect real change in an organization just by existing, or even through the act of being created. In this case, job descriptions are often treated as mere busywork by line personnel – something that Human Resources requires us to write down for some reason of their own, probably because they are too lazy to do it. Quite often people will recycle the same description of a job for years, rather than update it to reflect the responsibilities of the position as it currently exists. Procedures manuals are even worse – too often, line personnel will be insulted at the very idea of creating a set of instructions for their jobs, as if this implies that they don’t know what they are supposed to be doing or are so disloyal and/or flighty that they might quit at any moment, without warning.

The truth is a bit less dramatic. A typical Job Description is simply a catalog of the tasks, functions and responsibilities of the job, along with an overview of anyone the position supervises and who the position reports to, salary and benefits offered, and so on. A well-written description will also include occasional and back-up duties, the positions backed up and supported by the position, and the minimum qualifications needed to do the job. If any of these things are not obvious, it is possible to add information to the job description or create additional/supplementary text to explain why a given position backs up someone in another department, or why a rather mundane accounting position requires CPA or MBA credentials, a background in auditing, and certification as a Level I Hazardous Materials Responder, for example.

Similarly, a procedures manual needs to document what the members of a work group actually do on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis, not just what senior management would have them do. If there is a chance (however unlikely) that all of the Accountants II will have to put on coveralls and respirators and go outside to mop up a toxic chemical spill at some point, then the procedures manual needs to explain how the unit goes about completing this task, and what the more junior accountants and bookkeepers are supposed to do while the Accountants II are occupied with the chemical spill. If a given team member has to fill out all of the office supply requisitions, then that individual’s job description should reflect that duty and the procedures manual should reference getting all office supply requests to that person before the deadline for each week’s order, whether this is an official job duty or not.

Ultimately, of course, there is no way to record all of the minutiae of a job in any written description; to really get all of the nuances of the position across you will need a more advanced and comprehensive way of transferring the experience…

But that’s our next topic…