by John Wentworth

Well, Not Just Abourt The Job. They Need To Reflect The Company’s Objectives, Mission and Culture, Too.

PROBLEM: Incomplete job descriptions allow the wrong people to be picked for jobs…and then they underperform, hurting themselves and the company.

SOLUTION: Abandon job descriptions.  Typically they ignore critical aspects of the job.  Replace them with complete and comprehensive single-event, behavioral selection requirements that address tasks and the organization’s culture.  Select rigorously against these requirements and you will hire people who fit the culture and perform.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jacinda was so happy.  The weather was beautiful.  The sky was uncommonly blue.  The traffic was lighter than usual.  And she had just been promoted.

Jacinda had worked for one company for almost ten years but had, all that time, been in a field office.  This promotion got her to corporate, closer to decisions.  She was stoked.

The only little odd feeling she had as she drove to her new job that morning was that there was a new CEO and some sort of culture change initiative was going on.  She was not sure quite what it meant.   But she was confident that she could rise above any organizational issues.  She had lived through multiple field managers and always prospered.

Jacinda was an engineer and plain spoken.  She had built her career on solving customer’s problems quickly and efficiently.  A box in her back seat was full of awards and commendations she had collected for having made customers very happy.

Her welcome was great.  The receptionist knew her by name.  As soon as she walked into her corporate lobby, Rikki, the HR Director, who had managed her promotion, appeared and walked her to her office, then to her boss’s office.

But trouble began the first day.  In a meeting, she was asked for her opinion about a customer problem.  She knew the issue and answered in her usual organized and candid way.  She skillfully avoided placing blame, but did not mince words about the company having made mistakes.  She noticed a nearly imperceptible recoil in the room as she talked.  Someone asked her what her approach to solving the problem would be.  Again she felt the recoil as she described her vision of multi-departmental teams attacking the problem in order to overcome the lack of coordination that had caused it in the first place.

Jacinda’s mother had not raised any fools, so after the meeting she went directly to HR to chat with Rikki.  They had talked extensively about the perils of moving from the field to corporate but Rikki had never mentioned the degree of sensitivity that had been displayed in the meeting.  “The rat,” she thought as she got off the elevator.

“I didn’t know,” Rikki said.  She, too, was new to corporate.  “I worked off of the job description.”  “Let’s see that puppy,” Jacinda commanded, thoroughly irritated.

Rikki was right.  Nowhere in the job description was anything said about having the diplomatic skills of Henry Kissinger.  In fact, the job description was silent as to anything about organizational culture or any important soft skills.  It focused exclusively on what the person did.  No more.

“Well, that’s a fine kettle of fish,” Jacinda thought.  The next day she packed her awards back into the box, having moved very quickly to get her old job back.  It turned out that the new CEO had been appalled at the degree of bickering and back-biting that went on in the corporate office. He had observed that the internal lack of consideration was spilling outside to clients and had issued a directive that people “learn to be nice to each other.” Her directness had been interpreted by the newly converted as being critical.  She was done and knew it.  There was no point in staying.

Jacinda’s story happened several more times to other people until someone thought that they might include behavioral expectations in the job descriptions so, when candidates were evaluated for promotion to corporate, the evaluations helped select individuals who actually furthered the CEO’s campaign to introduce civility to their workplace.

Jacinda had escaped the harsh consequences of the error, but others did not and found themselves enjoying employment with other companies.  Their skills and talents were missed, and they missed their friends, but the real villain was their having been wrongly evaluated before they got moved to corporate.  And the cause of that problem was the success criteria simply had not been written down in such a way that they would be used.

Not much later, Jacinda was recruited away to a competitor where her candor was valued.

All of this could have been avoided if what Jacinda’s job required had been accurately written down and used for selection.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Things to think about/do before you start recruiting:

•    Have you specified ALL the human requirements of the job?  (See ScientificSelection.com for the AIMS – Attitudes, Interests and Motivations – test for one way to help specify this.)
•    Do a 360 investigation of the job and ask the boss, peers and subordinates “What kind of person will do well?” or “What special skills does someone need for this job?”
•    Check out O*net for easily searchable and complete lists of tasks, tools & technology, knowledge, skills, abilities, work activities, work context, interests, work styles, and work values for thousands of jobs.
•    Use your empathy.  Imagine yourself in the job.  What would you need to do well?
•    Use single event, behavioral/observable descriptions of the tasks that make up a job.  Then look at each and ask, “What do you need to have to do well at this?”

Popularity: 20%