HR Practice For Payroll Practitioners

HR Practice for Payroll Practitioners

Job Descriptions

What is a job description? There are two parts to a job description; the job description and a person specification.

Definitions:

Job description

“A job description consists of written statements detailing the tasks, activities and responsibilities of a job, its work outcomes, working conditions and relationships to other jobs”.

Person Specification

“A person specification includes the personal abilities, skills, competencies, knowledge and required or desired qualifications required to perform the job successfully”. There are many different formats for a job description. Create or adapt one that suits your needs but all job descriptions would cover the following:

Job title

Be careful about what title to give the job, make sure it fits with other position of the same type, and it does not set the job apart unless it is the nature of that specific job to be unique.

For instance:

By giving a job the title Team Leader there will be an expectation that the jobholder will be leading a team. If this is not the case do not give the job that type of title. This is a statement of what the job does, why it is needed and its importance to the business. This details the key tasks that the job is to perform. Do not detail every single task that the job does, group them into meaningful main headings. This is usually the largest section included in the job description.

Purpose of the job

Key areas of responsibility

© New Zealand Payroll Practitioners Association, Sep 2024, Ver 12

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