Human Resource Management

Human Resources Management job description is a well written summary of job responsibilities for a position within a company. It will typically include what work needs to be done, the working conditions, and the knowledge, skills and abilities that are needed to be successful in the job. It will usually include the reporting relationships for the particular job and sometimes the salary range.

According to Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright (2005), there are several ways to gather information about what to include when preparing a job description. The things that should be included are: the title of the job, administrative information about the job, a summary of the job, essential duties of the job, and any additional responsibilities that may be required. One way to begin gathering this information is to observe a current individual while they are performing the job. This will help to determine exactly what a person in this job does on a day-to-day basis. A second way to gather information is to interview a person who is currently doing this position in order to find out what it is they do. A third way that might be used is that of talking with the supervisor of this position to find out what is expected of an employee in this job role. Another important piece of the information gathering is to determine what resources and equipment are needed to perform the job in question.

All of these techniques are very important when deciding what to put into a job description, because it can be used for many different purposes.

Potential employees use it to decide whether to apply for a position or not. So having a well constructed and concise description will help to attract the most qualified candidates. Human resources can use a job description to help determine either the initial compensation for a job or a grade level increase later on, and managers may use it as a basis for a performance review.

Thus putting together well thought out job descriptions based upon good information gathering techniques is crucial in ensuring that the human resource department gets the right people into the right jobs.

References

Noe, R. A, Hollenbeck, J.R, Gerhart, B, Wright, P.M. (2005), Fundamentals of Human

Resource Management (2nd Edition), London: McGraw-Hill Irwin