It is important to accurately define what a job does in the organisation. Any job whether it be a Cleaner or a Managing Director will work in some form of limitation or parameter. It is important to define what these limitations are to avoid blurred lines of responsibility up or down the hierarchy of the organisation. The second important aspect of defining the purpose of the job is to indicate what the objective of the job is. See the section Job Profiling for more information.

This is important to avoid any reporting lines that do not make sense or that may be impractical, such as dual reporting lines that may conflict with the purpose of the job. It is generally only at executive level where dual reporting may be required and this normally happens in a global organisation where a job should report to a regional or global head of department.

This would be very much aligned to the industrial psychology discipline and does form part of our services. This is where the key and critical competencies of an individual are required to adequately perform a job.

This is important as it will determine how to motivate an individual performing in a job. It also forms the basis of performance management processes and procedures.

Job Analysis is closely linked to Job Profiling. Knowing what the job does in terms of the job’s areas of responsibility is crucial to avoid overlapping of areas of responsibilities between jobs as well as ensuring that an organisation is using its resources at optimal capacity.

This would normally refer to the minimum requirements to be able to perform in the job. We use the minimum requirements as it will not be plausible to employ an individual who is overqualified to fill a job and comes at an overinflated salary in relation to the job requirements.

The job size parameters start having a significant impact on the accountability of a job where an organisation operates on a multinational platform. This is specifically important to promote internal equity and fairness. A job that has a large financial accountability within a wider operational area will have a greater impact than the same job that operates in a small operational area with a very small financial turnover.

Job description / profiling – It’s more than just writing it down

Job description / profile development is a term used to outline an employee’s job in any given role. It explains the key function as well as responsibilities that are associated with one’s tasks.

Employees are often very sensitive when they find out that the organisation is revisiting the job profiles or drafting profiles if there were none to begin with. It is important for any remuneration professional to be aware of this sensitivity as job profiles form the basis of job grading, which is directly linked to their remuneration.

Most professionals approach the profiling exercise from a mechanical point of view. They just want to get it done. However, there is more to profiling than writing down what a job does. The golden rule is that job profiling should be as defensible and as transparent as possible.

The above illustrates that what an employee perceives their job/role to entail can differ somewhat from what the expected job/role is from a line manager or supervisor point of view. It is important to understand and mediate the profiling of all jobs to ensure that both the job holder and supervisor agree on the job profile and its contents. This is called the Accepted Role.

Internal control is an important facet to the job profiling exercise, as well as maintaining the “accepted role” principle to clarify that the content in the job profile is agreed on.

The general good practice on the job profiling procedure includes a standard template which must be reviewed and signed off by the necessary stakeholders and managers. This can be seen as a frustrating exercise, especially for those professionals who are not fully aware of the complexities that accompany the profiling exercise.

At Remuneration Consulting, we have extensive experience in job analysis and drafting job profiles, as well as dealing with a bargaining unit during this process, should this be a requirement. Our specialists facilitate competency profiling and organisational design enabling us to provide an end-to-end service.