Role design and job descriptions for Commercial contractors: clear roles on a team assembled in a fortnight
A commercial project team is built fast from people who may not have worked together. When roles overlap or are left blank, billing, quality and safety quietly fall between two engineers.
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Share your requirementsWhy role design and job descriptions matters in commercial contractors
The planner assumes the billing engineer measures. The billing engineer thinks the site coordinator does. The quality engineer waits for the package manager to raise a request. Each is capable, yet three weeks in, an approval is missing and payment is held. On a commercial project, where every stage needs a client sign-off, vague roles show up as delay.
Role design is the cure. For each project size, write who owns planning, measurement, billing, quality checks, safety, documents and client contact, and what each needs from the others. A one-page description per role, used on every project, cuts the weeks it takes a new team to settle.
How to set it up
1. List the jobs on a project
Write every recurring task from tender hand-over to final account: planning, measurement, billing, approvals, testing, safety walks, document control and client meetings.
2. Group tasks into roles
Assign each task to one role only. Where two roles must work together, note who leads. Do this for small, medium and large project sizes.
3. Write a page per role
Purpose, main tasks, who they report to, who they work with, decisions they can make and what a good month looks like. Use plain words.
4. Test with the last project
Take the previous job and ask who actually did each task. Note gaps and overlaps and adjust the roles.
5. Use the descriptions in hiring and review
Share them at joining, use them for appraisal and refer to them when a role changes. Link to the HR strategy work when sizing teams.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Take one live project and ask each engineer who owns document approvals.
- List tasks that three different people think belong to someone else.
- Check if the last two project managers were given a written role page.
- Ask a package manager what decisions they may take without the project manager.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach role design and job descriptions in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
One page is enough. List purpose, main tasks, relationships and decisions. Longer documents are rarely read and quickly become out of date.
Yes. On a small job one engineer may cover planning and billing, while a large job needs separate people. Write the combined role as well so nothing is dropped.
The head of projects, with input from two or three experienced project managers. They know where roles overlap in practice and will use the pages.