​Every so often, something comes along that challenges our current thinking about how work is done. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19), a pandemic that has rapidly made its way across the globe, has led business leaders to question the soundness of their policies and processes. Under the circumstances, most companies are doing a fair job at responding to this crisis, relying on generic crisis plans or mimicking the actions taken by other businesses, but what lessons can we learn from this situation to better prepare for future crises that disrupt work?  

Where are you currently storing your job descriptions? And how many different documents do you have for each job? The answer to this question for many organizations would be:

1. Strewn about in 10 different folders on 5 different PCs and drives on the Cloud
2. A mixture of Word docs for basic job info and Excel sheets for things like competencies and physical demands

The holiday season may be kicking off, but if you work in HR and Reward, this time of year also means it's time to start getting ready for the compensation review season. In our recently hosted webinar, Ruth Thomas, Industry Principle and Co- Founder at our partner, Curo Compensation, shared some key tips to get you prepared.

As an HR professional, you recognize the value of a strong, inspiring job description that reflects the culture, mission and vision of your organization. An HR DIVE article noted, “job descriptions are the blueprint to employee success” (2017). This statement sums up the importance of job descriptions and why they are such a critical piece of a successful organization. Accurate & current job descriptions provide strong job postings, talent, and employee evaluations for promotions. Job descriptions are evolving documents and are most up to date when they are consistently used, reviewed, and edited with the most current compliance standards. As a foundation of HR systems, job descriptions plan for employee futures from recruitment to retirement by allowing employees to see how their job responsibilities & achievements fit into the overall core values of the organization. ​

​Even before entering pre-K, we are taught how our words impact those around us. They can make us feel accepted, upset or even guarded. As adults, our vocabulary may be more advanced than a 3-year-old's, but the sentiment remains the same: words matter. 

When I tell someone I work for a company that specializes in job description management software, I often get, "oh, so like Monster, Indeed, and Glassdoor?" 8 years later this response does not surprise me but what does, is how many HR pros still confuse the two.

Our very own Don Berman recently appeared on HR pro Laurie Ruettimann's podcast "Let's Fix Work" where he discusses why we confuse job descriptions with job postings and how technology is being used to change that. 

We encourage you to listen, share, and comment on this episode.
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​One of the most tedious tasks in HR is developing the perfect job description. This task typically falls into the hands of the Compensation team, with the help of other stakeholders, such as managers or HRBPs. But what do you do when each individual employee has their own job description? Or conversely, what’s the best way to handle job descriptions that share the same job title and job code, but contain different tasks and qualifications and should actually be broken up into individual job descriptions? You want to incorporate all employees’ work but how do you do so in the least number of vetted and approved job descriptions?

​If you’re like me, you’ve had both great managers and then those who were, well, let’s just say, not so great. As an HR professional, you know that just because an employee is skilled in their field and has the most seniority in their department, it does not necessarily mean that they will succeed in an adjacent role. It takes an employee with a specific set of skills, knowledge, and behaviors to excel at certain jobs. But what is it that makes some employees excel in a position while others do not? ​