Position Descriptions

Scope

This policy applies to all Staff positions.

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Policy Statement

1. Position descriptions should be maintained for all University Staff positions. Each supervisor should make a bon afide effort to have an up-to-date position description for each position under his/her supervision.
   1. Position descriptions are encouraged for Temporary positions.
2. In addition, such documentation is intended to reflect the needs of a department. This enables supervisors and employees to understand the duties and responsibilities of a position and to use such documentation as a tool in planning.

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Reason for Policy

Written documentation is necessary to define the way work is organized and assigned to individual positions. This documentation is required to support a variety of Human Resource activities (e.g., position classification, job evaluation, market pricing, and new hire starting salaries) and to aid the university in complying with applicable laws and regulations.

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Procedures

1. All new positions must have a position description created using the university position description form.
2. Meaningful updates to an existing position should be reflected in the position description.  If a position description is not available one must be created. See Establishing a Staff Position policy.
3. Any significant changes to an existing position’s duties and responsibilities that may result in a review of the position’s classification must be updated on the position description. Refer to Position Classification/Reclassification.
4. New and updated position descriptions are submitted to the campus HR office for review and saved to HRMS.
   1. 1. For CWA covered Support Staff positions a college degree should not be required without rationale from the department and approval by IU Human Resources, unless a degree is called for in the job specification.
5. A job posting is not a valid position description. See the Posting a Position Vacancy policy.
6. The department should have  a description of the duties and responsibilities assigned to each position within the department and will make a bona fide effort to ensure these are descriptions are updated.  
7. The department should ensure that all incumbents have a copy of their position description.

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Definitions

1. A position is the specific set of duties and responsibilities assigned to and performed by an individual.  
2. A position description is a written document that defines the primary purpose and key duties and responsibilities of a position.  
3. A job is a collection of positions that have similar major duties and responsibilities.

4. A job specification is the written summary of the most important and distinguishable features of a job, including the primary duties and responsibilities and qualifications required to do the job.

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Sanctions

Violations of University policies will be handled in accordance with applicable University policies and procedures; which may include disciplinary actions up to and including termination from the University.

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Additional Contacts

Campus HR offices
Various

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History

July 2019
Updates made to CWA procedures based on union discussions.

This policy replaces the following policies:

CWA 9.2 - Preparing a Position Description

This policy replaces parts of the following policies:

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