The Origin Story: The Job Canvas

Origin stories seem all the rage at the moment. It feels like every other film at the cinema or TV box set is focussed on telling the story of where a character came from. 

Jumping on Hollywood’s bandwagon, in this blog I wanted to share the Job Canvas origin story (I can’t promise it will be as exciting as the origin of “One” in Stranger Things or how Han Solo found the Millenium Falcon in Solo). 

I’d like to say that the idea for the Job Canvas came like a bolt from blue, but the truth is, as an idea and then as a product it has been developing and evolving over a number of years. It emerged from thinking, testing and doing rather than as a fully formed product.

I sent the first email about the Job Canvas to someone in 2017 and gmail tells me that I have sent over 893 emails about the Canvas since this date (I write this in July 2022).

The starting point - the problem I wanted to solve

As I’ve written before as an HR professional, despite writing and reviewing 100’s of job descriptions, I have never been a fan. They have the potential to box people into fixed ways of working, are inflexible, often frustrating to produce, and out of date as soon as they are written. 

The consequence of all this is that people seldom rely on or derive value from their job descriptions; they are often documents that are hidden away on a hard drive gaining digital dust only brought out for promotions, disciplinaries or the dreaded annual review. 

Rather than providing clarity, job descriptions often blur the lines. They don’t capture the essence or reality of how a job is undertaken. 

When I was doing research for my book (Personalisation at Work - available at all good and evil book stores) I started to realise that - perhaps unintentionally - job descriptions could be a significant barrier to people personalising their work. 

Daydreaming about solutions to this problem, I began to get curious about what a more flexible, agile, personal and frankly more human way of describing and capturing and defining a job would look like.

From digital dust to digital canvas

When I was setting up Tailored Thinking I had been introduced to the idea of using canvases to capture and map out different parts of the business. These canvases were often split into different segments or elements that mapped out the different, but often interrelated aspects of a function. For example, the Business Model Canvas (probably the most well known and used canvas amongst start ups) maps out different elements of core business model.

Taking inspiration from the canvases I was using for the business, combined with other research and themes I was exploring from design thinking, I started to explore what a “Job Canvas” would look like.

Following testing with colleagues, friends, clients and other interested organisations, I developed 9 core elements of the Canvas that gave insights to different elements of the role and got to the heart or the DNA of a job.

I remember feeling really excited when I explored the canvas with the HR team at a challenger bank close to me and they were able to get a really good outline of the job in 18 minutes (2 minutes per section). 

Creating a digital canvas

At first the Canvas was just a powerpoint template that I printed out and tested with individuals and teams.

Once I was happy with the 9 core elements of the Job Canvas, I started to consider addressing some of the other challenges with job descriptions. For example, they’re not always easy to update, they get lost, and the data in job descriptions aren’t centralised.

Looking back at my notes on the creation of the digital Canvas I wanted it to be:

• Easy to access and update

• Saved so that people didn’t have to re-complete it

• Downloadable into a PDF 

• Centrally stored for managers and HR colleagues so that the documents didn’t get lost

• Analysable to support broader organisational and people analytic insights

Having got some ideas of what I wanted, I was introduced to a patient, curious and amazing software developer (thanks Nick) who turned my thoughts into the first version of the digital job canvas that is now free to use. 

Some unexpected results…  

One of the joys of seeing individuals and teams use the Job Canvas is that you can see them gaining different insights and reflections.

Working with one HR team in the early stages, a team leader shared that the Job Canvas exercise allowed her to put her finger on an issue that she had been struggling to resolve.

One of the moments about the Canvas was that people doing the same role might view their roles differently. E.G. someone working in HR might see their key customers as employees or others might see their key customers as the organisation and the leaders. Now both perceptions are valid, but this might explain the behaviours in the team.

For example, one person might spend a lot of time sorting out individual issues with employees and advocacy whilst others might spend less time doing this - might be perceived as less accessible - and spend more time looking at strategic issues.

As a line manager, this enables you to have better conversations with staff and understand whether there are any conflicts or friction with how that person sees that job and requirements for that job. 

Future thinking…

Building on the ideas of our current users and becoming more immersed in digital HR products, we see lots of opportunities to develop the canvas further and include greater features. 

We’ve already started holding meetings with interested teams and prospective clients to explore how we could improve the Job Canvas and what they would like us to add into future iterations of the product.

If you would like to be involved and share any insights or feedback then please let us know at [email protected].

I’d like to thank the following people who have helped shape the early developments in the Job Canvas.

Satalia, Virgin Money, Anne-Marie Lister, Sarah Dewar, Lisa Davidson, Sara Cox, Melanie Cheung, Michelle Reid, Michelle Minnikin and many more (give me a nudge if I’ve missed you off).

