As a company grows, getting ideas down in writing becomes more and more critical. The thoughts and ideas of the founder(s) become increasingly difficult to instill in everyone. If you have never written anything down at your sign shop, a good place to start might be an employee’s job description.
We have written job descriptions for anyone we hire, move, or promote. The process is fairly straightforward.
Step By Step
- Draft out a list of all the major and minor tasks and responsibilities the job entails. Keep this initial list really simple and in plain English.
- Get feedback from managers if you have them. If it’s just you, show it to other business owners for feedback.
- Set up a nice format you can use throughout your organization and consider points that everyone might have on their job descriptions. For every job description at FireSprint, we start with a note on continuous improvement and safety. Don’t let formatting or minor details keep from from getting this done!
- Schedule a meeting with the employee. Don’t just drop the job description on their desk and walk away (Like I did for so many years). Schedule a meeting to go over it. Make it clear the meeting is a “Job Description Review” and stick to the plan. If you’re anything like me, this will be a little odd at first, but booking time on the calendar to focus on growing the business helps set the expectation that this is important to everyone.
- During your meeting, go through all the points of the job description, one by one. You can read them verbatim or elaborate on them. Your goal is to eliminate any doubt or misunderstanding of what the points are.
- Keep it simple! A short but sweet job description is just fine. Your company culture, and the founder’s style will dictate what you need.
Samples from FireSprint
I have included links to a couple of our current job descriptions here. You may copy and edit them to fit your sign shop’s needs.
Digital Production Specialist Job Description
Purchasing Coordinator Job Description
Keep it going
Keep your job descriptions up to date. As roles change, and companies grow, job descriptions change. That’s ok. Update them and review them regularly with your employees.
The job description is a solid first step. From here you can review points when someone is missing the mark, or use it as a platform for promotions. Reviewing the written job description with employees gives you a foundation for everything else, and helps to set clear expectations for everyone at your company.