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JOB DESCRIPTIONS - THE T&C IMPLICATIONS (Insurance Times - October 2006)

The insurance industry's approach to issues of training and competence (T&C) has tended to be somewhat uneven over the years. Since the FSA took over regulating the industry last year, all insurance firms have faced a formal obligation to take a more structured approach to T&C. But, of course, the real driver for taking T&C seriously should be its value in promoting efficiency and professionalism within your company.

The first step in ensuring T&C compliance is to put in place a clear definition of what each individual employee's work role entails - in other words, a job description. This enables employers to design and deliver appropriate training to enable each employee to achieve and maintain competence in their assigned job role.

This kind of properly focused training is a key factor in promoting staff morale and motivation. The effect is all the greater when employees are directly involved in the process from design through implementation - ensuring that T&C support delivered relates specifically and practically to the work an employee actually does day to day, rather than what a manager thinks it might involve.

Correct implementation of job descriptions enables the employer to ensure that employees are clear about what their job entails, and can be fairly assessed on their performance. Any training and development plan lives or dies on the extent to which its provisions are targeted at, and useful to, the employee in question. The first phase of training and development, therefore, is job analysis.

Job analysis can be defined as a 'systematic procedure for obtaining detailed and objective information about a job that is currently being performed or will be performed'. The outcome of this analysis is a written job description, which sets out a range of information including: why the job exists, what relation it bears to other jobs in the organisation, the knowledge, skills and competence required, the authority the employee holds, and the outcome of the role (see panel).

This information is usually provided initially by the current jobholder and approved by their line manager. In the case of new roles the information will normally come from the manager and be presented to the jobholder. In gathering this information it is important to secure the commitment and co-operation of all involved. Unless the purpose is clearly explained, people can find this kind of close scrutiny a little unsettling.

A variety of different methods can be used to construct a job analysis for any given employee. Care should be taken to select methods that are suitable both to the job in question and the resources of the company. Observation offers a straightforward and low cost approach of job analysis. It does, however, rely heavily on the ability of the person doing the analysis to understand and accurately record the information they set out to gather. It is also quite possible that an employee's behavior and approach may alter when they are under observation.

Work diaries provide one alternative approach to job analysis. This involves the employee keeping a record of their activities, which is then used to identify the key areas of work. This method requires a considerable degree of commitment and co-operation from the employee, and there is a danger they will not record tasks they regard as somehow unimportant or of little interest. A clear brief should be given to the jobholder explaining why the diary is necessary, and how to record information. The results of the analysis should then be discussed with the employee before being passed on to the manager.

Interviews are a cost-effective method, though, again, they rely on having an interviewer with appropriate interview skills. At its simplest level, the interview may simply involve the current jobholder describing their role, or it can be more structured, with the same questions being asked at each interview. Bias and reliability<

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