Maintaining Job Descriptions

The In And Out, Inc., company provides digital printing and distribution services for organizations and booksellers. Electronic documents are initially received by design experts, who improve the appearance of materials by creating or editing illustrations and figures, determining font size and placement, and finalizing lay- outs. Technical experts then adapt materials to a variety of digital formats, deter- mine compatibility across devices and operating systems, and evaluate feasibility of custom print runs. Marketing experts facilitate distribution to online stores and the generation of publicity and advertising messages. Customer services representatives generate new accounts and also service existing accounts. All these employees report to either the supervisor of operations or the supervisor of customer service, both of whom report to the general manager.

The owner and president of In And Out, Inc., Alta Fossom, is independently wealthy and delegates all day-to-day management matters to the general manager, Marvin Olson. Alta requires, however, that Marvin clear any new ideas or initiatives with her before taking action. The company is growing and changing rapidly, along with adding many new, and often large, accounts. Publishers are demanding more services and faster order fulfillment. Information technology is constantly being upgraded, and new platforms and operating systems are continually coming online that affect all phases of the process. The workforce is growing in size to meet the business growth. The company now has 37 employees, and Marvin expects to hire 15 -20 new employees within the next year.

Job descriptions for the company were originally written by a consultant about eight years ago. They have never been revised and are hopelessly outdated. The job of marketing representative does not even have a job description, because the job was created only five years ago. As general manager, Marvin is responsible for all HR management matters, but he has little time to devote to them. To get a better grip on HR responsibilities, Marvin has hired you as a part-time HR intern. He has a gut feeling that the job descriptions need to be updated, or in some cases created, and has assigned this project to you. Since Marvin has to clear new projects with Alta, he wants you to prepare brief proposal that he can take to her for approval and that suggests the following: (only answer question 2 with 5oo words)

1. Reasons why it is important to update or write new job descriptions.

2. An outline of a process for doing this that will yield a set of thorough, current job descriptions.

3. A process to be used in the future for periodically reviewing and updating job descriptions.

4.Marvin wants to meet with you and discuss each of these points. He wants the proposal to contain specific suggestions and ideas. What exactly would you suggest to Marvin?