From Documents to Daily Practice: Job Description Training for a National Foundation
Client: National foundation · Role: Independent Instructional Design and Change Enablement Consultant
At a glance: 2-month engagement | Weekly HR check-ins | 4 employee interviews | 25 job descriptions across 10 job families analyzed | 21 validated candidate profiles | 1 Train-the-Trainer session | 1 in-person, 80-minute session | 80 participants
The Challenge
The foundation had updated its job descriptions to reflect restructured seniority levels and associated compensation. My brief was to design training that would help employees use their new job descriptions for guidance and self-assessment, and help managers use them to guide team performance.
Early discovery made clear that the job descriptions were one visible part of a wider organizational shift. For employees, especially those in mid-level roles, the new structure raised natural questions about career progression and what the changes meant for them personally. With that in mind, I designed the training to do more than remind staff of their job descriptions. It would help them understand how the levels fit together, see their place in the structure, and use their job descriptions with confidence.
My Approach
Listening first. I interviewed the HR team to understand goals, constraints and sensitivities, working within agreed confidentiality boundaries. I then held open-format interviews with four employees, using a guide reviewed with HR.
Testing the framework. When employees reviewed sample candidate profiles, they tended to place some at higher levels than the framework intended. That’s common with a new framework, and it showed where the level descriptions needed extra explanation and examples.
Designing for how people would feel. I recommended starting with a manager session, since employees take their questions to their managers. Given the timeline, we agreed to begin with the all-staff session. I chose gamification and mixed participants across job families, so they could explore the framework on fictional profiles with curiosity rather than concern before applying it to their own role.
What I built
Main activity. In small groups, participants played HR consultants choosing the best candidate for a role, using the new job descriptions as their guide.
21 candidate profiles across three job families. Four per family were clear matches and three were deliberately borderline, to start discussion about what separates one level from the next. Each was checked against the job descriptions, tested with interviewees and refined with HR.
Facilitator guide and Train-the-Trainer session. The guide flagged likely questions, sensitive moments and ways to handle them. I then prepared the HR team to deliver the session.
Goal-setting close. Participants reframed a current mid-year goal using their updated job description, with a worksheet and examples for each job family.
Supporting materials. Slide deck, debrief worksheets and handouts.
Outcomes
HR reported that immediate feedback on the session was very positive. A follow-up conversation with HR confirmed that employees had engaged with the new structure and the job descriptions. It also showed that some employees still had personal questions, which is natural with a compensation-related change, since people often prefer to raise these one-on-one. Many of those conversations would go to managers, so I recommended manager preparation as the priority next step and shared how the existing materials could be adapted for it.
What I’d Carry Forward
- Prepare managers first. In any change that touches roles, levels or pay, I treat manager preparation as part of the core design, not a later phase.
- Make evaluation easy to fit in. A two-minute pulse check at the end of a session captures reactions without adding time to the schedule.
- Offer a private channel for questions. An anonymous form or office hours gives employees a way to ask what they won’t ask in the room.