a description form using the template that I made available

in my last blog.

And you can watch that video by clicking on the annotation

here, or by going to my blog, at optimusperformence.ca/blog.

And you'll be able to access that and download that job

description template.

So we're going to be using this today.

And I've actually completed one.

I have it here on screen.

And we're going to look at that together and go

through each step of the way.

And I'll explain it.

So let's get going.

So first off is the title.

Now, this particular one is an administrative position.

So I call it Administrative Assistant.

The company is my company, Optimus Performance, department

administration, reports to me, the president,

and communicates with who-- me, the president, my associates,

the office manager, clients, and suppliers.

So summary of overall role and responsibility-- this

is important to give a global perspective to the person

so they know how their role, how the completion of the tasks

that they're doing, contributes to the overall success

of the company or the department.

So in this one, I have the purpose

of this role is to support the smooth functioning

of the company and assist the president by taking

responsibility for all administrative tasks.

This includes providing customer support,

fulfilling client and associate requests,

and preparing marketing materials as required.

By completing the following tasks well,

this person will free the president

to focus on sales activities and on delivering training

and coaching services to clients.

Now, you could write this summary

after you write the tasks, but I like to write it first.

Let's go through the tasks.

So these are basically the specific tasks and duties

that you want this person to do.

It doesn't state how well you want them to do it.

It just states what the task is-- so

word processing of documents, data compilation

and record keeping, assist in preparation of proposals,

prepare correspondence and marketing materials,

prepare PowerPoint presentations,

and so on and so forth.

Now, you can go through this.

I won't go through each one.

But it's basically administrative tasks.

They're pretty simple.

I chose a simple job description just

to give you this as an example.

I'll make this completed one available, too.

So the next section is knowledge and skills

that are essential for this role.

In other words, the person must come

already able to perform the role with these essential knowledge

and skills.

So they must be attentive to detail.

Administrative tasks require that.

So they need to have patience.

You could write that, as well.

I didn't put that there.

Takes care to complete tasks fully and well,

good computer skills in Windows Office Suite,

especially Word and Excel-- now, you

may want to test this person.

We'll maybe go through how to do that in another blog.

The person should be well organized,

bilingual-- in this case, we function

in two languages-- and a responsible attitude.

I like to put that because I want

to know that if the person is given something to do,

or actually, that they take responsibility for carrying out

all their tasks that are listed on the previous page

without having to be told to do every day or every step

of the way-- that after they've learned what to do,

can just take responsibility for it.

And I think any manager or business

person wants that from their staff.

Now, I wrote here knowledge or skills desirable.

In this case, I put the task of preparing PowerPoint

presentations, and advanced PowerPoint skills--

not something everybody comes equipped with.

And in this case, I would probably

provide special training to this person--

and I did with my last administrative assistant--

in order to get them up to the level

that I require in terms of the type of PowerPoint

presentations that I use in my training programs.

Now, I like to add minimum performance standards

to define what level of quality and quantity

I expect from the person.

This is good to have, because you could actually then use

this as part of your performance evaluation.

So you can discuss how well they're performing the task.

But you could also look at these particular standards

to measure them.

And you could do something as simple as measuring

how well they're performing on a scale of one to 10,

one being low, 10 being very high.

So word-process documents is required.

That's not very measurable, mind you.

Filing is done accurately and punctually.

So that's something that's more observable, more measurable,

the way it's defined here.

Keep files and records well organized.

That's easy to check.

Bills posted are detailed and correct.

The bookkeeper will know, if this person is helping them

with postings, how well it's being done.

So that's good to get feedback from the bookkeeper.

Prepare proposals according to defined structure and methods.

Well, we do have defined structure and methods,

so it's easy, then, to see how well they're

preparing those proposals accordingly.

Order materials to arrive when needed,

so meaning that when materials are required, they're on hand.

That's another way to put it.

So there you have it.

It's pretty simple.

But it's a great tool.

And if you're not sure why, go back to my 10 top reasons

to write a job description.

Download the form, start completing yours.

I hope this was helpful.

Thanks for listening again, and we'll

see you soon in the next blog.