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Program

Performance Management: Position Description

What's the difference between a job description and a position description?

Job Descriptions:

• Official University document that states general requirements and duties, used for job classification
• Used by Human Resource Services, Classification and Leave Management section, to perform job audits and support pay plan used as basis for position descriptions

Position Descriptions:

• Tailors general duties of a position to departmental needs
• Is used to manage performance
• Quantifies, if possible, the key responsibilities that are specific to a particular position
• Should have separate position descriptions for each position in the department

How To Develop A Position Description

Position descriptions are a way for workers to obtain clarity about their job, their manager's and organization's expectations, and the standards by which they will be evaluated and rewarded. Position descriptions are an objective way by which individual work can be described and assessed with employees receiving credit for their contributions and achievements. They are also very helpful for developing recruiting material, orientation and training programs, providing data for job audits, and ensuring consistency and equity between positions.

1. As a manager, there are several approaches you can take in helping your staff craft their position description. You can talk with them about their work, soliciting their input to incorporate into your ideas about how the position should be framed. Another way is asking the employees to develop their own position description, working off the generic job description. They will add clarifying descriptions to the employment, classification and compensation job description. Another approach is to draft a position description for your employee's job and then discuss it with them to ensure they understand your expectations and standards for the position.
   
   
2. There are several sources of data that might be helpful in developing a position description. You can consult with the Representative for your department from Recruiting and Staffing Services or the Compensation and Employee Relations Group. They can provide you with helpful ideas based on their experience with your area and others on campus. You would also want to look at the latest Recruiting Document for the job to integrate language about this position. If you are involved in quality initiatives and process reviews, you might also want to look at the flow of the work and how it interacts with other positions.
   
   
3. It's important to think about the position structurally, rather than describing the unique qualities of the individual currently holding the position. Think broadly in terms of outcomes, responsibilities and accountabilities, rather than simply listing tasks and duties. Sometimes it's useful to cluster the responsibilities into broad functions such as project management, customer contact, supervisory responsibilities, etc. Then, you can list activities or task underneath.
   
   
4. Since this position description will be used to monitor and evaluate, as well as to provide orientation and training, write it behaviorally with action verbs (analyze, coordinate, plan, etc.) For example, rather than saying someone should "be professional," you can add language such as "observes work rules and practices covered during the orientation process concerning punctuality and breaks." Or, rather than saying simply that someone should "provide good customer service," you could say that the position "meets agreed-upon deadlines for faculty members with established two-week deadline for submission." Instead of saying that someone should "maintain acceptable interpersonal relationship," you could say that they "participate in sectional and cross-functional groups and teams and are evaluated with a peer assessment quarterly or at the end of the project."
   
   
5. Make clear to the employee that, in the spirit of continuous improvement and process review, the position description is constantly evolving, based on emerging priorities and shifts in organizational and departmental needs. So, although it may be valid when someone says "That's not in my job description," it may indeed be in their position description.