What If We Started Every Job From Scratch?

What if we stopped looking at job descriptions as something that gets updated every few years and instead asked a completely different question.

If we were creating this job today, what would it actually look like?

Not the person. The job. Here's what I've seen after two decades in HR. Someone leaves. The organization pulls out the job description that was written years ago, makes a few changes, updates the requirements (usually adding more) and starts recruiting. Basically we're trying to replace the person who used to do the job. What if that's the problem?

The organization probably isn't the same organization it was 5 or 10 years ago. The technology has changed. Customer expectations have changed. The workforce has changed. The business and industry environments have changed. Sometimes the entire strategy has changed and this framework, this map no longer fits for the current landscape. 

Yet we're still hiring someone to step into a role that was designed for a different version of the organization. So what would happen if we threw the old job description away? That work was important and the person who held the role didn't do anything wrong. It's to build for what's next...not recreate what was.

Start with a blank page and ask eight questions:

1. What does this organization need this person to accomplish today?
2. What will we need from this role three years from now? Five years from now? You could go for 10 years from now but in these changing times, it's been quite a stretch! Begin this practice in bite-sized steps not a complete overhaul. 
3. What responsibilities still make sense?
4. What responsibilities exist simply because they've always been part of the job?
5. What work could disappear? 
6. What work needs to be added? 
7. What problems are we going to need this person to solve that didn't even exist when the original job description was written?
8. What's the capacity of this role? Too much, make it two roles or different skill levels. Too little make it fractional or part-time flex. Do you see the different top talent possibilities that just came out of this step? So exciting!

That's a very different conversation than "who can fill this position?" Now you're creating a role instead of replacing one. This process isn't just about job descriptions. It's something I've been thinking about more and more when I work with organizations around change.

We spend a lot of time telling people they need to be adaptable. We tell leaders they need to think differently. We tell employees they need to embrace change and build their agility. But then we hand them systems, processes, structures and roles that were built for the way things used to work. Then we're surprised when people struggle to change.

From a third party view, across multiple industries I'm seeing a trend in behavior. The problem isn't always that people are resistant. It's that we're asking people to change while continuing to give them the same map.

I've seen some pretty unconventional ideas come out of conversations when organizations are willing to question the map. Employees creating their own schedules. Five-minute shift handoff meetings. Staff meetings that look more like town halls. Starting roles and responsibilities from scratch based on what the organization actually needs today instead of what someone decided the job should look like 10 years ago.

Some of these ideas sound a little crazy at first. If you know me, I'm SOOOO here for that! That's where the adventure enters our days again. We don't drag on the same trail leading us to no where. We create a new path to a destination worth the effort. 

If every solution sounds completely reasonable, there's a good chance we're still operating inside the same assumptions that created the problem. I'm not saying every organization should throw out every job description. I'm asking a different question:

If you were building this organization today, would you build this job the same way?

If that answer is no, that's worth paying attention to. Sometimes we don't need another program or another process or another training. Sometimes we need to stop trying to make the old map work and go on a new adventure. One that has been created yet. 

The way we've always done it may have been exactly right for where we've been. That doesn't mean it's right for where we're going.

So if you had to start one role from scratch today, not based on the person who currently has it, not based on the old job description, and not based on "that's how we've always done it"...what would you create?

Explore a New Map

Watch more here (13 min): YouTube Video