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CREATING JOB DESCRIPTIONS

The feedback that is generated by establishing good communication with employees can also form a vital first step in finding out if there is overlap between job roles or gaps between them. Talking to employees about their job roles will also help to identify training and development needs for existing employees and the need for any new staff.

The nature of tourism businesses often means that it is difficult to define specific job roles, as everyone from the owner/manager downwards may be involved in every aspect of the operation, particularly if the business is quite small. But it will help you and your employees understanding of who is expected to do what if you specify various aspects of each person’s role.

The key aspect of this is to create job descriptions for all those involved in your business so that everyone is clear about what their role entails. If you are a voluntary organisation, or have volunteers who help out at your business, it is important to remember that they need job descriptions too as they are carrying out the same work as a paid employee.

A logical place to start is with a job title. You may be surprised at how important this is to some people! If you are creating job descriptions for those already in place, you will need to discuss this with them to ensure that your impression is the same as theirs! If not, try and think about the post as someone else would see it, as this may become a more important issue when it comes to recruitment.

Job elements are as follows:

What the job entails – what are the tasks you expect this person to perform?
The responsibilities of the post - it is particularly important to include any supervisory or line management accountabilities as this defines the reporting structure for other staff.
Line manager – who does this person report to?
What skills are required to fulfil the tasks included. You may choose to break these down into the essential skills for the job e.g. computer literacy, good communication skills, and desirable skills e.g. the ability to communicate through the medium of Welsh
What experience (if any) is needed prior to undertaking the role – again, this could be broken down into essential and desirable experience if you wish

Once you have all your job descriptions in place, you will also have created (if you hadn’t already) an organization structure which shows how each role fits together – in departments or individually, and who reports to whom.

Benefits of job descriptions are:

Everyone knows who’s doing what!
They set parameters for each individual concerned, which avoids duplication of effort, confusion and misunderstanding in carrying out essential tasks
A reporting structure can be defined
Pay scales can be drawn up for each role that ensure parity between like jobs.

The links here point to two pages with examples of job descriptions.

In the first example below you can see how TaskForce include Objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) on their job description which is linked with their appraisal system (see also appraisals).

Task Force Job Description Example

The second is an example of a job description for a hotel receptionist job.

Hotel Receptionist Job Description Example

Organisation Structure/Chart
The benefits of having an organization structure are:

the reporting structure is clear for everyone, particularly where there are line managers between the owner/manager and other staff
employees are able to see where they might progress to other roles within the business if appropriate

The following two links point to examples of organisational charts:

Snowdon Mountain Railway

Anglesey Sea Zoo

Linking Job Descriptions to Business Objectives
Once you have both business objectives and job descriptions in place, it is possible to add to the job descriptions specific objectives for that job role that link into the business objectives. For example, if one of your business objectives is to have high standards of customer care, providing courteous and efficient service for all customers could be a job objective for a receptionist role.

By linking objectives to job roles and responsibilities, it is possible to start measuring, or assessing, an individual’s performance. This is not just about deciding whether someone is doing the job well or not – whether they are achieving their objectives - but has more complex benefits too. (see section on appraisal)

If you would like to download this document please click on one of the links below (WARNING - These are very large files):

Job Descriptions (Word Document 607Kb)
Job Descritptions (PDF Document 596Kb)



Staff Appraisals



JDs make job roles explicit to employees. JDS can help organisational communication and transparency. JDs underpin recruitment, selection, training and appraisal. JDs help identify overlap and gaps between job roles. JDs define organisational reporting structures. JDs help ensure parity between similar jobs.