Don Berman is the co-founder and VP of Sales & Marketing of JDXpert. He played an instrumental role in evolving JDXpert's talent management platform to focus on job description management, which helped JDXpert become a market leader in this space. Currently, Don leads JDXpert's sales, marketing and partnership efforts.

1. DON BERMAN
Co-Founder, VP of Sales & Marketing & JD “Xpert”
Don Berman has spearheaded the adoption of HR
and talent management applications and
technology driven best practices at large and mid-
sized companies throughout the U.S and abroad. As
co-founder and VP of Client Services, Don was
instrumental in evolving the focus of JDXpert’s Talent
Management platform toward a job description-
centric model that resulted in JDXpert becoming a
market leader in job description management
solutions. Today, Don leads the company’s sales,
marketing and partner efforts.
Today’s Speaker

2. Recruiting and
Retaining Talent
Through Economic
Uncertainty

3. Which of the following do you
expect to be the most
challenging in 2023?
Poll
Attribution

4. Recession: Perception vs Reality
Recession
Significant, prolonged decline in:
Reality
Numbers are not indicating a recession
v
v
v
GDP
Employment
Consumer Spending
^
^
^
United States GDP +2.6%
Source: CNBC
Source: FRED
US Unemployment rate 3.7%
US PCE up 0.6%
Source: FRED Reuters

5. What’s Fueling Financial Discontent?
Forbes | CNN Business
Short Term Mid Term Long Term
Inflation (Recession)
Supply Chain
Labor Shortage

6. HR Challenges
Recover Retain Recruit
Reflect
Deloitte

7. Modern job description management for today’s HR pros
Job Description
Management Solution
BEST IN CLASS

8. Why Managing
Job Descriptions
is a critical issue for strategic HR
A clear understanding
of the job is
REQUIRED TO
Recruit the right
people
Evaluate employee
productivity &
performance
Identify and retain
top performers
Identify and manage
bottom performers
Motivate employees with
engaging Career Paths
Identify Employee
Training Gaps
Develop an equitable
salary structure
Protect your future with
effective succession plans
Protect your company
from regulatory sanction
FLSA, ADA, Equal Pay
Benchmark/Evaluate
jobs to compensate
employees fairly

9. Job information is
the cornerstone
of what we do
Where do we keep this critical dataset?
THE JOB
DESCRIPTION
Human Resources Talent Management Compensation

10. If you were to rate satisfaction
with your job descriptions on
a scale of 1-10 (1 is lowest) –
where would you land?
Poll

11. Recover

12. Recover?
Economy
• Higher personal savings rate
• Government relief programs
Flexibility
• Hybrid, remote, return to office
Job Vacancies
• Service industry
• Early retirement
• Fewer younger workers
Layoffs?
• Cause of current layoffs
Trading Economics | Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis

13. Reflect

14. Charting a
direction
HR Dive
• HR ‘s role in an economic downturn
• What have we been doing?
• What is our ability to predict the
future
• Are you confused?
• The ongoing labor shortage needs to
be top of mind

15. What To Do
01
LOOK ELSEWHERE
Other than HC
America’s SBDC
► Increase productivity
► Minimize other costs
► Delay planned investments
► Expand revenue streams
► Offer compelling promotions
► Bring roles in house
02
REFINE JOB DATA
Understand the work done at a granular level
03
Plan to scale headcount for roles with many
incumbents
ASSESS HEADCOUNT
04
Combine responsibilities to form fewer roles
CONSOLIDATE
BE PREDICTIVE
05
Using real-time data
Surgical approach
MEASURED ACTION
06

16. Retain

17. Retain
Keep the workers you already have by
• Addressing burnout
• Boosting engagement
• Strategic compensation
• Re-recruit employees
Statista

18. World Health Organization
Occupational burnout is a syndrome
resulting from chronic work-related
stress, with symptoms characterized by
"feelings of energy depletion or
exhaustion; increased mental distance
from one’s job, or feelings of negativism
or cynicism related to one's job; and
reduced professional efficacy.
What is Burnout?

