Creating Job Descriptions

Once you've determined what your job qualifications are, you're ready to write your job description. The job description is the written outline of what the job you're hiring for entails, based on either your needs as you see them or the research that you've done via job analysis.

Job descriptions are not required by law for any employer, but they are good to have for several reasons. Job descriptions help in:

• interviewing and selecting employees
• orienting new employees
• evaluating the performance of an employee
• motivating employees
• comparing pay between employees
• providing proof as to the essential functions of a job, for purposes of the Americans with Disabilities Act
• providing evidence that your practices are fair, should you ever have to defend them in court

Like job analysis, job descriptions don't have to be complicated.

Hiring your first employee? There are ways that you can create a simple job description without spending a lot of time researching and writing. For example, you can make a list of activities to be involved on the job, and you can rank them in importance.

Need a little more detail? If you do have to comply with federal or state employment laws (because you have at least the minimum number of employees required to trigger the laws) and you decide to have written job descriptions, you might want a little more guidance. In creating a more detailed job description, there are two parts you'll want to know about:

• what information should be in a job description
• what should not go in a job description