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St. Cloud State University

St. Cloud State University

Human Resources  

Instructions for Completing Position Description A, B, C

A. HEADING, POSITION PURPOSE, REPORTABILITY AND DIMENSIONS

EMPLOYEES NAME: Name of the person currently holding position.
AGENCY/DIVISION: Name of the department, agency, board, commission, institution, etc., where the employee is currently working. Include name of the division or work unit if applicable.
ACTIVITY: Management or budget activity.
CLASSIFICATIONTITLE: Official title assigned to the position by the Department of Employee Relations.
WORKING TITLE: Unofficial working title, if any, assigned to the position by the employee's agency.
POSITION CONTROL NUMBER: Six-digit identification number assigned to the position by the Department of Finance (available from agency's Personnel office).
PREPARED BY: Name of the person who wrote the position description.
PREVIOUS INCUMBENT: Name of the last person to hold the position. (Need not be completed if the position is new or if the employee has held the position for two years or more.)
APPRAISAL PERIOD: Beginning and ending dates of the employee's official appraisal period.
EMPLOYEE'S SIGNATURE. Signature of the person holding the position.
DATE Month. day and year that the employee signed the position description.
SUPERVISOR'S SIGNATURE: Signature of the employee's immediate supervisor.
DATE: Month, day and year that the employee's immediate supervisor approved the position description

POSITION PURPOSE: A concise one-sentence statement describing the overall reason why the position exists ("This position exists to… ”).

REPORTABILITY
Reports to: Classification title of the employee's immediate supervisor.
Supervises: Classification titles and numbers of the people supervised by the employee.

DIMENSIONS
Budget: Dollar amount of budget that the position controls, manager or has direct impact upon.
Clientele: People and/or organizations directly affected by the position.

B. PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITIES, TASKS AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITIES: General duties that the employee performs to achieve measurable end results. ("It is my responsibility to … so that…”). There are usually 4 to 10 responsibility statements in a position description.
Example: To coordinate department mailings so that the appropriate people receive memos, bulletins, etc. on time.

TASKS: Specific and distinct activities that comprise each of the employee's principal responsibilities. Tasks should be listed on the left side of the column directly below the Principal responsibility statement.
Example: Maintain updated mailing list, address envelopes.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: Statements of conditions that will exist when tasks or responsibilities are performed satisfactorily. Performance indicators are specific, measurable and attainable goals that the employee intends to reach in a designated period of time. They measure the quality or quantity of the work to be performed. the time frame in which the work is to be completed and/or the resources used to get the job done. Performance indicators may relate to individual task statements or principal responsibilities. Each task statement may not require a performance indicator.
Example: Mailing list will be updated by the first of each month. All addresses on the mailing list will include rip codes.

Priority: Use the letter A, B or C to indicate the relative importance of each principal responsibility to the total position.

  1. Results are essential and must be accomplished.
  2. Results are important and should be accomplished, but not at the expense of A priorities.
  3. Results are desirable, but should not be accomplished at the expense of A and/or B priorities.

Note: Priority changes should be made only with the Consent and approval of the employee's immediate supervisor.

% of Time: Number assigned to each principal responsibility statement, indicating the anticipated percentage of time that the employee gives to that responsibility The total for all responsibilities should be 100%.
Note: %of Time and Priority considered together reflect the overall importance of each responsibility to the total position.

Discretion: Use the letter A, B. C or D to describe the employee's level of authority for each principal responsibility

  1. Employee investigates situations, maker decisions, takes appropriate actions, reports by exception and through normal review processes.
  2. Employee investigates situations, maker decisions, taker appropriate actions, reports to supervisors immediately after action is taken.
  3. Employee investigates situations. Recommends action to supervisor, makes decisions with supervisor, takes appropriate action, reports to supervisor immediately after action is taken.
  4. Employee discusses situations with supervisor before investigating, maker decisions with supervisors, takes appropriated actions, reports to supervisor immediately after action is taken.

C. NATURE AND SCOPE (narrative)

Relationships: Communication methods (oral and written) used to carry out responsibilities; committees on which the employee serves; agencies, divisions, organizations and/or individuals through which the employee's work is coordinated.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Minimum knowledge. Skills and abilities needed to carry out principal responsibilities how knowledge; skills and abilities are used; relative importance of managerial, technical and human relations skills on the job.

Problem Solving (need not be completed by Schedule B employees): Types of job-related problems that the employee encounters; examples of problems that must be handled by a higher authority; opportunities for creativity.

Freedom to Act (need not be completed by Schedule B employees): Frequency with which employee reports to a higher authority; methods of reporting (oral and written): externally imposed controls which limit the employee's freedom to act (laws, rules. procedures, etc.)