A job description outlines an employee's tasks and responsibilities, what her or his authority is, and what skills and qualifications are necessary to do the work. Without them, it may be that neither the supervisor nor the employee has a clear idea of what the employee is expected to do.

Vignette - The Need for Job Descriptions: Part I

Job descriptions must be written before you select new staff members. These planning documents should be written up for each staff position and should describe thoroughly the duties and responsibilities assigned to each position. For example, a CBD agent's duties and responsibilities might include:

• Visiting homes of community residents to inform them about family planning, to motivate them to become family planning acceptors, and to sell contraceptives;
• Keeping records of when clients will need to be visited again for resupply or reminder of medical check-up.

The job description will serve as a guide for the person in charge of recruiting new employees. Because it lists the qualifications necessary for the position, it ensures that a qualified person will be selected.

For example, if you are recruiting for a family planning promoter who will be visiting homes and will be responsible for most of the recruitment of new clients, the job description should tell you the skills and qualifications this person must have, such as:

• A minimum level of literacy, so that she or he can do elementary record-keeping and understand the training sessions and client educational materials;
• The ability to travel during the day.

Job descriptions should tell you the attitudes and personal qualities you should look for. You will probably have to think about the tasks and make your own list. For the CBD agent's job, this list might look something like this:

• Respected in the community, a mature person (and, in some settings, married);
• Able to work well with colleagues, friendly, and outgoing personality;
• Dedicated to and enthusiastic about the work;
• Has favorable attitudes toward all of contraceptive methods she or he will be promoting;
• Satisfied with her or his own experience with family planning.

All employees should have copies of their own job descriptions, as well as those of the people they supervise. It is also helpful for employees to have copies of the job descriptions of their supervisors, so that the division of labor between them and their supervisors is clear.

A job description is important because it is useful in a number of management tasks:

• Hiring, to ensure that the person who is hired has the necessary qualifications;
• Training, to identify the training needs of employees by noting the discrepancies between qualifications needed for a position and the employee's actual capacities;
• Orientation, to help the new employees understand what is expected of her or him;
• Supervision, to help the employee's supervisor monitor her or his performance regularly;
• Performance evaluation, to help the supervisor to review systematically the employee's performance on all assigned tasks;
• Workplace coordination, to help the manager ensure that all the necessary tasks are being assigned to the right employee, and that no two employees are inadvertently assigned to the same task;
• Contract obligations, to meet legal requirements in many countries that job descriptions be attached to the work contract.

Tools and Techniques - Essential Elements of a Job Description

Vignette - The Need for Job Descriptions: Part II

Example from Thailand - Job Description of a Field Supervisor

Example from Thailand - Job Description of a family Planning Volunteer

If you are developing a job description for a new position or are writing job descriptions for the first time for positions that already exist, it can be useful to see how other family planning programs have set up their personnel structure, what duties their staff perform, and how the duties have been assigned to the various staff members. If there is an established family planning program located nearby, you should set up a visit.

• Observe and interview representatives from various categories of family planning personnel (for example, nurse-midwives, nurse-educators, physicians, etc.) to develop a comprehensive list of the daily family planning duties carried out by the program;
• Ask the program's supervisors and subordinates to review the list and to add or delete duties as necessary, including those which are not carried out daily or occur periodically during the year. Make a note of which staff member performs which duties and whether this division of labor works well;
• Interview family planning clients about the ways in which they like to be served (for example, only by female providers, in their homes, in conjunction with child health services, etc.);
• Finalize the list and assign the duties in light of your program's goals and objectives.

If family planning services are not available anywhere close to you, use the examples of job descriptions in this chapter and revise them as necessary based on discussions with your staff and clients.

Job descriptions can be used to define organizational relationships and develop a salary structure. A good system of promotion and remuneration will give organizations a salary structure that is internally consistent and competitive with other similar organizations. However, in organizations with volunteer boards, there may be reluctance to agree to salary levels which exceeds the salaries the board members themselves receive. Studies like the one in Improving Staff Recruitment by Revising Job Description and Salary Scales are essential for documenting the need for consistent and adequate remuneration of staff.

Example from Kenya - Improving Staff Recruitment by Revising Job Description and Salary Scales

Every organization will have to determine its own job interviewing process. Some organizations may decide to have one individual conduct all the interviews, or they may involve a number of interviewers, including individuals in the department in which the person will work. It must also be determined ahead of time who will make the final decision as to which candidate will be hired.

The job description can also help you draw up a candidate assessment instrument to help you recruit and select the best candidates for a position. This will help you rank each candidate by qualifications, skills, attitudes, and personal qualities. For example, you could use the job description for the Nurse Coordinator to draw up a candidate assessment instrument to rank candidates whom you might interview for the Nurse Coordinator position.

It is essential to check the candidates' references for former positions they have held. Why did they leave their former jobs? How well did they perform professionally? What problems did they have, if any? What were their greatest strengths and weaknesses?

The final choice of a candidate should take the score of these rankings into account, but you should use your own judgement as well. The person who ranks highest in terms of objective score may not necessarily be the best person for the job. Someone lower on the list may have a more intangible quality, such as personality, enthusiasm, or personal rapport, which would make her or him the best suited for the job.

Tools and Techniques - Candidate Assessment Form