19. Causes of Burnout?
Harvard Business Review
Values
Fairness
Community
Reward
Control
Workload

20. Burnout: Why Job Descriptions Are
Important
Burnout is a complex issue with multiple causes
Impact on these causes of Burnout A clear understanding of work
from an effective job description can:
Workload: Unclear or overly demanding job expectations Can provide a clear definition of the work to be done
Control: Feeling like you have little or no control over your work Delineate what is and what is not a part of the job
Reward: Lack of recognition or reward for good work Define what success looks like for the position
3 out of 6
Causes of burnout are related to the job description

21. Employees are engaged when they are
successful
Job Descriptions
• Describe success
• Amplify impact of regular check-ins
• Impact training, succession, knowledge of
responsibilities
Engagement: Why
Job Descriptions
Are Important

22. Why Employees Leave
McLean & Company
Turnover factors Rank
Opportunities for career advancement 1
Satisfaction with my role and responsibilities 2
Base pay 3
Opportunities for career-related skill development 4
The degree to which my skills were used in my job 5
Are directly dependent upon job descriptions
4 out of 5

23. Burnout & Engagement: What To Do
01
CONSISTENCY 02
Include what needs to be done to be
successful in the position and allow
employees to view, acknowledge, and
comment on their job description
CLARITY
03
GUIDANCE
04
Provide tools for employees to plan their careers
PLANNING
Make sure that your job descriptions are
consistent with the actual duties and
responsibilities of the job
Utilize your job descriptions to develop
career paths that layout growth
opportunities in your organization

24. Ruth Thomas
Chief Evangelist at Payscale
Strategic compensation
happens when you start
viewing pay as an
investment rather than a
cost and treat your people
as an asset.

25. Compensation:
Why Job
Descriptions Are
Important
Foundational element
• Salary structures, career
ladders/architecture, benchmarking,
grading, and levelling
• Market pricing
• Removes guesswork

26. Compensation: What To Do
02
Ensure accurate market pricing results by
having job descriptions at hand
.
MARKET PRICING
01
JOB DESCRIPTION MANAGEMENT
Create and maintain detailed, accurate
and up-to-date job descriptions
03
STRATEGIC COMPENSATION
Collate market pricing results with Job
Descriptions to help validate compensation
decisions

27. Where Does
Retention Start?
• Hiring the right people
• What is the right person?
• The one that will be successful in
the role
Where do all your new hires land
in your organization?

28. • Quantify team dynamics
• Important in determining hire
success
In Teams!!

29. • Based on accurate, detailed, approved
job descriptions
• Query managers to describe:
• Team contribution
• Teaming style
• Departmental culture
• Job-to-be-done
• Personal characteristics
• Insert structured text to attract
candidates who will be successful given
those particular team dynamics.
TeamScape Job
Postings

30. Re-Recruiting:
Why Job
Descriptions Are
Important
• Consider talent marketplace solutions
• Provide personalized recognition and stretch
assignments
• Institute stay interviews and use Job
Descriptions for:
• Career pathing/advancement opportunities
• Skills matching
• Learning opportunities
Lever HRO Today Vector Technical

31. Recruit

32. Labor Market Expectations
Lever
Flexibility Transparency Career Growth DE&I

33. Flexibility: By The Numbers
65%
of candidates
want remote work
options even after
the pandemic
76%
of employees see flex
work as a top reason for
staying with their current
employer
Lever

34. What percentage of formerly
on-site jobs do you predict will
remain remote or hybrid
permanently?
Poll

35. • Emphasizes essential functions
• To monitor, evaluate, motivate
remote workers
• Defend against litigation
• Qualify onsite versus remote functions
Remote Work: Why
Job Descriptions
Are Important

36. Remote Work: What To Do
02
Understand what tasks need to change
or be done differently due to a remote
work environment
AUDIT TASKS
01
ASSESS VALIDITY
Keep job descriptions up to date in the
context of the new work environment
03
UPDATE COMPLIANCE INFORMATION
Document changes to physical demands and working
conditions for ADA compliance

37. • Identify jobs as remote capable
• Display remote guidelines
• Allow stakeholder to indicate items
that cannot be done remotely
Identifying
Remote Work

38. • Report on remote-capable jobs
• Revise remote capable jobs requiring
on-site presence
Identifying
Remote Work

39. Adaptive Job
Descriptions
Allow job descriptions to adapt in cases of
• Business disruption
• Move to remote work
• Handle temporary consolidations due to
labor shortages

