How useful is your job description? Does your actual work reflect your official role? Is what you are doing anything like the job description that you replied to from a recruiter or a website? Do you even know what your job description say?

Many people we talk to, front-line managers as well as HR leaders, tell us an employee might look at a job description on Day One, then put it in a drawer and never reference it again. Many managers tell us they have not updated job descriptions in years, which is a little crazy when you think how quickly the working world changes.

Job descriptions can be a very useful tool for aligning employees and leaders with the organization’s actual needs. When you move people into new positions, especially if they have leadership and/or management responsibilities, you need to give them a clear job description. Otherwise, they might not know what they are supposed to be doing, and no one else is likely to know, either.

Some leadership positions are pretty easy to define. Lower-level leadership, however, might be a little tougher. What role does a Junior Art Director play in an ad agency? What responsibilities does a Lead Stylist have at a salon? Does an Account Manager have the same role in every office in your global consulting company? If YOU know what you expect of them, but nobody else does, then you are sure to face a lot of confusion.

The people in these positions need to know what they are supposed to do. What are they responsible for? What authority do they have to get it done? Understanding what they HAVE to do and what they CAN do is essential for anyone in a leadership role. This is especially true for your employees making the transition into leadership for the first time. If they have spent years developing their talents as individuals, but now are responsible for other people, you need to give them some pretty clear guidance.

Other employees need to know what people are responsible for, too. To whom do they go with a problems? Who can tell them what to do, and who can’t? If employees get conflicting guidance from different leaders/managers, especially in increasingly common cross-functional roles, whom should they follow? Things get pretty sketchy when your employees are not sure who’s in charge of what, and that kind of confusion can slow down the working process when people are not really sure what their expectations are. Make life easier for your employees by clearly defining their roles, and the roles of the leaders under whom they work.

Yes, even your non-leadership positions should have a clear job description…after all, people need to know the expectations and requirements under which they are working. It really becomes critical, though, for people in leadership positions at all levels, because they have more responsibility, and they really need to know what that responsibility is.