Role over Job Description
- Subbu Iyer
- Mar 17
- 5 min read
By Subbu Iyer & Siddharth Patel
Ask any ten leaders or managers from various enterprises around the globe to create a Job Description (JD) for the positions they are looking to hire, and 9 out of 10 will likely resort to online templates and existing JDs to cut and paste from. View this through the lens of the World Economic Forum's "Future of Jobs Report 2025," which states that "Broadening digital access is expected to be the most transformative trend—impacting both technology-related trends and overall—with 60% of employers anticipating it will revolutionize their business by 2030... Workers should expect that nearly two-fifths (39%) of their current skill sets will be transformed or rendered obsolete during the 2025-2030 timeframe." Therefore, Hiring Managers must focus on creating Role Descriptions rather than traditional Job Descriptions, as they are not only organizing for Operations but also orchestrating for Innovation. This presents a paradox that requires immediate attention.
The Cut n Paste Job Descriptions will need to give way to writing meaningful Role Descriptions that define Work and its Outcomes accurately. Especially with the establishment of Global Capability Centers (GCC) that are essentially a Glocal (Globally Local) Workforce Strategy.
Role Description
A role arises from enterprise process, and the scope of that enterprise extends throughout its ecosystem. In today's world, the role represents a collaboration between technology and human input. Consequently, it is essential for Role Descriptions to be thoughtfully crafted, grounded in enterprise processes rather than being arbitrary. If there has ever been a moment to redefine Capacity from merely Head Count to true Capability, it is now. The following infographic, illustrated in Exhibit 1, presents a compelling case for transitioning from Job Descriptions to Role Descriptions.
In the emerging digital landscape, where roles will be tagged to an individual's Digital Identity, well-defined processes ensure that roles can participate from anywhere in the world, supported by clear authentication, access, authorization, permissions, and privileges outlined in the Process Governance. These processes will inherently be Glocal (Globally Local), transcending traditional enterprise boundaries and avoiding the need to create job descriptions for every hiring event. Hiring Managers should adapt role descriptions within the enterprise processes that drive innovation and growth. It's clear that the processes in a digital technology enterprise operating in real-time will differ significantly from those in the information technology era.
Employee disengagement and burnout resulted in over $5 million in costs annually to the average U.S.1,000-person company, according to a recent study published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Around 10.5% of employee burnout costs are due to increased absenteeism or employees missing work, according to the study. But 89.5% is due to presenteeism, or employees who show up to work but fail to be productive.
Workforce Motivation
Motivation and Engagement are two sides of the Human Coin. We often see the disastrous outcomes of projecting a shiny exterior with a masked hollow interior extending from Hiring and Onboarding to Engaging Employees. Global Capability Centers (GCC) currently employ nearly 1.9 Million and expected to grow to 3 Million by 2030 (Source: Nasscom). Yet the number of people who accept an offer and don’t show up on the joining date is a staggering 50% according to Gartner’s 2023 Survey.
This is 2025 and the Industrial Mindset of People as Resources over Capital needs an immediate reboot.
A lack of collaborative process often sees good candidates slipping through the cracks and compromises made with not so good candidates who make the headcount. Democratizing of Systems must first start with People. The average time to fill positions in enterprises varies by role level, with executive roles taking around 90 days on average, while associate level roles typically take around 30-45 days. Personalization is paramount and that should begin well before a person is onboarded. There is also a need to see the Position / Role more widely as being filled by the best possible talent anywhere in the world through any type of employment that is legal.
GenA (08 - 18) and GenZ (18 - 25) will be the predominant age segments in the workforce. The ecosystem that an enterprise cultivates must jumpstart active engagement with these generations in the earnest through the Learnership, Internships, Apprenticeship, Articleship, Sponsorships to essentially create a pipeline of Intellectual Property (IP) and Talent. When you examine Exhibit 2, it will become clear that enterprises must actively step out of the conventional boundaries and engage with talent in the ecosystem in different ways to develop Human Capital. Where the term Capital is understood as the Sum employed for Growth and in this case it is the Human Sum.
It is now well documented that GenZ prioritize on the following and Enterprise Processes / Roles must reflect these:
Sense of Purpose: Whatever the enterprise does creates value in the society and individuals working for that enterprise have a fair chance to participate in the process of creation.
Work-Life Balance: Providing the Tools & Methods to succeed and make work enjoyable. Not arguing about the hours of work employed but rather the commitment to the quality of work output.
Flexibility: The ability to be productive from anywhere and collaborating across a global ecosystem with trust and privacy assured taking away the debate of Location and Hybrid work.
Learning and Development: Having an accurate Maturity Index of the capabilities at Status Quo and the Future State at an individual and aggregate (department, function, team, process, enterprise and ecosystem) and a Transformative Road Map to bridge the gap.
Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: The Diversity of the Workforce lending strength to the promotion of merit and talent with Equitable Rewards, Recognition and Celebration.
The core of branding is built on trust. Global Capability Center (GCC) service providers often focus on real estate branding and openly advocate for cost-saving strategies in recruitment with poaching as the main weapon. However, they frequently adopt an administrative mindset and fail to operate according to a comprehensive enterprise design playbook, despite claims of AI-driven recruiting. They tend to instill fear in their customers regarding risks and regulations while treating talent merely as a commodity. Among the 1,800 GCCs in India, few demonstrate the characteristics of a Digitally Transformative Center, and even fewer have methods to measure excellence. It is crucial to emphasize that the journey toward institutional excellence must begin with accurately defining work, which then translates into a clear definition of roles that the workforce can embrace, ensuring that the workplace supports those roles for optimal performance and success as expected and / or aspired by the candidates who fill the roles. (https://bit.ly/designplaybookbygiggrtech).
Automated Processes Driving AI
In a previous article (Digital First or AI First?), we emphasized the importance of human involvement in designing enterprise processes and democratizing them with AI. This collaboration allows intelligence to truly thrive, leading to meaningful results for the enterprise’s Customer Universe. The challenge arises when enterprises attempt to do the opposite. Currently, there are no mature AI models capable of effectively verticalizing or horizontalizing intelligence. Crafting processes and defining roles still requires human emotion more than the capabilities of quantum computing. The key to thriving in today's world lies in embracing Design Learning, which can initiate the development of models that are Created (Engineering), Contextualized (Personalization), and Commercialized (Versions & Releases for a segment of one) consistently within a Glocal Ecosystem.
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