Job descriptions are the foundation of compensation programs. The document needs to accurately describe the work responsibilities and expected impact of the job.

I’ve read thousands of job descriptions over the 30 plus years I have done compensation work.

And many have the documents have been overwritten. What does it mean to be overwritten?

· To write something in a way that is not clear and simple or is more detailed than it needs to be.

Examples:

A marketing job description that had the word “strategic” more than 20 times. The manager wanted the job to be a Senior Manager instead of a Manager. The job description was overwritten.

The Director wanted his job to be a VP. He had two direct reports and oversaw one function. It wasn’t a highly impactful functional area for the company, and it was not growing. The job description was overwritten.

A sales support job with a job description that was written like a sales job. But after interviewing the employees (and not their manager who wrote the job description), it was obvious that the job was not influencing the sales process in a way that warranted having them receive a sales incentive instead of a bonus. The job description was overwritten.

Great Compensation and HR professionals are:

· Skeptical

· Ask a lot of questions

· Do not make assumptions

· Determine how one job impacts another

· Understand the motivation of the job description writer

· Seek the truth

· Find inconsistencies

· Will not agree to a pay grade that is not justified

· Recognize that truthful, accurate, and clearly written job descriptions are rare.

What prompted this post?

I read one too many overwritten job descriptions this week. And I have a strong desire for the absurd, baloney, twaddle, gobbledygook to stop.

#job #pay #jobdescriptions #rewards #compensation #hr #humanresources #marketpricing #payequity #paytransparency #fairpay #jobs #jobdescription #benchmarking