JOB DESCRIPTION FORMAT

POSITION SUMMARY
This should be a brief, one paragraph general summary of the position.  It is intended to give anyone reading the job description an overall grasp of the position and what it entails.

QUALIFICATIONS
This section should contain all of the bona-fide occupational qualifications necessary to satisfactorily perform the duties and functions of this position. All degree requirements should also include the option of equivalency of experience or combination thereof. Interpersonal skills and related items may be required if they can be quantified.

An explanation should be given regarding what is required in order to obtain a license, certification, registration or other specific training program.

Preferences for the position such as advanced degrees or highly specialized or specific qualifications should be listed in a separate and distinct paragraph.

MAJOR DUTIES, FUNCTIONS, AND RESPONSIBILITIES 
The following qualifying paragraph should be included with your description:
The following information is intended to be representative of the work performed by incumbents in this position and is not all-inclusive. The omission of a specific duty or responsibility will not preclude it from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical extension of position responsibilities.

This section should contain information concerning the duties, functions, and responsibilities of the position. Depending upon the nature of the position, this may be in either a list format (generally 6 to 12 items) or in a narrative format. Duties should be divided and categorized under two headings of major and minor actions and be listed in rank order, according to importance and/or frequency of action.

MINOR DUTIES, FUNCTIONS, AND RESPONSIBILITIES
(It should be noted that positions are evaluated on the nature of the duties performed rather than on how many or how busy the work.) 

AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY 
This section should outline individual authority inherent in this position.  Items to be covered may include whether an incumbent has authority or makes recommendations for hire/fire/salary decisions, disciplinary actions the employee is allowed to take, budgetary authority such as control vs. reconciliation, whether the position formulates policy or makes recommendations, etc.  Also included should be the independence and/or freedom to act involved in performing assigned duties. 

PROBLEM SOLVING
The problem solving section should include representative samples of significant and/or unique problems encountered in this position (generally 2 - 4 examples).  It is important to understand the general types of problems facing the incumbent rather than specific or current examples.  One-time problems (such as designing a new automated record-keeping system, setting up a new computer system, etc.), personal gripes, lack of sufficient budget, or other temporary situations should not be included.

DIMENSIONS
This section should contain information concerning budgetary responsibility (if any) broken down into salary and non-salary sections; number and kind of people supervised (non-exempt, exempt, hourly, full and/or part-time); and other relevant statistics such as number of patients served, type and number of records kept, revenues received, etc.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIP
The final and critical element to every job description is the attachment of an organizational chart for all single incumbent position or positions that are unique to a specific department. For a large multiple incumbent, multi-departmental position, a brief statement should be added at the very end of the description outlining the typical reporting relationships.