Roles and Responsibilities

24th July 2012

I have recently been working with a number of different businesses who have issues with their employees not doing what they are employed to do. In most cases this is more the fault of the business owner than the employees, and this is mainly due to the following reasons.

As businesses grow and develop, more often than not, the business owner gradually takes on employees to take up the work that they themselves cannot handle. However, these people are not employed in specific roles, and therefore the job responsibilities which each new person takes on, may well cross over a number of different jobs. Consequently after a year or two of the “all hands on deck” approach, no-one knows clearly who is responsible for what, and things either become duplicated, or worse, are missed altogether.

The result of this is that the business owner then tries to get control back, and starts to interfere in everyone’s work to make sure nothing is missed, and things are done properly. Of course this then leads to the business owner being rushed off his or her feet, doing things which they pay others to do, and very often annoying their employees enough for some to leave, and others to take a step back (because why do it if the boss is only going to check it or redo it anyway).

To prevent this from happening, or to change it, you need to create a clear organisational structure, with specific roles and responsibilities. You then put the names to the roles, thereby creating demarcation lines for each employee. It is then so much easier to ensure everyone is pulling their weight in the jobs they are employed to do, and the business owner can concentrate on growing the business, and creating future strategies.

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