Job descriptions for electrical equipment makers: define the skill, not just the task

In many works the test technician's description reads: conduct tests on finished products, maintain records, coordinate with production. Every clause is accurate. None says what the person must judge, which tests they may run alone, or whether they may stop a board leaving. When the first month-end standoff erupts, the description offers no help at all.

Descriptions in electrical equipment shops usually list chores. The hub on people practice for electrical makers points at the real need: roles that separate production, testing and site work so authority and hand-offs are unmistakable. That begins with describing skill rather than activity.

A chore line says what someone does. A skill line says what they can do unaided, to what standard and with which tools. The gap shows the moment you hire, train or grade.

• Chore: wires control panels. Skill: wires a starter feeder unaided from a client schematic, with ferrules matching the wire schedule, clearing continuity and functional checks first time.
• Chore: winds coils. Skill: winds layer coils to the design sheet, holding tension and interlayer insulation without supervision, and logs conductor consumed.
• Chore: tests panels. Skill: runs insulation, continuity and functional tests to the product sheet, reads results against printed limits and red-tags any unit outside them.
• Chore: fits busbars. Skill: bends, drills and joints busbars to drawing, torques to the stated value and paint-marks every joint checked.
• Chore: supports customers on site. Skill: commissions a cubicle at a client plant, records every alteration on the redlined print and reports changes to design within two days.

Role title and grade.
Purpose: one sentence on why the seat exists.
Skill lines at this grade: three to six, each saying what is done unaided and to what standard.
Tools, instruments and drawings the person must use.
Authority: what the person may sign, tag, release or refuse.
Receives from: which role hands work in, and in what form.
Hands on to: which role takes the work next, with what record.
Travel and site work: how often and on what terms.
Next grade: the skill lines that would move the person up.

Wiremen and testers get attention. Other seats carry just as much quality and are described in a single vague phrase, if at all.

• Core builder: stacks laminations to the step pattern on the drawing, keeps burrs and gaps within the sheet's limits and records the stack height.
• Drying oven operator: loads the active part, runs the drying cycle to the process card, logs temperature and vacuum readings and refuses to unload early.
• Extruder setter: sets zone temperatures, die and tip for a new cable size from the process sheet, brings the line to diameter within the first drum and signs the changeover.
• Burn-in technician: loads luminaires or chargers on the rack, runs the burn-in cycle, records every reject against its station and returns rejects with a tag.
• Bought-out parts storekeeper: checks breaker, relay and drive ratings against the bill of materials before issue, and quarantines any mismatch.
• Estimator: prices a tender from drawings and the shop's own booked hours, and lists every assumption the floor will inherit.

Authority is the line most often missing. A tester's description should state which tests they sign, which limits apply and that they may tag a unit. It should name the single manager able to lift that tag. A commissioning engineer's description should state what they may alter on site, how they record it and to whom they report it.

Without these lines, authority rests on temperament and on whoever shouts loudest that week. The tester who is quietly overruled starts signing whatever arrives, and the site engineer who improvises without recording leaves the next crew guessing.

1. 1

   Begin at the bench, not with a template

   Shadow the seat for a shift, or ask its best holder to walk you through last week. List the chores, then ask what a strong person does that a weaker one does not.

2. 2

   Turn chores into skill lines

   For each main chore add unaided, the standard and the tools. Delete lines that apply to everybody in the building.

3. 3

   Separate grades by skill lines

   A helper, a wireman and a senior wireman share chores but differ in what they manage alone. Write the lines grade by grade.

4. 4

   Add authority and hand-offs

   What the seat signs, tags or releases, and what it receives and passes along.

5. 5

   Test it on two holders

   Ask two people in the seat whether the draft matches their week. Fix whatever they dispute.

6. 6

   Reuse it everywhere

   The same skill lines become the bench trial, the training ladder and the grade review.

GullyHR's role-writing service builds role families with skill lines and authority. The authority clause for switchgear testers shows written power to hold a dispatch. The engineering grade path at charger makers shows a path that does not push engineers into management. For the general method, see descriptions built on accountability.