This might sound obvious but, just to take an example, would you prefer to have someone describing themselves as a “Customer Wellness Representative”, perhaps beefing up their importance within your business, when they are actually a “Waitress” or “Receptionist”?
By not clearly defining an employee’s job role in a written agreement, you run the risk of, at best, causing confusion or, at worst, leaving it open to the employee to potentially misrepresent their role to your customers and other key stakeholders in your business.
Therefore, setting out a defined job role not only clearly communicates the employee’s position within the business, but also ensures that, if they start deviating from that job title, perhaps to the detriment of your business, you can take corrective steps, possibly through disciplinary action.
For instance, one of my clients ran into difficulties by requiring bar staff to wait on tables, without allowing flexibility in the contracts of employment for their employees to perform additional duties. This meant that the contracts of employment were not fit for purpose when one employee subsequently questioned why they were not being paid a higher wage for essentially performing two roles.
There is, however, a fine art to clearly defining an employee’s role. Being over-prescriptive can risk the employee adhering too strictly to the written word of their contract, whilst being too vague risks the employee refusing to perform certain tasks.
A clause clearly setting out the employee’s job role will help give you certainty about your rights in the event of there being any confusion about it, but this is one of only 3 essential steps that you might need to take to protect yourself. Depending on your circumstances, you might need the contracts to allow for the employee to perform additional tasks, and you may also need an accurate, detailed job description. Therefore, you should get advice about whether either of these is relevant to you.
Email me at RHiron@setfords.co.uk or call me on 01202 076864 to request my short complementary guide on 5 critical things to include in your contracts of employment to protect the future of your business.
How secure are you that your staff are meeting the needs of your business? Are you taking on employees or are you exploring different ways of engaging staff?
