Understanding Job Characteristics and Using Job Scorecards

What is it you do here again? Does this question sound familiar in your work life? From our experience, this is a company and staff that don’t pay much attention to what is going on around them. It has nothing to do with you as a staff member, however, the leadership team around you is not doing what they are supposed to.

Job Characteristics

Now let’s dive into what you do in the company! What characteristics or traits do you have when you go to work? Are you a person that shows up early, or late or right on time? Do you leave early, late or right on time? Can your supervisor trust you and are you a loyal worker? Some positive traits that we have witnessed in our time of consulting are staff that are loyal, productive, put in the hours required, communicate effectively, take initiative in reviews by having an engaging conversation with their supervisor and so on. If someone asks you what you do here again, look at the traits you portray inside of the company. Maybe you just go to work and disappear for the day. Be careful with this, because it may be okay in booming economic times, but when times get hard, you may be the first to be let go.

Business Strategy Planning | Understanding Job Characteristics & Job Scorecards

Job Scorecards

This is a fairly new way of thinking. Too often staff have been defined by a two-page job description, but when you read them, people are left wondering, how do I accomplish all of this in a day, week or month. We have been training our clients on job scorecards. It is basically your job description broken down into 5-6 critical tasks. These tasks are then broken down into achievable goals for the staff to accomplish. It takes a lot of guess work out for the staff member and they know what they are at the company to achieve. One of the worst statements we dislike hearing is; “that’s not my job”. With a scorecard, it eliminates this comment. By having broad tasks, it ensures the staff look at their job holistically and not point by point. Job scorecards are extremely effective if you can get the others around you to change to this way of thinking.

Leadership

The next simple comment is leadership. You need leadership to become effective in identifying what we discussed above. What are they doing and how do you get them to accept this small but strong effective change?

If you need help with this process, feel free to contact us Future To Now Consulting to get the conversation started.