Growing Your Organization Like A Garden – A Spring Analogy for Job Descriptions

Spring is here, re-energizing our winterized minds and filling our noses with fresh air, pollen, and scents of lilacs and daphne. For gardeners, it’s planting season, and for organizations, it is an excellent time to do a different spring activity – updating job descriptions!

Updating job descriptions can be more fun than spring cleaning, believe it or not. When making changes to existing job descriptions and/or creating new ones, I find the analogy of an organization as being like a garden to be particularly helpful. Ultimately, the reason I find the garden analogy so helpful is because both organizational job architectures/structures and planted gardens are ecosystems that live, breathe, and change. They also require constant attention and maintenance.

Growing your organization like a garden

To begin with the analogy, does the garden grow vegetables, fruits, nuts, or flowers? Is it a haphazardly organized garden with no beds or is it highly structured with raised beds, greenhouses, etc.? Is the garden growing currently or is it dormant and gearing up for another growth push? To translate from garden-speak to business-speak – why does your business exist and what is its main purpose/mission and ways of making that happen? Are you a manufacturer, service deliverer, developer of new markets or products, or something else? Where in the business cycle do you find yourself currently? Both are influenced by a mix of internal factors and external factors in their pursuits of growth.

Updating job descriptions annually is best practice

Just as a gardener prepares growing beds before planting fresh seeds, regularly reviewing job descriptions at least annually helps eliminate outdated responsibilities and clarify growth opportunities for your team. A well-defined job description helps everyone see where growth is possible. Like planning which plants to grow for the new season, it is important to identify the key qualities and factors you compensate employees for – these are your organization’s compensable factors and should be outlined in your compensation philosophy and strategy. The focused attention and refreshment of duties and purpose helps to keep roles relevant and clear.

If you do not have your compensable factors defined already, some common compensable factors include: experience (e.g., skills, abilities); knowledge (e.g., certifications, level of education); exposure to hazards/safety requirements; exercising of independent judgement; and behaviors (e.g., problem solving, empathy, social fluency). Strong questions to review when revising and/or rewriting job descriptions are:

• Why does the position exist? Has this purpose changed, or should it change now?
• What activities is the position involved in? What will it be involved in as it develops/the business grows?
• What business outcomes do the duties support? Has this changed or should it change now?
• What is the position supposed to do for others?
• How does it connect to the organization’s purpose or mission?
• Which other roles does this position relate to or work with?
• Who supervises the position, and what is the level of responsibility compared to its supervisor?
• What are its peer roles, and why?

These questions aren’t simply about the position being updated but expand to the entire ecosystem of how the organization’s people resources are deployed. Weeding out ineffective or poorly designed jobs when revising job descriptions keeps career paths fresh and clear to employees for their future growth and development.

Be a good gardener – tend to your garden

Job descriptions can be immensely useful in many varied applications, from hiring to career pathing to providing support in a legal defense when required. A well-defined and well-developed job description can help the organization grow toward its goals and deliver on its mission more effectively. Just like a well-tended garden, well-tended job descriptions provide access to clear growth and the space to accommodate growth. This spring, take time to tend your organizational garden. Update your job descriptions, clear out what’s no longer needed, and make space for your team to flourish.

If you have too many weeds to pull and branches to prune on your own, reach out to our Compensation team for an extra hand (or trowel) of support – we’d love to hear from you!