The Importance of a Job Description in the Hiring Process

    

 

     One of the main traits of a successful athletic administrator is the uncanny ability to hire an effective administrative and coaching staff. The hiring of the perfect employee is a challenging, yet satisfying process in which many factors contribute. Suggs recommended “that institutions structure and finance athletics as they do academic departments, finding ways to control costs, including rationing televised football, shifting to need-based scholarships, reducing the number of coaches (especially in football), and so on” (pg. 17).¹ Hiring the wrong employee is expensive, time consuming, and costly to the work environment as well as the reputation of the administrator. Hiring the right employee begins with an administrators ability to intricately analyze the job position to be hired and create an accurate job description.

     A very important aspect when analyzing the job description is to ensure the employee is fully aware of the standard of excellence that will be required. An athletic administrator must lay out the details of a job and assure that the new employee will have a hands-on, fully participative role within the overall success of the staff. Kerwin & Doherty note “when individuals have the opportunity to actively participate in a task (i.e., decision making) they become more invested in that task and its outcome. This increases an individual’s positive feelings toward their work environment, which may in turn reduce the negative emotions that are further associated with relationship conflict. (pg. 225).² In conclusion, it is important that the job description should be intently created initially in order to plan a strategy to hire the right employee for the job and not settle for anything less.

References

¹Suggs, Welch. (2009). Old challenges and new opportunities for studying the financial aspects of intercollegiate athletics. New Directions for Higher Education, 148, 11-22. DOI: 10.1002/he.364

²Kerwin, S. & Doherty, A. (2012). An investigation of the conflict triggering process in intercollegiate athletic departments. Journal of Sport Management, 26(3), 224-236.