Start off the New Year by ensuring your workplace is ready for 2015. Our last article covered how to prepare for the Ontario Accessibility with Disabilities Act (AODA) and Policies on Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment. But now I’m going to share two more items you need to prepare for.
Have Comprehensive Job Descriptions in Place
A job description establishes the accountabilities for the position and the competencies a candidate must possess to excel in the role. A comprehensive job description will help assess how a particular individual will contribute to or detract from your company vision. If, for example, you create many great initiatives, but hire leaders with no ability to motivate staff, then nobody can execute your plans. You’re wasting your money and time!
Let me share the benefits of having comprehensive job descriptions:
- They will allow you to make informed hiring decisions by developing recruiting strategies that clearly outline to applicants their role and responsibilities.
- They will help you conduct interviews and provide a solid foundation for developing interview questions.
- Job descriptions will help you determine the compensation package in ways that reflect their qualifications and responsibilities within the company.
- When used as means to communicate expectations, job descriptions can also be used as a basis for performance management. For the employee, having a clear job description allows them to understand the responsibilities and duties that are required and expected of them.
Have Employment Contracts in Place
Having a written employment contract allows both you and your employees to have a clear understanding of the expectations that you have of each other and allows you, as the employer, to limit your liability in a number of important ways.
Most employers make offers of employment by way of an offer letter, which will detail the compensation that the employee will receive, as well as some of the basic expectations of employment (such as hours of work). These offer letters are often the only written form of employment contract that exists between the employer and employee. The problem with offer letters is that they are courtship documents: they reflect the employer’s intentions at the beginning of the employment relationship when they are trying to woo the potential employee into the workplace. Many employers do not contemplate the level of detail which should be addressed or how the relationship will end, or they don’t think that these details should be within a courtship document.
Employment contracts come in handy at time of termination and save you thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Our next article will share other important items you need to be prepared for in order to be in 2015 the employer of choice.
