On Point: A sound job description key to finding great applicants

By David Baugher The Daily Record Newswire It's far from the most glamorous task. But the crafting of a solid job description can play a role in getting the right candidate in the door and even help to protect you legally should the working relationship sour. Here are some steps you can take to create an effective description: Look for competencies. The first place an accurate job description is needed is in the advertisement for the position. Douglas Richardson, a legal management consultant with Edge International in Philadelphia, says many ads don't really describe the employer's true needs. It's important to indicate levels of experience the job requires, areas of practice in which the candidate must be well-versed or computer skills the applicant should possess. He advises employers to avoid describing subjective personality characteristics or traits such as "bottom line-oriented" or "go-getter." "Any couch potato can say 'Yep' to that," he says. "So the ad doesn't really do what it is supposed to do, which is to make the first screen of competency." Be honest. Don't sell a position to someone. From the description in the ad to the one the employee may sign when hired, the job description should reflect the actual duties, not your ability to make them sound exciting. "If you do a bait-and-switch with somebody and they come in thinking they are going to get one set of responsibilities and it turns out to be very much lower or different, you are going to have someone who is unmotivated right out of the box," Richardson says. Mention special requirements. Are weekend or evening hours required? Is regular overtime expected? If that's the case, put it in the job description, says Robert Stewart, an employment attorney at Clayton-based Lowenbaum Partnership who represents management. Other needs outside the norm should find a place in the job description, as well. "Any travel that might be required needs to be spelled out," he says. "Secretarial people don't usually get involved in travel, but certainly paralegals can." Don't rely on verbal interaction alone. You may have mentioned expectations in the initial meeting, and those should be put in writing. "The expectations should be spelled out in the job interview, but I think there is some value in putting them in the job description because should a dispute arise, people will say, 'You never told me that,'" Stewart says. Include an elastic clause. Stewart recommends four words that should go into any job description: "other duties as assigned." That can forestall four other dreaded words from the employee: "That's not my job." Says Stewart: "I can't tell you how many pots of coffee I've made in my life. I can't tell you how many copies I've run. I can't tell you how many times I've worn out shoes walking to places. Particularly in smaller to midsized firms, the expectations of secretaries, lawyers and paralegals is that we're going to do what it takes to get the job done." Indicate exempt versus nonexempt. Melanie Renken, an employment attorney at St. Louis-based Greensfelder who represents employers, says it's important to identify whether an employee is exempt from federal overtime provisions. That depends on how much discretion they have, whether their job requires independent judgments and if they manage others, she says. "You just want to make sure you are properly classifying these employees, and I think a job description is a good place to start with that," she says. "Really sitting down and realistically looking at what an employee does on a daily basis is going to be your starting point to see if you've got these employees properly classified." Think about the future. An associate who might start out doing document review and due diligence work may eventually end up managing the entire due diligence process and interacting with clients. His or her job description should reflect that. "Used well, that description should be forward-looking," Richardson says. "If this is a growing practice group and you want to grow your bench, you want to say, 'We need a person who could learn more skills in a certain area so that they would get more and more mature.'" Don't let it gather dust. Nancy Byerly Jones, a legal management consultant based in North Carolina, says putting together an effective job description isn't a create-it-and-forget-it process. It should be reviewed quarterly or semi-annually. "It sounds cumbersome, but jobs change. People change. Situations change. Clients change," Byerly Jones says. "Update it so people will grow in their jobs and be given more responsibility or, if they are doing lousy, be given less." Look over the process. Crafting a job description shouldn't automatically codify what's already in place. The final product can be seen as an opportunity to review procedures, make them more efficient and prevent duplication of duties between employees. Think about what you want an employee to do, not just what they are doing now. "In the process of creating that, you open up the communications for the attorney to say, 'Well, why are you doing it that way? That's not how I want it done,'" Byerly Jones says, "or for an employee to find out, 'Hey, I'm doing something someone else is doing.'" Create a checklist. Job descriptions also can be a training tool for others. "The employee should make a how-to checklist to be a part of that job description, which becomes your training manual backup if that employee is on vacation, gets fired or something worse happens," Byerly Jones says. Link the description to other personnel tools. Job descriptions can spell out the time requirements for certain aspects of the position. "The job description and performance evaluation should somewhat go hand-in-hand," Renken says. "If a job description says that 75 percent of an employee's time is going to be spent managing other employees, then a large portion of the performance evaluation should be dedicated to the employee's performance in that capacity." Published: Thu, Jul 28, 2011