Criteria for Job Descriptions

ANNEX 3: Criteria for Job Descriptions

Every NHRI should have a clear statement of roles and responsibilities for NHRI members, the senior management group and line managers. Job descriptions should set out clear skill sets and attributes required for the position, job expectations and level of effort, as well as providing the basis for planned performance objectives. Areas of collaboration with others, as well as departments and reporting lines, should be clarified.

Job descriptions serve a number of purposes:

• Enable management and NHRI members to define the work they want employees or groups of employees to perform;
• Provide employees with a clear list of the duties and responsibilities;
• Reveal structural and classification problems such as reporting and functional overlaps;
• Enable a process for describing work which is undertaken by a particular position of group of positions;
• Give job applicants a clear understanding of the particular vacancy and whether they meet requirements;
• Give selection panel members a tool support the selection process;
• Identify position objectives and competencies as part of performance planning and performance management systems; and
• Provide benchmarks for organisation review, workforce planning, and training and development activities.