A job description is pretty straightforward. It outlines the competencies and qualifications one needs for a particular job as well as expected duties to fulfill the responsibilities and requirements of the position. However, a shoot-off of a job description — a job charter — could have farther reaching implications that help direct the future of an organization.
"[Job descriptions] are used for hiring, retention, career pathway and succession planning. How wonderful would it be for me as a manager to understand what I need to be doing to be promoted?" asked Jill Sackman, DVM, PhD, senior consultant with Numerof & Associates, at a session at the Becker's Hospital Review 6th Annual Meeting in Chicago.
That's where the job charter comes in — as the next-level step to inform future paths of leaders instead of just outlining what an individual needs to do in a specific role.
"The job chartering process is not about writing a new job description," Dr. Sackman said. "We know [job descriptions] are important for compensation purposes and they reside in [human resources], but they don't do a good job of describing what people need to be doing differently."
Dr. Sackman said that while job descriptions are weighted toward past education and certification, job charters focus on competency, strategy and alignment.
At La Crosse, Wis.-based Gundersen Health System, Janine Luz, director of organizational development, was dealing with low employee satisfaction numbers and was seeking a way further align physicians with the organization. "We had never felt the strain on our entire employee population or our leadership team like we had during this time," Ms. Luz said. "We knew the status quo wasn't going to get us to the place we needed to get."
Dr. Sackman and her team implemented a job charter process at Gundersen to outline a strategy for individuals and the organization to keep moving forward and adjust to changing market demands.
Job charters also help organizations list key competencies and strategies they seek in leaders and then identify individuals who meet those expectations. "That's what the job charter does: It defines the relevant accountabilities and key interfaces for [certain] roles," Dr. Sackman said.
At Gundersen, Ms. Luz said some of their leaders did not have the financial competency to both manage finances and communicate that with their team members. "In the past we would have said in a job description that we need leaders who can communicate clearly. What that would translate to in the charter is now they need to communicate financial information to their peers, staff and next-level leaders."
Ms. Luz said the charter now serves as the basis for performance reviews for hospital staff. She said that it does ask a lot from leaders, especially physician leadership, but the charter outlines what leadersneed to be successful.
"We know that physicians have these inherent leadership skills, but they often need to be molded into not just a 'diagnose and treat' methodology but really understanding [healthcare] is about building a team and working cross-functionally," Ms. Luz said. "Those are the leadership skills we employ."
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