Here Are The 3 Things That Your Job Descriptions Are Missing
Recruiting and training a team is a constant source of pain for service business owners. When you first start, you probably envisioned a hard-working team of experts who all show up and are eager to work. But what you have right now might not quite be what you envisioned.
While there are many factors at play, one of the problems is your job description.
You might use a different term for it but in general there are 2 types of job descriptions – the kind you use when you’re recruiting (I’ll call it an “external job description”), and then the kind you hand to your new team member to tell them what they’re doing (I’ll call it an “internal job description”). These should be similar, although the one you use during recruiting might be shorter while the one you use for new hires should be longer and more detailed.
But if you want to recruit better team members, and if you want to make sure that those new team members step up and do the work expected of them, then here are the three things you need to make sure are included in those job descriptions:
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A Reason To Work For Your Company.
This is a huge missing piece on both external and internal job descriptions. You need to give people a reason to work for your company. Yes, there’s the pay and the benefits but people work for more than pay and benefits. They work to learn; they work because the job fits their lifestyle; they work because they want to grow and become recognized in the industry; they work because they like to help people; they work because they like hanging out with people just like them. Give people a reason to work for your company and highlight those reasons in your job descriptions.
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A Detailed List Of Actions And Responsibilities
Starting with your internal job description, make a very detailed list of the actions and responsibilities that are required for that role. One of the biggest frustrations that employees have is being hired to do a job and then finding out all the other responsibilities that are required of them after they’ve been hired. You need to be up-front with your team about the work you expect of them and you’ll end up hiring people who are willing to do the job.
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Measurables
There’s recruiting and there’s managing… unfortunately, there’s also a huge gap between the two (but there shouldn’t be). All too often, job descriptions are used for recruiting and quarterly reviews are separate documents used for review – and there’s often a gap between how the job is described and how you review your team. That makes it hard for your team to do the job that’s expected of them! Here’s a better way: your internal job descriptions should clearly list everything that an employee is expected to do, and measurable should be attached to each one; then you should build your quarterly reviews from the job description. This simple strategy will provide so much clarity to your teams and to the managers who review them.
Let me ask you 2 questions that will reveal a harsh truth: When was the last time you looked at your job descriptions? And just as importantly, when was the last time your employees looked at THEIR job descriptions to guide them in their job? For most service businesses, the answer is “it’s been a while.”
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