Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Take this Job and...Describe It? Part II

So, more on the importance of job descriptions...(what am I talking about? check out part one here)

Benefit #3: Rarely does a new-hire have every piece of knowledge, skill, and attitude needed for success. By using job descriptions as a check sheet for training, employees learn what they need to do. A collection of well-written job descriptions provide direction for future learning, too. New and seasoned volunteers deserve training and education as well. Take your board, for example. Board member job descriptions will (read:should) include a part about fundraising responsibilities. Does that mean that every board member knows how to solicit a priori? Of course not! But if it's in the job description, then a board member should 1) know it's a-coming and 2) rightfully expect to be trained on how to do it! For a sample board member job description, post on this blog and I'll put one up!

Benefit #4: Finally, job descriptions are great for structuring performance evaluations. Most company's performance evaluation forms are severely overly-generic. Accordingly, employees aren't sure just what they must do to get a stellar review. Not reviewing your volunteers? I would say "tsk tsk", but who needs more Jewish guilt? Your volunteers need to be assessed, just like your staff does. Most volunteers want to be rewarded, positively reinforced, and recognized -- just like staff -- but a blanket "good job!" doesn't give them useful information about what specifically is working, and what could use additional attention.

Deborah
www.myjewishcoach.com
www.jewishorganizations.blogspot.com
www.myjewishcoach.blogspot.com

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