40. Adaptive Job
Descriptions
• Temporary override
• Edit content to accommodate the new
situation
• Automatically revert at end date
• Useful for:
o Essential Functions
o Physical Demands
o Working Conditions

41. Transparency: By The
Numbers
50%
of candidates become
frustrated wit the lack of
transparency in job
postings and interviews
20
states currently have
some sort of pay
transparency law
Lever | Zippa

42. • What is pay transparency
• Why is it important
• What’s the relation between PT/PE
• Creates issues for:
• Companies with PE issues
• Companies posting a job in multiple
locales
Pay Transparency
vs Pay Equity

43. Career Growth: By The
Numbers
33%
of candidates view
career growth as a
motivational factor
when choosing an
employer
47%
of U.S. employees rate
career advancement
opportunities as very
important to their job
satisfaction and job
engagement rates.
Lever | Zippa

44. • Career Paths
• Enabling Methodologies: Job
Architecture
Career Growth: Why
Job Descriptions
Are Important

45. • Allow employees to view jobs
• In their current path
• Other relevant paths in the
organization
• Explore side-by-side
Career Path

46. • Consistent structure to describe work
• Career development & succession
• Coherent compensation strategy
• Transparency and employee mobility
• Workforce analytics & planning
• Organizational changes & M&A events
Job Architecture
Enables

47. • Cascades architecture content into
job descriptions
• Creates guides for stakeholder that
can be used for writing and revising
job descriptions
• Enforces job architecture structure
• Supports competency and skills
models
• Insures coherent progressions
Job Architecture
in Job Descriptions

48. Edit and collaborate with
stakeholders on:
• Job Families
• Sub-Families
• Career Stream/Levels
Map employees to the architecture
Tools for Job
Architecture

49. DE&I: By The Numbers
+15% +35%
Better financial
performance above
national industry median
ethnic/gender
67%
of job seekers consider
workplace diversity an
important factor
McKinsey Bonus.ly

50. DE&I and Job Descriptions
Pay Equity Debiasing Skills-Based
Recruiting

51. Pay Equity: Why
Job Descriptions
Are Important
• Inaccurate job descriptions are an obstacle to
pay equity
• Substantially similar work is the standard based
on a composite of:
• Responsibilities/Essential Functions
• Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
• Effort
Tools to expose hidden pay gaps
• Quantitative Analysis – Similarity scoring
• Qualitative Analysis – Side-by-side review
of cohorts
CA.gov

52. Debiasing-
Impact of Bias in
Job Descriptions
• Discourages candidates
who think the job is “not
for them”
• Narrows applicant pool

53. Types of Bias
Gender Bias Racial/Class Bias Age Bias Able Bias

54. Jargon
• SOW
• Ad Hoc
• TPS report
Excess superlatives
• Awesome
• Immense
• World-class
Other Language
that Reduces
Applicants

55. Debiasing in Action

56. Recruiting: Skills-
Based Job Postings
Less weight on education and experience
because doing so:
• Drastically expands the talent pool
• By including those without degrees
• By adding in those with experience gaps or
frequent job changes
Education level does not guarantee skills
• Many ways to learn needed skills
Skillful, The Wall Street Journal

57. What To Do: Skills-
Based Job Postings
• Skills-Based Job Posting
• Focus on KSAs and Competencies
• Company Description
• Job Summary
• KSAs
• (Foundational) Competencies
• Example Activities (Essential Functions)
• Licenses and Certifications
• Physical Demands
• Disclaimers

58. More candidates
1
2 More diverse
candidate pool
Recruiting Blueprint
Team-scape
Job Postings
Skills-based
Recruiting
Address
Expectations
Accurate &
Up-to-date
Job
Descriptions
3 More successful
hires

59. Wrap Up
• The economy is expected to contract in
2023; however, the long-term issue we need
to confront is the labor shortage
• Get your job descriptions in order so that they
can address talents’ need for transparency,
flexibility, career growth, fair compensation,
engagement and relief of burnout
• Use power tools to understand the work that
people do and how it fits into your
organization
• Increase the effectiveness of your recruiting
efforts by creating job postings that expand
the talent pool with candidates who have
the capacity for success

60. Thank you!
Want to learn more about how JDXpert can help you
get the most out of your job descriptions?
Schedule Your Demo Today!
https://jdxpert.com/contact/