In yesterday’s Advisor, we covered basic mistakes managers make; today, more expensive mistakes in performance management and job descriptions, and an introduction to a job description program that will eliminate those mistakes.
[Go here for mistakes 1 to 5.]
Mistake #6: Grade Inflation
Too often, managers give satisfactory or higher ratings for poor performance. This avoids the rater’s having to confront the employee with a poor rating, and allows a raise to be given. This act may seem harmless at the time, however it will come back to haunt the company.
Ultimately, the employee will be fired for poor performance. When he or she (and a lawyer) point to the "satisfactory" or "good" rating, your "poor behavior" reason for firing goes down the drain. Whoops. Now a discrimination charge has traction.
Job Descriptions Mistakes
Mistake #7: Job Descriptions Are Incomplete, Inaccurate, or Out-of-Date
Actually, this could easily be mistake number one. So much flows from the job description—duties, goals, appraisals, and compensation, for example—that it’s critical to keep them current.
If you don’t, once again, you’re going to get killed in court. You’ll say you fired the person for reason x, but the job description will not mention x as a duty. Now you’ve got the challenge of showing that items that weren’t even important enough to make it on the job description were important enough to fire the person over. Not an easy sell.
Set that keyboard aside! Your job descriptions are already written. Click here to see why thousands of managers have a permanent place in their offices for BLR’s classic Job Descriptions Encyclopedia.
Mistake #8: Failure to Designate Essential Functions
Designating essential functions is a necessary part of job description preparation. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employees have to be able to perform the essential functions with or without accommodation. If you haven’t delineated the essential functions, you’ll have trouble complying with this requirement.
Of course, having those well-written job descriptions is a never-ending battle for every HR manager. How about your job descriptions? Complete? Up to date? If not—or if you’ve never even written them—you’re not alone. Thousands of companies fall short in this area.
It’s easy to understand why. Job descriptions are not simple to do—what with updating and management and legal review, especially given the ADA requirement of a split-off of essential functions from other functions in the description. Wouldn’t it be great if your job descriptions were available and already written?
Actually, they are. We have more than 700, ready to go, covering every common position in any organization, from receptionist right up to president. They are in an extremely popular BLR® program called the Job Descriptions Encyclopedia.
First created in the 1980s, the “JDE” has been continually refined and updated over time, with descriptions revised or added each time the law, technology—or the way we do business—changes.
Prewritten job descriptions in the Job Descriptions Encyclopedia now come with pay grades already attached. Click here to try the program at no cost.
Revised for the ADA, Pay Grades Updated
There was a major revision, for example, following the passage of the ADA. In fact, BLR editors reviewed every one of those 700 descriptions to ensure they were ADA-compliant.
Another enhancement was the updating of pay grades for each job. According to our customers, this is an enormous time-saver, enabling them to make compensation decisions even as they define the position. You can see a sample job description from the program by clicking here. (Yes, it is the one for HR Manager—Pay grade: 38.)
The BLR Job Descriptions Encyclopedia also includes an extensive tutorial on setting up a complete job descriptions program, and how to encourage participation from all parts of the organization. That includes top management, the employees, and any union or other collective bargaining entity.
Quarterly Updates, No Additional Cost
Very important these days, quarterly updates are included in the program as a standard feature—key at a time of constantly changing laws and emerging technologies. We’ll send you new or revised descriptions every 90 days. And the cost is extremely reasonable, averaging less than 43 cents per job description … already written, legally reviewed, and ready to adapt or use as is.
You can evaluate BLR’s Job Descriptions Encyclopedia at no cost in your office for up to 30 days. Get more information or order the Job Descriptions Encyclopedia.
Download product sample
Download list of job descriptions included