Posted By: Daniela Tancau, May 22, 2026
How to Create a Job Description
Do you have job descriptions that accurately reflect what employees do within the company? And how are job descriptions created in your company?
I’m bringing up this subject because I’ve seen cases when top management doesn’t place much value on it and has low expectations regarding the quality and accuracy of a job description. Also, because the process of creating a job description is not well understood, they ask their HR employees to write job descriptions for new jobs by taking inspiration from the internet.
Job descriptions are part of the labour contract, and they need to be written carefully. They represent what employees agreed to do for the employer when they signed their labour contracts or when their job descriptions were updated.
They are also the main document used to establish the hiring criteria and requirements, and they serve as a basis for performance evaluations as well.
In addition to these aspects, job descriptions can also be used in legal proceedings to demonstrate that the tasks assigned to an employee were part of his/her responsibilities and duties, and the work was in accordance with the employment contract.
Job Description Sets Candidates' Expectations and Understanding of a Job Offer
The correct way to start a hiring process
Hiring well starts with having a good understanding of what the new employee will do in the company, what his or her responsibilities will be, and what their role will be in relation to the other member of the company.
Based on the activities and responsibilities that are part of the job, the qualifications, experience, skills and competences are determined and set as requirements for that particular job.
This good understanding of the role cannot come from the internet. It comes from those who requested the job.
How often hiring activities starts in some companies
What often happens in small companies is that the CEO communicates the need for a person in a job position and provides some details about what they want from the new employee, and that’s it.
If they are working with inexperienced or unqualified people, it’s very likely that the hiring process is based only on those details.
What a professional would do first, before posting any job ad and before talking about that job, is to gain clarity about what that job entails.
How HR or the hiring representatives can get clarity about the new role
Having clarity implies that the job has a clear job description with all the necessary information.
To create this description, HR needs to have an one-to-one conversation with the person requesting the new employee. HR needs to ask the questions that help clearly identify what the new person will do and how the role fits in relation to other jobs within the company.
The right person for HR to speak with is not always the CEO. Even if the CEO is the one asking HR to hire someone, the request may have initially come from a team leader who needs more people to cover the workload. In this case, that team leader is the right person to discuss the job’s activities, responsibilities, position level, and other details that help in creating the job description and defining what candidates to look for.
Then, the job description needs to be approved by the CEO. Most often, the CEO makes the final decision in hiring someone, and aligning expectations from the beginning is an important part of the hiring process.
This first step – creating the job description – is very important in defining what is communicated about the job and what is expected from the new employee. It sets the information that will be included in job ads and how the job will be presented during job interviews. Sometimes jobs are not clearly presented to candidates, not necessarily because of a lack of transparency, but because those doing the hiring are not very clear about the job themselves. They cannot be clear without completing this first step.
When the job description already has been created
If we are talking about a job for which this process of creating the job description has already been completed and the company simple needs to double or increase the number of people in that job, then of course it doesn’t need to be repeated. However, if later on, new people become involved in the hiring process, who didn’t participate in this initial first step, they may not fully understand the job description. They will need additional explanations from those who understand the job well.
Not all details of a job can be included in a job description, no matter how comprehensive it is. Some details can’t be captured in it, for example, aspects of the work environment and work processes, which are also important when selecting candidates.
The Job Description is a Reference for Performance Evaluation
Performance evaluation forms need to be designed based on the job descriptions that employees have. The performance criteria can’t include skills or competencies that are not included in the job description of the employee being evaluated.
For example, we should not assess the ability to be a good negotiator if the employee is, for example, in a technical position that doesn’t involve external communication with clients or customers.
Also, an employee should not be evaluated for activities that are not part of his/her job description. This is a mistake for multiple reasons:
– These tasks should be an exception.
– The employee wasn’t hired for these tasks.
– His or her ability to perform these additional tasks wasn’t assessed and was not required by the employer.
– He/she didn’t sign any document to perform these tasks.
– It can demotivate the employee and lower his/her performance, which is the opposite goal of a performance evaluation.
Situations When a Job Description Needs to be Updated
When an Employee's Job Title Changes
If the employee is promoted or demoted, his/her job description needs to change as well. The new job title needs to be updated, and the responsibilities that are added or removed needs to be updated as well. Also, the skills and competences required for the job needs to be aligned as well.
If an Employee's Responsibilities Change
Even if the job title remains the same but the activities of an employee were modified, the job description still needs to be updated.
It could be the case when small changes were added to a job that, compounded over time, result in a job description that no longer reflect the real activities.
Or it could be a situation in which the job responsibilities changed through a internal decision, with the employee’s agreement, and the change needs to be included in the job description.
Is Employee Agreement Required to Change a Job Description?
Since the job description is part of the work contract, yes, the employee needs to agree to the changes.
Even if the laws in your region allow you to make changes without the employee’s consent, I still recommend to discussing the changes with the employee.
This is very important for their motivation. If the changes are not aligned with what they want and they are obligated to complete tasks for which they didn’t sign up and don’t like, they’ll be dissatisfied with these changes and become disengaged or show their discontent in other ways – for example, through complains, looking for other jobs, negative attitudes.
More on this blog post:
- Steps to Create a Job Description
- What is Job Design
- How to Conduct a Job Analysis
- Elements of a Job Description
- Compliance with Labour Laws and Occupational Standards
If you have any questions or want to discuss this topic further, feel free to reach out to me directly in the comments or via email: daniela.tancau@improvework.ro
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Posted By: Daniela Tancau
Daniela Tancau is an HR consultant, trainer, coach, and founder of Improve Work company. She has over seventeen years of experience in the human resources field. Her expertise lies primarily in online programs and courses aimed to increase employee motivation, develop team leadership skills, employee communication, and much more.
