Dog psychologists, kitty counselors, painting authenticators, and consultants for horse saddles, kosher certification and feng shui. So, what do these people do?

That’s not what to ask. Better to ask them what they will accomplish for you. What is the result that you want from them?, and then define it.

It’s undoubtedly fascinating to let them tell you how they are going to approach their assignment, but it will be more valuable to you to understand what they will give you at the end of their assignment.

Our friends used a kitty counselor when they introduced a third cat into their family. In a results-oriented manner, the counselor’s job description is:

INTEGRATES NEW CAT INTO FAMILY

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analyzing current and new cat behaviors; evaluating change options; recommending change strategies and tactics; evaluating outcomes; recommending adjustments.

How do you teach employees about their organization’s values? Well, you can have separate orientation and training programs, but why not put the values at the point of employee contact with the organization—in the job description.

For starters, get the notion out of your head that a job description is filed away in the human resources department. No, it is a living document that should be used to guide on-the-job plans and actions.

A job description should focus on results to be accomplished not only on duties and tasks to be performed. In this way, the value of the action is described. Not, “Introduce yourself to guests,” but instead,

WELCOMES GUESTS

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extending a greeting; introducing self by name.

Use the graphic three lines with boldface and capital letters to create the emphasis.

Add job standards: Guests will be welcomed immediately. Or, Guests will be acknowledged within 15 seconds if busy with another guest.

If you have key vision and value words (buzz words or mottos) in your organization, put them in the job description, perhaps as a banner or in a “Values” Section. For example, if your routine reminder is, “Guests are Always Happy,” put this phrase in your job description.

Better yet, use your vision and values language in the results and duties portion of the job description.

Should women be prohibited to work with bare legs? This question in 2008 in the USA??? Whoa! Some young women have never even owned panty hose. Have they even heard of garter belts except at Victoria Secrets?

Who will see their bare legs? An offended customer? An excited co-worker? What is the issue here?

On the day that we read the news article about hose, we visited with a nurse (BSN level) who helped us greatly with care options for Roger’s mother—very professional. She wasn’t wearing hose. Now, if the nursing profession can move from starched white caps and uniforms and standing up when a doctor entered the nursing stations to bare legs, the rest of the workforce can surely relax.

Hey folks, let’s focus on job results and forget the little stuff.

If trust, adaptability, democratization, fluid boundary definition, long-term strategy, collective thinking and maintaining continuity while dealing with constant change are benchmarks for the “new” organization, then job descriptions detailing specific tasks that narrow an employee’s attention span are definitely not “haute” style.

A results-oriented job description charts an organization responsibility that defines goals to be accomplished, and invites employees to apply their talents in pursuit of the organization purpose.

To modernize the civil service and administration of multi-tiered government, the World Bank International Development Association Program includes results-oriented job descriptions for all provincial, district and tehsil units in order to focus on service delivery outcomes.

In the report, The Role Of The Public Service Commission In Management Of Human Resources, to the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD), Sir Carlisle Burton and associates advocated the strengthening of human resource management systems in the Public Services of the Commonwealth Caribbean, including promotion of high level of performance and productivity, setting of work standards, development of results-oriented job descriptions, and techniques that contribute to high morale, motivation and job satisfaction amongst officers.

Telecommuting forces a manager to take a different managing style with employees, actually one that’s more in line with good managing, that is, managing for results. What matters at work—wherever the work is performed—is what an employee accomplishes, that is, the output, the outcomes, the results of doing the work.

With a teleworker, you can’t just walk up to the workstation to see what’s going on. (In fact, don’t even hire a teleworker whom you can’t trust to manage his/her own work.) Maybe you can track inputs and time on line, but mainly what you want to check is results produced.

So, the job description of a teleworker (well, actually of any worker) should center on expected results, including the standards by which the results must be accomplished.

Personal work styles differ, too. People work at different paces. When you stop to think of it, working in an office can be pretty constricting where overseeing is fairly obvious. When managers and employees agree on expected results, and measure according to results, employees are free to take responsibility for their actions and to accomplish desired results in different ways.

The Espanola New Mexico National Education Association local worked with their Superintendent to implement an agreement giving the local a partnership in the study of wages, hiring, and promotions, and in the development of new policies. The agreement was signed to resolve the non-financial issues of a grievance, and includes the use of the NEA’s Results-Oriented Job Descriptions Program.

During 2006, ADB will (i) establish skills inventory and results-oriented job descriptions, (ii) develop the gender action plan III, (iii) develop an enhanced HR policy framework for resident missions and offices, (iv) review the staff complement system, (v) implement the assessment and development center, and (vi) implement the technical career stream. The implementation of the new HR strategy will be completed in 2007.

Training participants to write results-oriented job descriptions is an essential ingredient in this United Nations Human Settlements Programme training program.