Job Description

The importance of a job description
The parts of a job description
See a sample job description

The Importance of a Job Description

A job description helps you, as an employer, to clearly define the type of person you would like to hire. It helps you to decide what qualifications and previous work experience your personal assistant (PA) should have. It will help you to develop the questions you will ask during screening and interviewing. You also can share the job description with your peers to determine whether it is sufficient. You should see the job description as a guide. The prospective employee should also know from the job description that this is a serious position.

You may not find the ideal PA. While writing the job description, you also must consider how much time you want to spend in training. A well-defined job description will make it easier to determine how much experience a person really has.

You only need to create a well-written job description for each job just once. After that, it merely needs to be updated occasionally. If you have access to a computer, you can save the job description so updating it will be easy.

Tip Don't try to remember all the details of a job description in your head unless your routine is very brief. A well-written job description makes managing easier for you because the duties are clear to you and to the PA.

Importance of a Job Description section adapted from Home Health Aides: How to Manage the People Who Help You (pp. 323-331), by A.H. DeGraff, Fort Collins, Colorado, 1988. Copyright 1988 by Saratoga Access Publications. http://www.saratoga-publications.com. Reprinted with permission.

A clear list of help needs tells both the PA applicants and newly hired PAs, "this person has his head together and knows what he needs. My job will be to follow his directions and provide the help." To summarize, you are creating a comprehensive list of your needs so that

You will have an accurate, comprehensive view of what help you need, as well as when, where, and how you want the help provided.
You will be able to decide the validity of asking for help with needs that occur at various times of each day, each week, each month, each season, and once or twice each year.
You can total the weekly and monthly hours of help, and calculate and budget for these costs.
Your first and ongoing impressions to PA applicants and employees will be that you are a decisive person who knows what help is needed. You clearly are the boss, and the PA's role clearly is to follow your directions and provide help.
Your list will make it easier to tell your needs to PA applicants, home health aide agencies, and hired PAs whom you are training.
Your written job description helps the applicant to understand the nature and duties of the job. It also helps the applicant to make a more informed decision about whether they qualify for or want the job.
You and PAs will be better able to see logical divisions of your job needs among several part-time PAs.
The applicant will see you as a well-organized, decisive, intelligent individual who should be respected, and who can efficiently manage PAs and the assistance that they provide.

This list adapted from Caregivers and Personal Assistants by Alfred H. DeGraff. Copyright 2002, Saratoga Access Publications, Fort Collins, CO, http://www.saratoga-publications.com or e-mail caregiver@saratoga-publications.com. Also adapted from Home Health Aides: How to Manage the People Who Help You, by A.H. DeGraff, c. 1988, Saratoga Access Publications, Fort Collins, Colorado, http://www.saratoga-publications.com. Reprinted with permission.

Parts of a Job Description

There are at least six standard sections to a comprehensive job description, as written for a PA position:

Job Title
Nature of Work
Qualifications and Qualities of Employee
Duties to be Performed
Work Schedule and Comments
Salary

You can also see a sample job description.

1. Job Title

Although this is usually called a job title, it is often also the title of the employee. The title should identify the type of work to be done. Examples of titles that you might be using include Personal Assistant (PA), Nurse, Certified Nursing Assistant (CAN), Home Health Aide, Personal Care Attendant/Aide, Companion, Homemaker, Household Maintenance, Housekeeper, Transportation Driver, or Domestic Cook.

2. Nature of Work

This section usually consists of a paragraph or two that introduces the job applicant to the type of work to be done. Topics include:

A brief description of you, as the employer, and your physical limitations with which the PA will be working,
A brief outline of the type of work required (more detailed information will be provided in the job description section "Duties to be performed,") and
A brief outline of the schedule of work required (more detailed information will be provided in the job description section "Duties to be performed" or attached in a detailed Task Checklist.)

3. Qualifications and Qualities of Employee

Here you state whether or not the PA must have formal licensure, certification, training, or experience. The PA's qualifications will vary according to the type of position. Licensure or certification may be expected for some jobs, but does not exist for others.

The qualities that you require in a PA can include the following:

Be dependable, arrive for work on schedule, or call as much in advance as possible when unable to work.
Be on time or call as much in advance as possible when arrival will be delayed by 10 minutes or more.
Keep my thoughts, values, beliefs, relationships, and activities confidential and private.
Respect my need for honesty and security, regarding my living quarters, personal possessions, and financial assets.
Maintain a reasonably clean and neat personal appearance, while providing assistance to me.
Never come to work under the negative influence of alcohol, medications, or drugs.
Be willing to discuss and resolve employment-related problems with me.
Provide me as much advance notice as possible when resigning in order to help me find a replacement.

4. Duties to be Performed

This is a list of the tasks with which you need assistance. This could be a listing of the broad areas with which you need help. If you have a complicated routine, you might want to attach a more detailed task checklist to the job description. This task checklist includes the title of each service need or group of similar needs, the estimate of the length of time required to do it, the frequency that the task needs to be done, and the approximate starting and stopping times.

Invite PA applicants to take home a copy of your job description, read it, and list any questions that occur to them. Make sure they are comfortable with the duties before you hire them.

There are two advantages to attaching the complete task checklist to the job description. First, each applicant gets a picture of your total needs and how their work fits into the whole picture. Second, by attaching the task checklist to the job description, the same description can be used for all applicants who perform any part of the duties. You will not have to write a special job description for each applicant.

5. Work Schedule and Comments

This is a where you state the specific days and times that you expect each employee to arrive and leave.

This "work schedule" section also should mention the following items:

The way you make special requests for non-routine duties.
The minimum notice an employee must give when requesting time off or resigning. This gives you time to arrange replacement help.
The minimum notice requirements give you time to get someone to fill-in or time to recruit a new PA.

6. Salary

Salary is a regular part of every job description. However, you do not always mention a specific salary. You may need to interview PA applicants with a wide range of qualifications and experience. Therefore, you may wish to state something like "Salary depends on qualifications and experience." However, if you are offering just one special rate, you may wish to put it in writing in order to attract applicants.

This section should state the following:

how the salary is computed
the rate of pay
the pay source
benefits, if any
the schedule that you or the 3rd-party funding source uses for issuing paychecks.

Parts of Job description section adapted from Home Health Aides: How to Manage the People Who Help You (pp. 323-331), by A.H. DeGraff, Fort Collins, Colorado, 1988. Copyright 1988 by Saratoga Access Publications. http://www.saratoga-publications.com. Reprinted with permission.

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