The Tribune

By Ian Ferguson

Recent surveys of new hires indicate that many persons, employed even at senior levels, still do not receive clear job descriptions outlining and clarifying the expectations for the role. Many persons, in fact, indicate that they were responsible for determining the parameters themselves for which they were expected to work. Think about your own experiences: How many times did you receive a written job description for your various roles, and how consistent where those outlines with what you were actually expected to do?

Clearly we have identified a gap that still exists in our corporate environment. In the absence of job descriptions, standard operating procedures and a thorough on-boarding experience, including but not limited to company orientation, employees run amok and are left to give less than standard performance.

Our forward trek as a corporate community is towards positively shifting the skills and productivity challenges that have plagued us for some time. We believe that one bold step in this process involves clarifying, on a national level, every role and description of that role in every sector.

What this means essentially is that someone vying for a technician’s job at the local clinic understands clearly:

1. The minimum level of qualifications required to even apply for the job.

2. The general and technical competencies required in assuming the role.

3. The day-to-day functions to be engaged once in the role.

Our failure to do this, both in the public and private sector, has resulted in a dangerous and harmful system of entitlement, where the unqualified, unskilled and unproductive believe they can ascend to high office, even in their vocationally-deprived condition.

In fact, they take great offense to not being considered for key roles in organisations. No one dares tell them they are unfit in their current state, and our failed performance management systems further exacerbate the challenge of persons at work thinking more highly of themselves than they ought.

If we are to advance as a people, building stronger, more economically viable companies and departments, this must change. People must understand there are basic requirements and expectations that have been plainly researched and documented. No Russian Roulette, no Inny Minny Miny Mo, No happenstance, but a well thought-out narrative of those functions and requirements necessary for success.

I am essentially saying that we have created this monster. We have allowed individuals to assume positions for which they are ill-prepared and incapable of even minimally performing. We settle, then, for the sub-standard delivery of service and celebrate when the individual seems to get some minute portion of the work right.

The solution, then, from an organisational standpoint is to begin today providing clearly and correctly written job descriptions for every role in the company, and to hold persons accountable for what they have been hired to do as outlined in those job descriptions. Additionally, as we live in a dynamic and ever-changing workplace and world, it is critical that periodic updates and checks on those descriptions are conducted by the guardians of the standards.

Nationally, a clarion call must be made for a research-based study that results in completing well-written job descriptions across sectors and industries, spelling out competency requirements and qualifications so we begin the process of shifting the minds of Bahamians to prepare themselves, rather than look for favours or politicians for their next job or promotion.

NB: Ian R. Ferguson is a talent management and organisational development consultant, having worked in both the public and private sector locally and regionally providing interventions and solutions for promoting business and service excellence. He was educated at the College of the Bahamas, the University of the West Indies, St. Johns University and holds a Masters of Science Degree from the University of Miami.