What should a job description for a factory role say?
A job description (JD) should say why the role exists, what it is responsible for, what it can decide alone, who it reports to, and what skills it needs. It describes the position, not the person. One page is enough. Several people with the same designation can share one JD.
Most factories have no written JD. The supervisor learned the job by watching the person before him. The accountant does what the owner asked last. When a new person joins, he is told, "You will understand in a few days."
That works while the owner is watching every day. It fails when the owner is away, when a person leaves, or when you want to hold someone fairly responsible for a result.
Write the job, not the person
This is the most important rule. If you write "the senior clerk handles dispatch because he knows everyone", that is a note about a person. A JD says "Dispatch executive: sends finished goods on the committed date with correct documents."
Write what the role does. Then any suitable person can be trained into it.
The blocks of a one-page JD
Our standard JD format has eight blocks.
| Block | What to write |
|---|---|
| 1. Role identification | Job title, department, level, number of positions |
| 2. Purpose | Why this role exists, in one or two lines |
| 3. Key responsibilities | Six to ten duties, each with how often it is done |
| 4. Authority | What the person can decide alone, and what he must ask for |
| 5. Reporting | Reports to whom, who reports to him, who he works with |
| 6. Qualification and experience | Minimum and preferred |
| 7. Competencies | Technical skills, behaviour, software |
| 8. Sign-off | HR, the head of department and the role holder |
Block 2 is the heart of it. A good purpose line works like a sentence you can test. For a shift supervisor it might be: plans and supervises the shift to the plan, to the drawing, and with the least loss. Every duty in the JD should connect to that line.
Block 4: Authority is the block most JDs miss
Owners often write duties but not authority. Then the supervisor must ask the owner before moving an operator to another machine, and the owner wonders why nobody takes decisions.
Write two short lists:
- Can decide: moves operators between machines inside the shift; stops a job on a quality doubt.
- Must ask: overtime beyond the plan; any change in the production plan or priority; purchase of tools.
This one block removes many daily phone calls to the owner. It is a real step towards Owner-driven to system-driven.
From a long list of tasks to a short JD
Before you write the JD, find out what the person really does. We use the JR form for this. It lists every task, how often it is done, who does it (the primary person) and who is the backup (the secondary person).
The method is simple:
- Sit with the head of the department and his team. Do three or four sittings.
- Ask: "Imagine you had to hand this whole job to a junior tomorrow. What would you teach him, task by task?"
- Write down what is done today, even if it is not ideal. Improvement comes after.
- Keep the activity apart from the report it produces.
- Include checking and reviewing. They are tasks too.
People are sometimes unwilling at the first sitting. They think, "I did these tasks for the company, now they will be counted." Explain that the aim is to see the whole workload and share it fairly. The more they write, the more they remember.
If you cannot hand a job over to a junior on one page, then the job lives in one person's head, and so does your risk.
What a JD gives you after it is written
- A clear brief for hiring, for interviews and for recruitment agencies.
- A new joiner who knows what is expected from the first week.
- The base for KRAs and KPIs. A JD comes first; the key result areas come out of it.
- A clear list of training needs.
- Delegation, because you can see which tasks can move down to a junior.
The chain is: job description → KRA → KPI → monthly review → yearly performance review. If the first link is missing, the rest is guesswork.
Common mistakes
- Copying a JD from another company. The words may look right, but the tasks are not yours.
- Writing a wish list. Write what the role does today. Improvement comes later.
- Fifty duties. Six to ten key responsibilities are enough. The long list stays in the JR.
- No authority block. Duties without authority create a person who waits.
- Never updating. Review once a year, or when the role changes. When a role grows, redraw the JD.
How to start in your plant
- Pick one role that matters, such as the shift supervisor or the stores in-charge.
- Sit with the person for one hour and fill the JR form on paper.
- Write the purpose line first. Then choose six to ten key responsibilities.
- Write the two authority lists.
- Ask the role holder to read it and say what is missing. Sign it together.
Key points
- A JD describes the position, not the person. Keep it to one page.
- Write the purpose line first, and connect every duty to it.
- Always write what the role can decide and what it must ask for.
- Find the real tasks through the JR form before writing the JD.
- The JD comes first. KRAs and KPIs are built from it.
