For over 30 years, we have been supporting companies in the introduction of job descriptions and selling professional job description templates in our online store.
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The Job Description as a Management Tool
The job description is an instrument of management and business organization and as such has to fulfill a variety of functions. Among other things
- it puts into concrete terms the principle that each employee is obliged to act, and make decisions, independently within the scope of his delegation area,
- it details the objectives of the position,
- it names the most important tasks in detail,
- it specifies the powers of the post holder,
- it specifies the subordination of the position,
- it regulates questions of substitution (active and passive substitution).
Thus, it also implicitly defines the responsibility of the job holder. Of all the organizational tools, it has the highest level of detail in terms of goals, tasks and authority.
Our experience shows that in a large number of companies employees complain that their tasks, responsibilities and decision-making powers are insufficiently defined or not defined at all. In its comprehensive 2019 Global Talent Trends study, international consulting firm Mercer comes to similar conclusions:
Today’s working world is characterized by high dynamics and constant change. The tasks are sometimes strategic, sometimes project-related, and the priorities are constantly changing. A clearly communicated definition of tasks, the associated responsibilities and career opportunities, and the role in the team is therefore more important than ever for employees today.
Mercer: Global Talent Trends 2019. Download at https://www.mercer.com/content/dam/mercer/attachments/private/gl-2019-global-talent-trends-study.pdf (last access: 2020-01-25)
The consequences in the companies are obvious, actually unmistakable. They manifest themselves in observations as the following:
- decisions are not made for fear of overstepping authority,
- tasks remain unprocessed because there is a lack of clarity as to who is responsible,
- individual employees are overworked because unprocessed tasks are shunted to them for urgent completion,
- some tasks and goals are processed in parallel at different places in the company,
- there is uncertainty about one’s own performance because the expectations of superiors are unclear,
- performance evaluations of employees by supervisors are highly subjective and arbitrary because the basis for evaluating employees is undefined,
and much more. The introduction of job descriptions therefore contributes significantly to increasing efficiency and employee satisfaction.
Job Descriptions for Instant Download
Visit https://www.stellenbeschreibungen.de for a variety of sample job descriptions – over 500 of them – available for immediate download. Each of these job descriptions is available in Word format so they can be customized to meet your individual needs. As a rule, only minor adjustments are necessary; the job descriptions are detailed tested. Our job descriptions are successfully used in hundreds of companies and municipalities (mostly) in German-speaking countries, where they contribute to clarity and better organization.
If you want to read and learn more about job descriptions first, we recommend you take a look at our free information page (in German) http://www.stellenbeschreibungen.info. There, essential contents of our handbook Arbeitsbuch Stellenbeschreibungen are available for free preview.
