When should you write job descriptions? When: Tasks keep falling through the crack or being duplicated. You hear “It’s not my job” more than you like. You are hiring and need to explain the job to candidates. Hand-offs between employees make tasks more complicated than they need to be. Before … Read More
Some people seem to think that generating paper is a goal in itself, but the only good reason to write documents is to help you manage your business better. If it doesn’t help, you won’t use it and it will gather dust. So how can documents help? Any time you … Read More
When you are putting together a Return to Work program, one useful item is a set of functional job descriptions. These differ from the job descriptions you might already have by focusing solely of the physical requirements of a job rather than on the tasks; instead of “store packages on … Read More
People generally join nonprofit boards because they believe in the organization’s mission, but that doesn’t mean that they understand what it takes to be a good board member – that is one of those things we all have to learn by practicing. One way to make on-the-job training of new … Read More
When you sit down to write up job descriptions, the first challenge is to figure out what the “essential functions” of the job are. These come in handy for hiring, especially if you have to choose between candidates with differing qualifications, and during discussions about reasonable accommodations with an employee … Read More
When people sit down to focus on a job description, they usually start with the tasks assigned to the position: bookkeeping, answering the phone, stocking shelves, designing products, leading classes, etc. This is the heart of a job, but it needs to be fleshed out for a complete description. A … Read More
The fun part about writing job descriptions – ok, the part that most people focus on – is the list of tasks that an employee is responsible for: answering phones, accounts payable, supervising, scheduling, etc. These are the obvious parts of a job, but there is more to it than … Read More
When an employee is seriously injured, on or off the job, getting a doctor’s release so they can go back to work can be difficult. Unless you can tell the doctor exactly what the job entails physically, he or she is unlikely to sign off on anything other than a … Read More
Nonprofit boards vary wildly in their effectiveness, from barely functional to highly effective. One thing that sets the effective boards apart from the less so is a solid understanding of the board’s function and how each board member fits in. No piece of paper can change the culture of a … Read More
One of the most common misconceptions about a job description is that everyone gets one that fits perfectly what they do all week. In a lot of cases, this works, especially in large companies. But in smaller companies where one person may be asked to do a variety of jobs, … Read More