Last week we outlined 3 potential negatives of having job descriptions for your employees & contractors in your clinic. This week we have listed 3 more potential negatives that should be taken into consideration.

1. Narrow
A job description summarises the tasks that someone does in a job. This summary can be very narrow, and in many cases it cannot encompass all the person does for the job or all that the job entails. This is bad for employees when they transfer jobs and bad for employees coming into a job. In the first case, a potential clinic owner may look at the job summary and assume the employee has done little; in the second case, the employee may not expect the full responsibilities of a job and later resign or become discouraged.

2. Labor Laws
A job description is a legal description of the job that employees must do. If the employer asks the employee or contractor to do a task that is not in the job description, this can be a labour law violation. It is important to know all labour laws before assigning a job description to a position in your clinic.

3. Limits Employee Growth
A detailed job description can tend to limit the ways in which an employee or contractor can grow and develop within the clinic. Because his role is so well-defined with the detailed job description, it can be difficult for the employee or contractor to be given different responsibilities that may help him advance within the clinic. Clinic management may not want to deviate from the detailed job description, and this creates a situation where the employee or contractor may not be able to advance from his current position.