Writing Job Descriptions Alaska

When Dave Myers joined J. Francis Co. in Pittsburgh, the company had no job descriptions. “Everything was loosey-goosey,” he says. But after several peer review meetings, one group member told them to get serious or get out. “We were in business 14 years before we wrote our first job description,” says Myers, vice president and general manager. And it proved more difficult than he imagined.

Photo Credit: James Katzman

Using a format from a previous employer, Myers created descriptions for his job and that of the office manager. He then gave the format to other employees to write their descriptions. When that didn't work, he created a role exercise in which employees prioritized tasks and recorded time spent on each task per week. (For a sample, go to www.remodelingmagazine.com/webextras.) Looking at the findings, Myers says, “we realized that we were a $2.5 million company [with] someone focusing on production only 15 hours a week — and we'd wondered why production wasn't going well!”

So a lead carpenter was promoted to production manager. “[But] he self-destructed first, and then we voted him off the island,” says Myers, who admits that the lack of a complete job description played a role in the scenario. After that, the company created a production manager job description that included expectations and performance standards. Then, J. Francis Co. was able to post the position and hire someone who really met its needs.

Now the company'

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