Most of the problems organisations face today, derive from out of date job profiling. Still, in our times of knowledge work, jobs are described using old data derived from past experience and management approaches. A taboo that needs to be abandoned.
Jobs need to have descriptions for they allow the organisation to coordinate and evaluate overall performance to set targets. However, instead of a series of narrated tasks, attention should be given to how these tasks should be performed for value to be created. The ‘how’ is the essence of success.
We use the expert job profiling system, developed by Dr M.Belbin that has already proved its effectiveness in many organisations all over the world.
Tasks are still described but the job profiling expands to include the special behaviour the job holder should exhibit for his/her contribution to create value. This is done, analysing the work flow and the various dimensions of the work to be done.
That’s right. Work has many dimensions. Different jobs include various types of work which create value when bridged or destroy value when they are isolated or in conflict with each other.
So, the job that interests you is analysed in terms of autonomy, skills and other factors which we will explain to you during our presentation. This way, the organisation creates an adaptive net, eliminating assumptions thus increasing meaningful evaluation and control.
1st example: Many sales people are given job descriptions listing tasks and expected results assuming that they know what to do as they are in sales. These job descriptions are usually more than 5 years old, reflecting a disappearing market and an out of date management mindset. They are also based on the assumption that the organisation knows what the client wants in terms of service, recruiting individuals who possess the organisation’s predetermined personality characteristics like sociability. Together comes a rather Daedalus support system too.
Where does the mistake come in? In the assumption that good sales people are X and Y and that the client wants Y and X. We have re-evaluated many job descriptions only to find considerable differences on what management thinks and what the client thinks on a particular job’s dimensions and its job holder.
2nd example: Managers in conflict over targets, budgets and projects. These conflicts derive again from ill-conceived job profiling which leaves them without help (or even without supervision) to interpret organizational aims, priorities and methods.
In growing markets, such mistakes are hidden behind ‘personality clashes’ and ‘accustomed problems which accompany growth’. In mature and declining markets where organisations have to operate with less people performing more complex jobs, such mistakes are dangerous. Organisations must know how value is created and what will make the difference from competition, on every level and for every job.
Contact us and learn more on how you can analyse and describe work in its true dimensions and time!
Embrace contemporary and effective management practices!