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Things to Avoid in an Ohio Job Description

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With regards to a job description, I understand that there are some things that we should avoid in Ohio. Can you please explain what those things include?

Yes. You are right about the fact that there are some things that you should avoid including in a job description. The majority of those things should be avoided because they are in violation of Title VII. Title VII is a federal document, which means that it not only applies to you in Ohio, but it also applies to employers across the country. Likewise, general job description information should follow the same sort of guidelines no matter which state the company is in.

Here are a few things that you should avoid when creating your job description:

Make sure that you describe the job and not the ideal employee. For example, it would be illegal to state that you are looking for a young employee because you would be in violation of the Title VII clause that prohibits age discrimination. Likewise, there is still a great deal of grey area around describing what languages an employee should be expected to speak. Therefore, you may want to state that the position is bi-lingual stating that an employee should be able to speak a certain language (unless, of course, the position is specifically intended to be a language oriented position, such as a translator.)

Make sure that the language you use in the description is clear. You should not, for example, the language that you use should be related to skills that will be necessary for the completion of the job.

The job description should also communicate what specific job duties will be required. For example, if the job is for a warehouse packager, you would want to describe specifically how an employee might package goods rather than simply stating how an employee should package goods.

Make sure that even when a team makes a certain goal possible, that you describe the goal only in one of the job descriptions for all teammates. For example, if you have a situation where a company needs to increase sales, of course all members of the team play a role in the increase, but you should only include such a statement in the jobs description for the sales person. However, other members of the team can have such a goal in their secondary duties if the goal is stated in terms of communicating, supporting, and enhancing the role of the sales team members.