The author of this blog, Rob Baker is founder and Chief Positive Deviant at Tailored Thinking. Rob is a chartered fellow of both the CIPD and the Australian HR Institute and has a first class Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Melbourne. He is passionate about making work better and making better work.

Connect with Rob on LinkedIn.

The history of the job description.

In the world of work most of us will have had to read, review or develop a job description or specification. They are ubiquitous across modern workplaces. And whilst they may differ slightly in style, most job descriptions follow a similar format and content. But where did this document come from?

This article will explore the early history and blueprints for modern-day job descriptions and examine why they haven’t changed or developed significantly in the last century despite the significant evolution in how we do our work.

What is a job description?

A Job Description or ‘JD’ is a written narrative that describes the general tasks, or other related duties, and responsibilities of a role at work.  A Job Description may include relationships with other people in the organisation: supervisory level, managerial requirements, and relationships with other colleagues. It may also include information about the grade or level of the role, working conditions, physical demands, health and safety requirements and other competencies for the job role, which in this regard, it is sometimes known as the ‘Role Description’.

Where do Job Descriptions Come from?

The very first job descriptions can be traced back over a 100 years. Created to bring order and rigour to organisational structures, a job description is a written narrative that describes the general tasks and responsibilities of a role at work.

The story of the humble job description has its roots in ‘Scientific Management’ or more commonly known as Taylorism and the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor (1911). Although scientific management as a distinct theory or school of thought has arguably been in decline since the 1930s, many of its themes have been indelibly inked into our thinking and practice within workplaces today.

It all started with Job Analysis

Unlike today, the earliest job descriptions were seldom developed independently or in isolation. They were originally produced as the end result of a process called job analysis.

Job analysis was a formal endeavour to identify the content of a job in terms of the activities it involves in addition to the attributes or requirements necessary to perform those activities. It considered the areas of knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAO) needed to perform the job.

The formal document capturing these details could be thought of as the first formal job descriptions. When they were first developed job descriptions were sometimes accompanied by a separate document (the personnel specification) which detailed the skills, abilities and knowledge of the job.

Job analysis can be traced to two of the founders of industrial-organisational (I-O) Psychology, Frederick Winslow Taylor and Lillian Moller Gilbreth in the early 20th century.

Taylor established standard times for specific jobs and tasks through time studies.

Through motion studies the Gilbreth’s identified techniques and technical definitions for describing the mechanical and physical elements of a job and its individual elements.

Time and Motion Study in action

The two techniques of time and motion became integrated and refined into a widely accepted and popular method of time and motion studies, applicable to the improvement and upgrading of work systems.

Time and motion studies led to the creation of the role of the Time and Motion Officer (the predecessor of a modern-day Personnel Officer).

One of the first I-0 psychologists to introduce job analysis was Morris Viteles (1922) where he used job analysis to select employees for a trolley company car. Viteles’ techniques could then be applied to any other area of employment using the same process.

Industrial Psychology - a seminal text by Morris Viteles

Evolutions of job analysis

Since Viteles’ first efforts work designers and theorists have developed many different systems approaches to accomplish job analysis.  Many forms of systems are no longer in use, but those that still exist have become increasingly detailed over the decades with a greater concentration on tasks and less concentration on human attributes. 

Moving beyond traditional job analysis

Formal job analysis and time and motion studies have now fallen out of favour in many organisations.

Part of the reason for this is that job analysis techniques makes the implicit assumption that core elements of jobs are fixed, static and repetitive.

The reality of many modern jobs is that they are made up of many elements, each of which are subject to change and evolution. Capturing all these components in a time and motion study is complicated and time consuming. And ultimately the data collected is quickly out of date as the job evolves and changes.

Whilst the limitations of job analysis to meaningfully capture modern working practices has led to a reduction in its use, this has not stopped organisations continuing to rely on job descriptions to define and specify the work people do in their jobs.

Whilst the job description used to be the end-product of a formalised and rigorous process, it is now relied upon and used as a product itself.

Rather than rely on formal processes to evaluate and assess jobs, many organisations now rely on line managers - with occasional input from HR professionals - to use their discretion to create job descriptions with the help of existing (often very detailed and specific) templates and pro-forma.

Without a viable alternative to a job description, organisations rely on this document for core processes including; recruitment, performance management, performance conversations and internal promotion cases.

Current Trends in Job Description Design

There has been a growing trend in recent years to broaden the responsibilities that people have in organisations and to encourage employees to have more autonomy and to look - and work - beyond what is simply stated on their job descriptions.

In part, this a response to an increased need for organisations to be more responsive and flexible. And this is something that became particularly pertinent during the Covid-19 pandemic where employees were challenged with doing their work in different ways - and for homeworkers particularly - often from different locations.

