The Importance of Defining Employee Roles

... an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review ... really drove this point home. The article summarized a study completed by the author, Tamara Erikson, on team dynamics at the BBC and Reuters. She found that successful collaboration was better on teams when each employee’s role was clearly defined. She found that defining individual roles impacted collaboration success more than spelling out the group’s approach.

Erikson noted, “Without such clarity, team members are likely to waste energy negotiating roles or protecting turf, rather than focusing on the task.”

Carry this idea over into employees’ everyday tasks. By clearly defining employee roles from the start, not only do we target and hire the best, most qualified candidates, but we also ensure their continued success by informing them exactly how that success will be determined and measured.

I have been a management coach for many, many years, and I can tell you that the biggest mistake that I see managers and recruiters make time and time again, is not clearly defining individual position tasks, responsibilities and success metrics. Increase your employee and team success rate by ensuring that for each position in your organization, you have a position description that includes:

• Job Description: Collection of tasks and responsibilities that an employee is responsible for; includes an official title.
• Job Tasks:  Unit of work or set of activities needed to produce some result (e.g., answering phones, writing a memo, sorting the mail, etc.).
• Job Functions: A group of tasks is sometimes referred to as a function.
• Role(s): The set of responsibilities or expected results associated with a job. A job usually includes several roles.
• Competencies: Abilities (skills) and capacity required to perform the job successfully.
• Performance Management: Defines how the position’s performance is measured and its impact from an organization perspective. All the components within the performance management perspective relate and provide context to one another.
• Critical Success Factors (CSF): Provide focus on the influences that impact the performance of the job.
• Key Process Ownership (KPO): Identifies the critical processes owned by the position.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Provide visibility to performance through the use of metrics and established performance targets; thereby giving context to vague concepts.
• Career History: The background experience typically required in order to have gained the level of knowledge and competency required for the position.

SOURCE: http://www.activategroupinc.com/2012/05/the-importance-of-defining-employee-roles/

 OTHER TIPS:

1) https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J6CDQX9 

2) https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JP96BP9

 -Clearly tell people what is expected of them. Do not ever assume someone just knows. Develop a plan of who does what and why in your company and communicate to your employees this plan. - Balance the work load. Make sure the work that needs to be done is balanced among your employees. Try to encourage employees to voice their opinions and concerns without fear of punishment.

-Update your employee's progress continuously. Also make sure to keep a balanced work load by checking your employee's tasks regularly. Document progress to be used as a tool to help employees to advance and develop their skills. Employee evaluations should be done regularly. Poor performance should be recognized and corrected immediately.

 - Weekly progress reports should be implemented. These progress reports will help to keep employees work productivity high.

- Encourage employees to openly communicate with you and other employees. By openly communicating with your employees they are more apt to voice opinions and provide new ideas to help the company develop and grow.

-Share information about the company with your employees. Employees need to know where the company is going. They need to be aware of any problems the company may be facing. Employees should also know how the role they play helps in the development and success of your company.

- Along with knowing what an employee's role is in the company, they should also be trained and educated for this role. If an employee knows what their role is but don't know how to perform the job this can cost your company money. If your company continues to grow and develop you may realize that there is a need for a new job role. When employees continue to report being short-handed and mention that some tasks are not being done this could mean it is time to plan a new job role.

Management should draft a job description which states the general responsibilities of the position, along with some specific job duties to be conducted by the role. Also clearly state any special skills, training and credentials required. A six month probationary period should also be considered. This allows you to fire an employee during the first six months of employment if you have concerns or issues with the employees job performance and greatly reduces the chances you will be sued for wrongful termination. Estimate the salary range for the new position.

Finalize how much the position will cost the company; this will help you assess the value of the position to the company. Get feedback from other managers and supervisors about the new job role, the job description and the responsibilities that the new employee will have.

Make changes if necessary to maintain a balanced work load. Finalize the job description. It is important the job description is accurate because it is what you have based the new employee's salary, required training and skills on.

Source: http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/blog/how_to_define_the_roles_each_person_must_play_in_your_company_023814.html