Job description

Editorial approval scope: The team checked current source fidelity, scope boundaries, dates, arithmetic, reader usefulness, practical workflow, and general-information limitations.

Describe why the position exists

Start with a one-sentence purpose and the results the role owns. Then list recurring decisions, work products, relationships, and service settings. A title such as “clinical coordinator” can cover very different jobs, so title alone has little operational value.

Use the description to align recruiting, interview questions, onboarding, training, supervision, performance review, staffing, and accommodation analysis. Each use should point to the same version.

Separate essential and marginal functions

The EEOC employer guide calls essential functions the fundamental duties of the job. Relevant evidence includes why the position exists, the number of people available to share work, required expertise, time spent, consequences if the function is omitted, actual experience, and a description prepared before advertising or interviewing.

Mark each function essential or marginal and state why. “Other duties as assigned” should not become an unlimited essential-function category. The EEOC applicant guidance also illustrates how actual practice can outweigh an inaccurate written duty.

Describe outcomes before methods

A requirement should identify the result and working condition without unnecessarily prescribing one body movement, sensory channel, or communication method. For example, “exchange accurate session information through an approved accessible method” is more useful than assuming speech or handwriting.

Specify travel, location, schedule, lifting, driving, standing, exposure, technology, language, and response-time requirements only when supported by the actual job. Explain frequency and context. Route accommodation requests through the reasonable accommodation process.

Qualifications need a source

Separate legally or contractually required qualifications from preferences. For each license, certification, education level, background check, driving condition, experience, or payer status, record the source and effective date.

Avoid treating a credential as authority for every clinical decision. State which role may assess, design care, supervise, implement assigned work, amend records, authorize billing content, or respond to safety events. A qualified clinical leader should approve clinical functions within applicable law and scope.

A description cannot decide exemption status

The DOL Wage and Hour Division administers federal wage-and-hour requirements. The DOL exemption overview explains that common executive, administrative, and professional exemptions use salary and actual-duties tests.

An exempt label in a description cannot create the exemption. Review the compensation arrangement and real primary duty. A role can be salaried and remain nonexempt.

Use version and approval controls

Record the owner, clinical approver when needed, HR and legal reviewer, version, effective date, locations, and next review. Trigger a review when service lines, payer rules, staffing ratios, technology, sites, licensure, supervision, schedule, or actual duties change.

Compare the description with employee interviews, calendars, work samples, payroll, supervision records, and incident workflows. Persistent work outside the description can signal a staffing, classification, competence, training, or documentation problem.

Route each mismatch to a named decision owner. Update the description when the work legitimately changed, redesign the workflow when the task does not belong to the role, train when expectations were unclear, or pause an assignment when authority or competence is missing. Preserve the prior version and effective dates.

A fictional role audit

A fictional practice reviews ten “care coordinator” positions before recruiting. Seven descriptions match current work and have approved essential functions. Two copy a lifting requirement from an unrelated role, and one assigns clinical recommendation authority to an operations position.

Description readiness is 7 of 10, or 70%. All three held records stay in the denominator with an owner and due date. After correction, the practice checks whether interview questions, offer letters, onboarding, and performance measures use the same version.

This audit measures document readiness. It does not establish ADA compliance, exemption status, professional authority, or employee performance.

Build a practical description

Include:

• purpose, reporting line, and decision authority
• essential functions with evidence and frequency
• marginal functions identified separately
• required qualifications and their sources
• schedule, travel, setting, and working conditions
• accessible performance and accommodation route
• clinical, privacy, documentation, and safety boundaries
• compensation classification reviewed separately
• version, approval, effective date, and recheck trigger

Questions owners should ask

• Why does this position exist, and which results belong to it?
• Which functions are essential, and what current evidence supports that label?
• Can each function be performed through an accessible method?
• Which qualifications come from law, payer, contract, or practice preference?
• Do actual calendars, supervision, and work samples match the description?

Review descriptions across locations and shifts. A requirement that appears essential at one understaffed site may reflect a temporary operating problem rather than the enduring purpose of the role.

Check the public posting too. Its duties, schedule, location, pay disclosures, access route, and required qualifications should agree with the approved description without copying internal confidential detail.