What’s in the Job Description?

6
2267
turteltaub-adam-200x200By Adam Turteltaub
adam.turteltaub@corporatecompliance.org

I keep on my desk a replica of Jackie Robinson’s plaque from the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Like the plaques for the other players there are inspiring statistics about his on-field play.

More impressive than any of the numbers listed, though, is the last sentence of the inscription.  The words don’t address his hitting or fielding but his character:  “Displayed tremendous courage and poise in 1947 when he integrated the modern major leagues in the face of intense adversity.”Jackie Robinson Plaque

When Branch Rickey, the President of the Dodgers, went looking for a player to break the color barrier, he didn’t simply look for an African-American who could play baseball well.  He looked for a man who could do so while facing hostility from the other team, fans and sometimes even his own teammates.

Rickey warned Robinson that no matter what people called him – and Rickey gave him a provocative and long list of epithets – Robinson could not fight back.  Why?  As he put it, he needed a man with the guts not to fight back.  Rickey knew that this would prove Robinson to be better than any of his detractors, and unwavering restraint would also avoid the risks of an incident escalating uncontrollably.

In sum, Rickey had in his head a job description for the man who would break the color barrier.  That description was not about just what the person must do on the field, but what character he would have both on and off of it.

I’ve seen a lot of job descriptions in my career, and none that I can recall had such a description.  Most are filled with job-specific details and descriptions about general attributes such as ability to manage, educational requirements, years of experience required and so forth.  Maybe it’s time to start working with HR and the business unit to add language to job descriptions based on the risks that employees will encounter:

  • Will need to adhere to US law even in regions where there is no rule of law
  • Must not pay bribes to foreign government officials or permit others to
  • Able to strictly follow data protection procedures even when they may restrict other operations
  • Ability to resist pressure to compromise corporate values despite pressure to make sales
  • Track record of demonstrating integrity, even when inconvenient
  • Responsible for receiving and forwarding to management employee concerns about ethical and legal violations, and then shielding employee from retaliation
  • Must be able to think outside of the box, while staying within the legal lines

It’s easy for business people to argue with the compliance team about the time and other demands of a compliance program.  It’s harder to argue that there’s no room in a job description to include the ethical requirements or the legal challenges that will need to be met.

[bctt tweet=”Should we add language to job descriptions based on the risks that employees will encounter? @AdamTurteltaub” via=”no”]

How much time does it take to add a sentence or two?

More, a job description that includes compliance and ethics concerns forces management and the job candidate to spend time thinking through these issues and asking if the person for the position has both the skills and the character needed.

Not every position will require a person with the strength of character of Jackie Robinson.  But isn’t it better to identify those positions beforehand, instead of after it is too late?

So what do you think?  Is this achievable?  What barriers might there be?  How could we get past them?

If you’re on the home page of the blog, click on the link below.  It’ll take you to a page that looks very much like this one.  Then, just scroll down and you’ll find a space to leave comments.  If you’re not on the home page, just keep scrolling down to the comments box and let us know what you think.

Care to comment? Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for the comment-enabled version.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Character is key, but hard to assess at any time, and especially difficult pre-employment. Therefore, I think it is imperative that we add important ethics statements like these, as an articulation of the road map we want them to follow.

    Also, setting clear expectations before hiring and then at each change of positions is a way to turn tone at the top into action. I would also add: must speak up when misconduct is suspected.

    Once you have your list, it can easily be added to performance reviews. For courageous companies, you could have peers, subordinates and customers evaluate the employee against these qualities as part of your performance evaluation.

  2. I agree with Bruce that character is difficult to assess in a pre-employment interview. However I also agree that articulation of the “character factors” expectations in the specific job description upon hire which can then be evaluated in performance evaluations should be the norm within health care organizations.

  3. Excellent suggestion!

    I believe Bruce has made a great point about speaking up when misconduct is suspected.

    That will deliver a strong message to the employees from the very beginning and it will reinforce the non-retaliation policy of the company, as described on the Code of Conduct.

  4. I believe that whatever management tools we use to achieve other management objectives should also be used to promote compliance and ethics. So including these types of things in position descriptions makes sense to me. Depending on the position there should also be included specific steps to promote the compliance and ethics program. Cheers, Joe

  5. Thanks all for your comments. We could be onto something here. And while it’s true that it’s often hard to analyze character in just an interview, I think we could start doing two things. First, making it a part of the discussion. And, second, as was noted, make it part of the ongoing performance review process.

  6. I keyed in on these two statements:
    •Ability to resist pressure to compromise corporate values despite pressure to make sales
    •Track record of demonstrating integrity, even when inconvenient

    Operational goals often trump ethical goals. The attitude of “We won’t get caught.” and the attitude of “Well, if we do, we can tie up these kinds of issues for years with our top notch legal team and our outside attorneys.” is an undercurrent in many, many companies.

    Often the proof of a company compliance stance is how quickly they pay back the government when they owe a substantial amount of money. While no company wants to pay back a dime of what they legally have a right to keep, often delay tactics postpone payments legitimately due to the government for a long time, even years.

    The other pressing issue is how rule breakers the company are dealt with. Are they promoted because their activity did wonders for the bottom line, or are they dismissed from their positions no matter how much money they make the company when ethical or compliance violations are found?

    In healthcare the bugaboo is always the physician/company relationship. I have often heard, “We can’t do that to Dr. So-n-So, he’s our biggest admitter.” I cringe whenever I hear that, and in thirty years of healthcare compliance, I have heard this more times than you can imagine.

    Having wonderfully crafted Code of Conduct statements, and strongly structured compliance plans will mean nothing if they are not backed up with action and enforced with sanctions.

Comments are closed.