Job Maps

Example Job map: Building Site Manager

A Job Map is a diagram, created by you, that shows the interconnections between your job and the people who have an expectation of you in your job. It can be a very helpful tool for understanding and clarifying your role and priorities at work and as a tool for problem solving. It is especially helpful when used as a tool to aid recruitment, or to assist someone starting a new job.

A good job map can be used to:

 

• Give a clear indication of key responsibilities.
• Make it clear to others exactly what it is that you do.
• Identify and tackle problem areas.
• Help produce a job description and be useful when setting objectives.

When you combine your own map with the job maps of other people in your teams you may also be able to:

• Identify common problems.
• Highlight areas where efforts are duplicated or confused.
• Spot important new areas of work or gaps in existing responsibilities.

 

Sharing your Job Map

Sharing the information in your job map is an important step in improving the understanding of how the various jobs in your team all rely on each other. Sharing your job map with your line manager allows both of you to focus on your world and is a great way to help analyse where problems occur and where challenges can arise. Which of the various groups do you find the most difficult to deal with? What is the problem? What could be changed to make it better? If you can start to answer these questions then you can really start to make progress towards improving performance.

When other people share their job map with you, think about what their job must be like. How can you help them to resolve their issues and challenges? How can they help you with yours? Can you develop a plan together?

 

Sharing Job Maps

Going the extra mile

Sharing your job plan with your line manager or colleague will be helpful in talking about and tackling problem areas, but if you are still faced with a problem  - what can you do?

One really powerful approach is to arrange to meet with someone from your problem group and talk through your job map with them. Try to talk about the area where the problems arise and try to see the problem from their side. Focus on the issue and not personalities. Working with them in a collaborative way may help you both to get to the crux of the issue and lead to the best solution.

Using Job Maps to understand others

If it is not possible to talk the situation through with the problem group, then all is not lost. Take a few moments to draw a job map for your problem group. Which are the groups that they have to deal with? Where might their problems be? Could it be that the problem you experience is actually created by something that someone else expects of them? Looking at the problem from this perspective may enable you to see the other side of the problem. This can be a good place to look for solutions.

 

Combining Job Maps

If all members of a team can share their job maps then you can get a very clear view of the full scope of responsibilities across the team. Spotlighting the problem areas will also give team leaders a really good view of where their staff face their major challenges. If we can look at this data from a higher level then gaps or duplications of effort can also be spotted and common problem areas can be reviewed and targeted from a strategic perspective.

 

Using your Job Map to define your job description

A job map can be a great skeleton for a job description. By working through a completed job map and placing an allocation of time against each expectation, then you can begin to draw up a job description that can be helpful both as part of the recruitment and appraisal processes.