DRAFT FOR CONSULTATION
Guide to write an effective job description – Support Staff in schools
1. Purpose:
As good employers, boards are required to adopt good employment practices including
providing potential and current employees with a job description.
A job description is an important tool, which sets the expectations and written requirement
of the role. Is through job descriptions that the employment relationship evolves and creates
opportunities for both employer and employee to understand their role and how to achieve
set goals.
Job descriptions facilitate and encourage good faith dialogue and are part of all essential
employment processes.
An effective job description is produced from an objective analysis of a job. It should clearly
communicate why a job exists. It should accurately describe major duties and responsibilities
and the minimum capabilities and requirements necessary to successfully perform the job.
A well-written job description:
 Provides a first impression of the school to a future candidate
 Clearly articulates responsibilities and qualifications to attract the best suited
candidates
 Provides an opportunity to clearly articulate the value proposition for the role
 Improves retention as turnover is highest with newly hired employees. Employees
tend to be dissatisfied when they are performing duties they were not originally
hired to perform.
 Determines grade and remuneration and/or pay rates to be offered to candidates
when recruiting
 Identifies tasks, work flow and accountability, enabling the department to plan how
it will operate and grow
 Assists in establishing performance objectives
 Is used for career planning and training by providing clear distinctions between
levels of responsibilities and competencies required
 It minimises risks as it helps prevent, or defend against, discrimination complaints by
providing written evidence that employment decisions were based on rational
business needs
2. NZSTA, NZEI and Moe have collaborated and created a generic job description. It has been
agreed that this job description template will include the following elements:
1.
2.
General Information
- Job title; Reports to; hours of work and working relationship
Position Purpose
3.
4.
5.
6.
Key responsibilities: Appraisal?
Skills and abilities
Elements of the role*: Pay Grade/Step
Specific tasks and duties
1. General Information
Prior to developing the job description the hiring boards/schools should identify able to
complete this section.
This is the basic information about the role and it may vary from school to school depending
on the requirements.
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Working Title — Titles should be recognizable and common within the sector
Reports to – the role their report to e.g. principal, SENCO
Working relationships: External (MoE, Novopay, Resourcing group, etc) and Internal
(administrative team, science department)
Department/unit name (optional); e.g. Administrative group/team
2. Position Purpose
Describes the school’s character, the department/unit’s functions. The statement should
summarize the position’s essential functions and its role in relation to supporting,
administering, or managing the activities of the school or department/unit.
Therefore it is important to ensure it:
 Includes a description of the role and its relation to the school.
 Includes the estimated duration (i.e. permanent or fixed term).
3. Key responsibilities
This section describe the key responsibilities of a position. A key responsibility is considered
essential when the performance of the responsibility is the key purpose for the position.
Typically, a key responsibility occupies a significant amount of time of the employee’s time
and requires specialized skills to perform. By accurately describing the key responsibilities of
the job, candidates/employees will have a clear understanding of the role and your
expectations for performing them.
When developing key responsibilities for the position the following should be noted:
 Key responsibilities of the job which are critical for the position are arranged by
importance in relation to the level of responsibility assigned to each one
 Essential tasks listed should be inter-related to the accomplishment of the key
responsibility.
 Complexity level and authority for the role should be described to help attract the
appropriate level of qualified candidate
4. Skills and abilities
In this section boards should list the relevant personal attributes that a person would need
to have for a particular role.
A primary purpose of skills and abilities is to measure those qualities that will set one
candidate apart from the others and assist in identifying the better candidates from a group
of persons basically qualified for a position.
Skill statements refer to the manual, verbal or mental capabilities required to undertake a
group of tasks.
Skills can be readily measured through appraisal where quantity and quality of performance
are tested, usually within an established time limit.
Ability statements refer to the power to perform an observable activity at the present time.
This means that abilities have been evidenced through activities or behaviours that are
similar to those required on the job, e.g., ability to plan and organize work.
5. Elements of the role
As part of the work undertaken by NZSTA, NZEI and Moe, it was agreed that in order to
determine the grade and step of each role it was necessary to use the table of elements.
This table provides schools with levels required for role to be placed at a given grade.
Schools will have the flexibility or discretion to determine the final grade and step according
to its needs and the role responsibility.
6. Specific tasks and duties
When the job duties are well written and organized, they can accurately convey the
complexity, scope, and level of responsibility of a job. To assist the school and writing of the
job tasks and duties, one of the following methods may be applied:
Method # 1:
1. Think of the job in terms of its key or main responsibilities/functions. Typically, a job will
have 3 - 5 major key responsibilities. Here are some examples:
1) Budget Management
2) Executive Support
3) Event Coordination
2. After establishing the key responsibilities, generate specific job tasks and duties
associated with each. These are the individual tasks or duties that correspond to the key
responsibilities. For example, specific Budget Management duties might include:
 Prepare budgetary reports
 Analyse expenditures
 Monitor levels of expenditures
3. School may choose to condense the specific job task and duties into two to three
concise “key responsibilities,” beginning each statement with an action verb e.g.
establish, acquire, manage, resolve, communicate
Method # 2:
1. Brainstorm a list of all the duties required to perform the job. These are the individual tasks
completed on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis. Below is an example of a task list:
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Arrange for catering
Compose and types correspondence
Coordinate logistical support for meetings, seminars, and school events
Determine and secures the event location
Make travel arrangements
Monitor levels of expenditure
Prepare budgetary reports
2. Review the list and group the duties based upon the specific functions and responsibilities of the
position, also known as key responsibilities.
3. Establish the key responsibilities. For an administrative role, the key responsibilities may include
event coordination, administrative support, and budget administration.
4. Condense the specific job task and duties into two to three concise “key responsibilities,”
beginning each statement with an action verb.
Having a comprehensive job description also makes it easier to form an employment agreement
(which is required by law for all jobs) when you have found a suitable applicant because you will
already know the hours of work and other relevant details.