Large Union Creates More than 500 Job Descriptions Using Descriptions Now
UFCW, United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Location: Washington, DC
Organization Size: 530 employees, including 100 managers
Service: Founded in 1979, UFCW is a private sector union
Contact: Marcia Todd, Assistant Director of Human Resources
"Having their duties outlined has given employees a self-esteem boost and a sense of empowerment."
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is the largest private sector union in North America. Comprised of 1.4 million members from the retail food, meatpacking, poultry and other food processing industries, the union employs more than 500 people at its headquarters in Washington, DC. Planning for a major compensation study prompted the organization to develop job descriptions.
Over a span of just nine months, Assistant Director of Human Resources Marcia Todd created 500 job descriptions for all current positions at United Food and Commercial Workers using Descriptions Now. "Now that everyone has a job description, I can"t imagine how we survived without them!" she exclaims. "Descriptions Now helped us provide clearly written descriptions, so now there is no question what an employee"s duties are."
Since creating job descriptions for this many positions was such an enormous task, Todd included the employees in the process. By having them outline their current
responsibilities, she was able to locate the competencies for each particular job and then customize the description with additional duties performed. The fact that Descriptions Now creates descriptions that comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act was extremely important to her. "The ADA-compliance feature helped me fine-tune some of the language for the positions," says Todd.
Since developing job descriptions, Todd says she has noticed a positive change in a number of employees. "Having their duties outlined has given them a self-esteem boost and a sense of empowerment," says Todd. "After showing employees their everyday tasks outlined using professional terms, I"ve received responses such as, "Wow, I do all that?"
In addition, Todd has found another important benefit to providing employees with written job descriptions. "When they see how their job complements others, it offers them a view of how important they are to the whole," she says.
Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations Firm Uses Descriptions Now
Held Diedrich, Advertising Communications
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Organization Size: 10 employees
Service: Founded in 1981, Held Diedrich provides creative marketing solutions
Contact: Norma Hermerding, Human Resources Representative
"We aren"t experts in human resources, so we look to Descriptions Now for answers — and get them."
Held Diedrich is a marketing communications firm in Indianapolis with a wonderful sense of whimsy. Check out their Web site and you"ll see that the Office Manager is also known as the Account Eyeballer, Staff Headmistress, Juggler and Realist. The Vice President also goes by Wordsmith and Porch Surfer! With so many different roles to play, a job description software program definitely seemed in order.
"We have been using Descriptions Now for more than one year and it sure has made my life easier," says Human Resources Representative Norma Hermerding. "Since we are a small organization, many of the employees have multiple duties. Descriptions Now allows for modifications in the descriptions to tailor them for a particular position."
Prior to purchasing Descriptions Now, Hermerding created job descriptions from scratch, and found that researching and compiling all the requirements for each position a challenge. She looks forward to the continuous library updates and is pleased at not having to "reinvent the wheel" for each description. "It is a timesaver. When I"m interviewing for a position for which we already have a description, all I need to do is add or delete certain duties," explains Hermerding. "Knowing that the language in Descriptions Now is legally appropriate adds comfort to the process."
Hermerding is looking forward to the new version of Descriptions Now, which will automatically generate behavioral-based interview questions based on the job description. "I believe that will help me hire the right people," she says. "And it will be helpful to have an additional resource for questions that I may not otherwise have thought to ask."
"We aren"t experts in human resources, so we look to Descriptions Now for answers — and get them," says Hermerding.