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.
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.
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.
