Maintaining Job Descriptions

The InAndOut, Inc., company provides warehousing and fulfillment services (order receiving and filling) to small publishers of books with small print runs (number of copies of a book printed). After the books are printed and bound at a printing facility, they are shipped to InAndOut for handling. Books are received initially by handlers, who unload the books off trucks, place them on pallets, and move them via forklifts and conveyors to their assigned storage space in the warehouse. The handlers also retrieve books and bring them to the shipping area when orders are received. The books are then packaged, placed in cartons, and loaded onto delivery trucks (to take to air or ground transportation providers) by shippers. Book orders are taken by customer service representatives via written, phone, or electronic (email, fax) forms. New accounts are generated by marketing representatives, who also service existing accounts. Order clerks handle all the internal paperwork. All of these employees report to either the supervisor–operations or the supervisor–customer service, who in turn reports to the general manager.

The owner and president of InAndOut, 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 prior to taking action. The company is growing and changing rapidly. Many new accounts, often larger than the past norm, are opening. Publishers are demanding more services and faster order fulfillment. Information technology is constantly being upgraded, and new machinery (forklifts, computer-assisted conveyor system) is being utilized. And the workforce is growing in size to meet the business growth. There are now 37 employees, and Marvin expects to hire another 15–20 new employees within the next year.

Job descriptions for the company were originally written by a consultant abouteight years ago. They have never been revised and are hopelessly outdated. For the job of marketing representative there is no job description at all, 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 help him get a better grip on his 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 written for the first time and has assigned you that project. Since Marvin has to clear new projects with Alta, he wants you to prepare a brief proposal that he can use to approach her for seeking approval. In that proposal he wants to be able to suggest the following to Alta:

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

2. An outline of a process that might be followed 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 these new job descriptions

Marvin wants to meet with you and discuss each of these points. He wants very specific suggestions and ideas from you that he can use to prepare his proposal. What exactly would you suggest to Marvin?

Please provide references. Please be very thorough and lengthy with reponse.