How to achieve Role Clarity

I think the easiest thing to do is ask the staff directly what they mean by lack of role clarity. If numbers involved are too large, then perhaps get a group of representatives to meet. If no one is willing to meet to explore what the issue is then at least you can say you have tried to engage with the staff who have raised the concerns

Ashehad

When JD's are in place and staff claim absence of role clarity, IMHO this can sometimes be a sign that

• the job descriptions do not clearly reflect the reality of how things are actually done on a day to day basis
• the procedures decribing about how things should be done and by whom are not sufficiently clear
• people don't understand the purpose of their job in the larger picture, and how it can contribute to the company's success

Obviously I'm not assuming that this is automatically the case, but you may want to have these points in mind iif you consult staff with a view to understanding why they have this impression

I can relate to most points you mentioned since JD's are developed by line managers with HR input in formalizing / sizing the roles. I am thinking to sit with random staff or have focus groups to know more, but apart from this is there something else can we do to improve this for staff.

One way that departments can help other departments to understand how things work (from their point of view) is to have lunchtime sessions where a department presents in 30 minutes what it does and how it helps the company to achieve its objectives - leave at least 15 minutes for Q&A and exchanges.

Once people have a better understanding of what is going on around them and why, they can better identify with what the company is trying to achieve.

All this assumes that managers are mature and open enough to share honestly, and use these exchanges as an opportuniny to identify how you can do things even better.

An excellent idea, I think I will facilitate small focus groups with managers and staff on reviewing weekly agendas and outcomes in addition to above.

I agree with the points raised by Ray. I'd suspect that the JD's written by you two, although well intentioned may not reflect what the employees do in reality.

This has only happened to me once and that was when my line manager came out with a job description of what I should be doing. After I explained that that was fine in theory but in practice I was doing something different because there was no else to do things, and I had to concentrate on tasks that couldn't be left.

Eventually I wrote my own job description. And that was the end of the matter.

Well writing our own sounds very enticing, but not a good practice. I dont want to end up having descriptions which are not at all aligned with the functional objectives also.

not good practice eh? Whatever you're doing doesn't exactly seem to be working.

I assume that the work (functional objectives?) is getting done properly?

If so and the staff still feel their role isn't clear, then please take Rays advice above.

There is sometimes a world of difference between what manager thinks his staff should be doing to get a job done, and what the staff actually do to get the job done. Perhaps this is the reality??

Failing that then I'd suggest you re-write their JD to read something very embracing such as the one I recall from the early days at Nissan, Sunderland, along the lines of >>...."....Any duty specified by your manager...", which broadly speaking is what most people's role is anyway.

Oh dont get me wrong, by practice I meant giving the employees the chance to write themselves may not have the desired outcome,I believe. But even that as a suggestion is appreciated. The R&R's are developed well and aligned to CPO. Rewriting JD's, focus groups, Q&A sessions are all planned to engage staff more on the outcome of daily tasks.

It would be madness to allow everyone to start writing their own job descriptions. There would be no consistency and no alignment to any kind of organisational requirements. Your original posts seem to suggest that some individuals don't fully understand what their role is. Addressing this through some kind of dialogue seems a far simpler option than some kind of wholesale updating of job descriptions.