What is a Job Description?

By Leo Isaac, 2010

A job description is a key element in the process of recruiting and managing the human resources of an organisation.

A job description has many purposes:

• Helps people to understand jobs within the organisations
• Helps the organisation management to find the right person for the job
• Provides objectives and guidance for people who take on jobs
• Useful in advertising vacant jobs
• Ensures some consistency in performance of people who take on a job

Ideally an organisation should have job descriptions for volunteers and paid staff.

Position descriptions for a voluntary jobs do not need to be as complex as for paid staff, but they are still needed.

Typical sections of a job description include:

• The type of employment i,e, full-time, part-time, casual
• Organisation relationships, including who the holder of the job reports to, and whether the holder of the job has any responsibility for supervising/managing staff.
• The purpose of the job within the organisation. This section may state the most important objectives of the job
• Key duties of the job. In this section, the job description sets out e more lengthy account of the regular tasks that the incumbent of the job will undertake
• Key selection criteria, this is the criteria against which any applicants for the job will be assessed.

Job Description Examples

Club Manager

Junior Coaching Director

Junior Coordinator

Canteen Coordinator

Assistant Secretary