Job description: role and usefulness in skills management

For several years, companies have tended to structure their Human Resources management through a logic centered, in large part, on skills. Versatility, soft skills, internal mobility and even talent management have become essential subjects.

As a result, the job description appears as an outdated tool, too rigid and insufficiently adapted to new work organizations. Some companies even go so far as to completely eliminate it in favor of skills benchmarks or mission sheets, perceived as more flexible.

And yet, the job description remains a particularly useful HR tool when it is correctly constructed and used. Recruitment, management, evaluation, organization of work or even clarification of responsibilities… its uses remain numerous.

So, is the job description really incompatible with skills management? And above all, how to build a job description that is useful, effective and adapted to current work realities? This is the whole point of our article.

The job description: definition, role and objectives

What is the job description?

The job description is an HR document that formalizes the main characteristics of a position within the company. It generally specifies:

• The missions of the position;
• The main activities;
• Les responsabilités confiés;
• The expected skills;
• Hierarchical positioning;
• Or even the conditions for exercising the position.

Unlike a simple job description, the job description is not limited to listing missions. Above all, it makes it possible to clearly define the role of the employee in the organization, their scope of action and their place within the team.

What are the objectives of the job description?

The job description meets several HR and managerial objectives. Well constructed, it allows above all to clarify the role of each employee and to provide a common frame of reference for managers, teams and HR.

In particular, it facilitates the distribution of missions and responsibilities within the organization. By specifying the scope of the position, it limits unclear areas, misunderstandings or even duplication in the work.

The job description is also a valuable tool during recruitment. It makes it possible to better define the need, to identify the expected skills and to secure the drafting of job offers.

It also plays an important role in the management and monitoring of employees. Support for integration, exchange or even evaluation, it helps to set a clear framework and consistent expectations.

Finally, even in a skills management logic, the job description remains useful for identifying development needs, supporting the evolution of professions and structuring certain HR practices.

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Job description Vs skills management, two antagonistic approaches?

With the development of skills management, some companies have gradually reduced the use of job descriptions in favor of more flexible and scalable approaches.

The objective is often to better support versatility, internal mobility or even rapid transformations of professions.

However, completely opposing job description and skills management would be a mistake. These two tools actually meet different, but complementary, needs.

Thus, the job description provides a clear and structuring framework, while skills management allows for greater flexibility and adaptability.

The challenge for HR is therefore not to choose between the two approaches, but rather to articulate them intelligently according to the needs of the company and the teams.

What are the advantages and limitations of the job description?

Although it remains useful, the job description is not free from limitations. Its effectiveness depends mainly on how it is built and used within the company.

The advantages of the job description

When used correctly, the job description allows in particular:

• To clarify the roles of each person;
• To facilitate the integration of new employees;
• To improve team coordination;
• To serve as support for interviews;
• To help identify skills needs;
• To secure certain HR decisions.

It also constitutes a useful tool for managers, who thus have a clearer frame of reference.

The limits and risks of the job description

Conversely, a job description that is poorly constructed or not updated can quickly lose its interest.

Among the main limitations, we find:

• A risk of rigidity in the organization;
• Missions that no longer correspond to the reality on the ground;
• Difficulty taking into account versatility;
• Or even a purely administrative use.

Certain practices can also significantly reduce its effectiveness. This is particularly the case when job descriptions are too long, too vague or constructed from simple copy and paste between several functions.

The absence of regular updating, insufficiently detailed skills or even a lack of involvement of managers in their development can also limit their daily usefulness.

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Several elements can also alert HR:

• Managers never use the cards;
• Collaborators do not recognize themselves in their content;
• The actual missions differ greatly from the document;
• Recruitments are difficult to manage;
• Or the files are never updated.

However, these limits do not call into question the interest of the job description. Above all, they show that it must remain a living and regularly updated tool.

How to build an effective job description?

To be truly useful, a job description must not be thought of as a simple administrative document. Above all, it must meet the needs of the field and reflect the reality of the position occupied.

Step 1: Understand the position and its environment

Naturally, we imagine that it all starts with writing the form. And yet, the first step is not writing, but analyzing the position as a whole. This step is essential, because it helps avoid files that are too generic or disconnected from operational reality.

To do this, HR can rely on several sources of information:

• Discussions with the manager;
• Observation of missions actually carried out;
• Analysis of the responsibilities of the position;
• Or the work environment and daily interactions.

The objective is not simply to draw up a list of tasks, but to understand the purpose of the position and its place in the organization.

Certain questions can also help to structure this reflection, in particular:

• What are the real priority missions?
• What is the role of the position in the team?
• What responsibilities are associated with it?
• What skills are essential in everyday life?

Step 2: Build a clear job description

An effective job description must remain simple to read and easy to use, both for HR and for managers or employees.

Even if its content may vary from one company to another, certain information remains essential:

• L’ititulé du poste;
• The purpose of the position;
• The main missions;
• Associated activities;
• The expected skills;
• Hierarchical attachment;
• The main interactions of the position.

The objective is not to create an exhaustive document, but rather a clear support that facilitates the understanding of the role and expectations.

To check that the sheet remains relevant, several points are worth checking:

• Is important information clearly visible?
• Are the missions understandable?
• Is the level of responsibility identifiable?
• Does the document remain sufficiently readable and concise?

Step 3: Integrate skills logic

Today, a job description can no longer be limited to a succession of missions or tasks. It must also take into account the skills necessary for performance.

This can notably involve the identification of:

This approach makes it possible to make the sheet more consistent with current developments in professions and companies’ expectations in terms of versatility.

To ensure that the integrated skills remain relevant to the position, some questions may be helpful:

• Do the skills identified correspond to real needs?
• Are soft skills sufficiently taken into account?
• Are the expectations realistic?
• Are certain skills likely to evolve quickly?

Step 4: Bring the job description to life over time

A job description cannot and must not remain frozen in time. Organizations evolve, professions transform and expectations gradually change.

It is therefore important to plan regular updates in order to keep files consistent with the reality on the ground. This can notably involve:

• A review during interviews;
• A half-yearly, annual review of changes to the position;
• Regular exchanges with managers;
• Or the association of employees concerned.

The objective is to keep a document actually used on a daily basis and not a simple administrative formality.

To identify when an update becomes necessary, several elements can alert:

• The missions have evolved;
• Some responsibilities have changed;
• New skills are expected;
• Or the job description is no longer used as a reference support.

Good practices to adopt

Building an effective job description is a first step. But it still needs to remain useful and adapted to the needs of the company over time.

To do this, certain good practices can make a difference:

• Use simple and concrete formulations;
• Avoid sheets that are too long or too theoretical;
• Involve managers in their construction;
• Integrate the skills actually expected;
• Regularly update the content;
• Use the sheets in recruitment and interviews;
• Maintain a certain flexibility in the definition of missions.

The objective is not to make the company’s operations more rigid, but to have a clear, useful and sufficiently scalable framework to support business transformations.

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