By Anthony El Salim

Job descriptions are an important tool to establish clear expectations of an employee’s position. It’s important that employers and employees have a clear mutual understanding of the employee’s duties, responsibilities, and indicators for performance. Without a job description, employees can claim that the standards for the effective execution of their position were never communicated to them. This can create further complications when attempting to formally address an employee’s performance issues, a process that is made much easier with a point of reference like a job description.

As your business changes, your expectations of your employees may change alongside it. However, there are some complications to changing an employee’s job description that you should keep in mind.

The risks of changing a job description

Significant changes to an employee’s job description without their agreement can bring rise to several issues.

Changing an employee’s duties such that the role is fundamentally different to what was originally agreed in their job description can effectively be the same as termination or redundancy. Redundancies have extensive consultation obligations under most modern awards as well as the associated redundancy pay. A drastic change to a role that amounts to a termination has all the risks of a regular dismissal as well as a notice period and final pay entitlements that would need to be discharged.

A unilateral change to an employee’s position may also constitute a breach of contract. HR Assured’s contracts provide some leeway for the employee to be expected to perform additional duties outside of the job description but within the overall scope of the role, however, the above risks should still be kept in mind.

What changes can be made?

Small changes or additions to the tasks required of an employee that are along the line of the duties provided for in their original job description can generally be made without issue. An admin worker being required to use a new payroll system or a barista making juices in addition to coffees, remains generally within the scope of their established role. However, significant changes to an employee’s primary duties, such as a barista doing accounting for the café, or an admin worker writing code, cannot be made unless you receive the employee’s consent to change their role as such. In the absence of the employee’s consent, making such changes unilaterally will give rise to dismissal risks.

There can be significant risks associated with making even relatively minor changes to  a job description, so if your business is unsure, it’s best to speak with a workplace expert prior to acting. If any of this information has raised concerns about job descriptions or performance management, contact our experts via our 24/7 Telephone Advisory Service.

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Anthony El Salim is a Workplace Relations Advisor at HR Assured. He assists clients with a range of employment relations and compliance matters via the 24/7 Telephone Advisory Service. He is currently studying for a Juris Doctor.