As HR professionals, we understand the need to continue to capture the core elements of peoples jobs. This is important for both legal (such as ensuring fair and equal pay) and performance (such as giving employees and their colleagues clarity on the focus of their work) reasons. But the reality is that many - arguably most - jobs aren’t static but are constantly evolving and could change daily. 

In this regard, there is a growing need to be more responsive to what employees do at an ‘individual’ level. Also, for the process of designing and defining jobs, and what we do to become more people centred rather than being fully defined by outdated management and HR practices.

What’s next? A personal job analysis.

At Tailored Thinking we’re exploring new ways of analysing our jobs and doing job descriptions.

We’ve created a multi-dimensional, adaptable and personalised job canvas. This is something that enables team leaders to support people to undertake their own personal job analysis - and get to the essence and details of the why and what of their work.

Trialled and tested by multiple organisations across various sectors, the job canvas is changing the way we work for the better by enabling employees to quickly, easily and digitally capture and define their job. And have better - coaching based - conversations with their line managers about the work they do.

Explore it yourself on our job canvas home page.

Thank you to Dean Horsman who kindly helped write and shape this blog bringing his knowledge and expertise alongside Rob Baker.

Dean is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University.

Rob is the Founder and Chief Positive Deviant of Tailored Thinking.

5 reasons job descriptions are a waste of time

Job descriptions are a waste of time

Do you have a job description?

If you do, when was the last time you looked at it?

Do you even know where the latest version is saved?

Our guess, it’s probably stored on a hard drive somewhere, collecting virtual dust. 

We wonder whether job descriptions are fit for purpose in the current world of work. Whilst there is a big list of things wrong with job descriptions, these are our top 5 for today.

Our 5 top things wrong with job descriptions:

1) Old news / Instantly out of date

Our jobs are constantly changing, yet our descriptions stay the same. Once written job descriptions remain frozen in time, untouched until they are needed for a recruitment, promotion or performance process.

We believe: Job descriptions should constantly evolve and change in the way that our work does yet they seldom do.

2) Unrealistic

Job descriptions are a little like many social media profiles. They tend to show the best bits but deliberately hide or obscure the day-to-day realities of our lives. Similarly, job descriptions tend to paint a positive picture of a role without truly representing what it looks and feels like to do a job on a day-to-day basis.

We believe: Job descriptions should give readers a true sense and representation of what it feels like to do a particular job.

3) Too much or too little

There tends to be no in-between with job descriptions. They are either pages long, crammed with endless responsibilities and activities, that you rarely actually do.

On the other hand, job descriptions are far too sparse and focus on a specific number of responsibilities without reflecting the broad range of tasks and activities the job actually entails. Either way they often don’t reflect the reality of the job role.

We believe: Job descriptions should be carefully curated to give a representative picture of what a job entails.

4) Exploring and explaining why the job exists

Job descriptions often focus on tasks, competencies or responsibilities without clearly defining and explaining why the job exists in the first place. Jobs exist to provide value and a service to others yet this is infrequently captured in the job descriptions. Consequently, many job holders fail to understand or focus on the core purpose and value of the job. 

We believe: Job descriptions should clearly state and explain the purpose of the role and the value it creates to others.

5) Costly to create

A survey looking into job descriptions uncovered that more than 50% of respondents found that it takes 2 or more hours to write a job description. 

In terms of pounds and pence this would be a minimum of £32.00 per document assuming that only one person was involved in checking the document and they earned close to the average wage in the UK.

If you had 500 people working for your organisation that would be a cost of 1,000 people hours and £16,000. This figure ignores the fact that in many organisations job descriptions need to be reviewed and checked by senior and HR managers or the cost would be much more than this.

The reality is that job descriptions don’t provide a return on investment for organisations in terms of the value they create compared to time taken to write and produce them.

We believe: Our time at work is precious and job descriptions and role profiles should be able to be produced in a time efficient and cost effective way.

Doing things differently

In short we don’t think many job descriptions are worth the time and effort . We believe that job descriptions should:

• Constantly evolve and and change in the way that our work does.

• Give readers a true sense and representation of what it feels like to do a particular job.

• Be carefully curated to give a representative picture of what a job entails.

• Clearly state and explain the purpose of the role and the value it creates to others.

• Should be produced in a time efficient and cost effective way.

Creating a job canvas

At Tailored Thinking we think that job descriptions are boring, outdated and out of touch. 

We’ve created a job canvas which is easy to complete and update and captures the core elements and essence of a job rather than an infinite list of duties and tasks. 

We’re currently testing the canvas with a few selected clients. If you want to be at the front of the queue to find out more, then you can enquire here.