Inflated job descriptions?

catbert28

I was wondering if anyone else had this issue... I've got one department where after we just performed a salary range audit, we found that most of the department's ranges were a little high, and will be reduced (although the employees' salaries will not be). Because of this, she has presented us with "rewritten" job descriptions, including new titles and KSA's that are greater than that of the current jobs. She says that she expects her employees to "grow into" the higher duties, and that even though they are not currently performing these duties, they will be.

In order for our job descriptions to be as legally-defensible as possible, don't we have to portray what an employee actually does, and not what we'd like them to do someday, in their job descriptions? :eek:

Dutch2

We too had a couple of Managers who liked to monkey with the job descriptions for their departments. It is amazing how they always came back wanting a higher grade and higher salary range. I instruct all Managers that the job descriptions are to reflect the minimum requirements for the position. If you had to fill the position today, what are the minimum requirements you would accept. I made a believer out of one manager after they had inflated the job description because the applicant they wanted to hire did not meet the new minimum requirements they had recently set.
Now, if they feel a need to increase the requirements for a position we most always look at creating a new level within the department, such as a Sr. or Lead position or the ol' favorite I, II, III, etc., after the job title to designate a higher level of responsibility.
Good luck.

davids

It seems like I have spent my entire 20+ year career in HR dealing with managers who want to use the [U]classification[/U] system to address [U]compensation[/U] issues. The real answer is, to the best of your ability, have a compensation system that is equitable, fair, flexible and allows managers to recognize and reward performance. Having said that, all compensation systems will have their limitations, and you will always have a manager who tries to manipulate salaries through classification.

I agree that job descriptions should reflect what the employee does now. In the case of a trainee, the description might describe what the employee will be doing once they reach full, journy-level, competency; but not duties that might be assigned at some unknown time in the future. My response to your manager would be to talk to me when the employees are actually performing the duties.

I have also often dealt with managers who want to set high minimum qualifications (MQs) to boost the salary, but then want to hire applicants who don't meet the qualifications because the applicant is "trainable." We are real clear with managers when they first submit a request for a recruitment that we are not going to allow them to change the MQs after the fact, so get it right up front. I hate being the HR-police, but HR does have a regulatory role; and this is one of those circumstances when it is appropriate to play that role.

cnghr

[QUOTE=Dutch2;716708]We too had a couple of Managers who liked to monkey with the job descriptions for their departments. It is amazing how they always came back wanting a higher grade and higher salary range. I instruct all Managers that the job descriptions are to reflect the minimum requirements for the position. If you had to fill the position today, what are the minimum requirements you would accept. I made a believer out of one manager after they had inflated the job description because the applicant they wanted to hire did not meet the new minimum requirements they had recently set.[/QUOTE]

We had that problem in the past, also. We finally standardized the job descriptions and made it a big no-no to mess with an established job description unless they have good justification and it's approved by me, the CFO, or the CEO. Some years back, one of our departments decided that the minimum education requirement for all their positions was an accounting degree (and no, this wasn't the accounting department). I can't tell you how badly it tripped them up when they realized that not that many job-seekers in our market actually had accounting degrees and that, when they did find a really good applicant otherwise, they'd shot themselves in the foot by requiring that degree. They changed their minds on that little requirement pretty quickly!

The whole over-inflated job descriptions issue is exactly why we have different levels for most jobs, to assure that it is clearly spelled out what the duties are when you are a trainee, level I, level II, etc., and also what you will need to have accomplished before you can move up to the next job grade/salary level.