Settle What Each Role Owns, Decides and Is Judged On
Role design and job descriptions is the work of defining what a position exists to achieve, mapping what it owns against the roles around it, deciding its reporting line and approval authority, and writing all of that down as a description a person can be measured against. Role design settles the substance; the job description is the written record of it.
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Share your requirementsRole Design and Job Descriptions in brief
Role design and job descriptions is the work of defining what a position exists to achieve, mapping what it owns against the roles around it, deciding its reporting line and approval authority, and writing all of that down as a description a person can be measured against. Role design settles the substance; the job description is the written record of it.
- GullyHR is an HR consulting, HR services, training and software company based in Bengaluru, working with Indian startups and small and medium businesses.
- Role design and job descriptions sits within GullyHR's HR management consulting pillar, alongside organisation design and HR policies and governance.
- You receive a job-description library, responsibility maps, authority levels and role-based measures, written for your business rather than adapted from templates.
- Which individual holds which role stays a leadership decision. GullyHR defines what the role must own and the capability it calls for.
- Scope and sequence are agreed after a consultation, and this work is usually sequenced after organisation design where both are needed.
The starting point
Could You Settle a Responsibility Dispute From a Document?
Descriptions are usually written once, in a hurry, to advertise a vacancy. The role then grows into something else, and the document is never revisited. The gap shows up when somebody says a task is not their job, or when an appraisal has nothing specific to discuss.
We define the role from the work, settle its boundaries and authority, and write it so it can be used.
You may be experiencing:
- Two people holding the same designation and doing noticeably different jobs, with nobody having planned it.
- A description written to advertise a vacancy that has never matched what the role actually became.
- An employee saying a task is not their job, with no document that settles it either way.
- A recruitment advertisement that cannot be written, because the role was never defined.
- A manager unable to say in specific terms what a direct report is accountable for beyond general duties.
- Appraisal conversations staying vague, because there is no measure attached to the role.
- A senior hire escalating decisions that should sit inside their own authority, because nobody wrote down what they may approve.
- A promotion or transfer where nobody can say how the new role differs from the old one.
- A new joiner who spends the first month finding out informally what they are expected to own.
- Tasks added to a role over the years by successive managers, with no point at which the description is updated.
- A description that lists duties but says nothing about what doing the role well looks like.
What we can help with
Our Role Design Services
Role Analysis
A structured look at what the position must deliver for the business, drawing on the role holder, their manager and the functions around it, so the role is analysed from the work rather than from whoever currently does it.
Boundary Mapping
The specific activities a role owns, shares or hands off, checked against neighbouring roles, so two positions are not quietly doing the same thing and nothing falls between them.
Job Descriptions
One consistent format covering purpose, key responsibilities, reporting relationship, authority level and measures, written so it can be used in a real conversation rather than filed.
Person Specifications
The qualifications, experience, skills and attributes the position genuinely needs, kept deliberately distinct from the description of its duties, so recruitment measures the right thing.
Reporting Relationships
The role's reporting line and any team it leads, agreed against the current or target structure, so the job description and the organisation chart say the same thing.
Authority Levels
The approvals, spending limits and decisions the position holds by virtue of being that position, so a manager knows what is genuinely theirs to settle and what should escalate.
Role-Based Measures
The two or three measures that best reflect whether the role is being performed well, written in terms specific to that position rather than drawn from a generic company-wide list.
Description Library
Every description in one place, in the same format, each with an owner and a review date, so a description written this year is not silently contradicted by one written three years ago.
The scope
What the Consulting Covers
The aim is to define each position clearly enough that a manager, an employee and a recruiter read it the same way. These are the parts we can review or design. The scope is agreed with you and can take all areas or only some.
Current Role Assessment
Existing descriptions, advertisements, organisation charts and appraisal forms, compared with what people actually do.
Role Purpose and Outcomes
A short statement of what the position exists to achieve and the results it is expected to contribute to.
Responsibilities and Activities
The recurring and occasional work the role carries, grouped so that it can be read at a glance.
Boundary and Overlap Mapping
Where the role owns, shares or hands off work with neighbouring positions, and where a task has no owner.
Reporting Lines and Team Leadership
The manager the role reports to and any team it leads, checked against the current or target structure.
Authority and Approval Levels
The decisions, approvals and spending limits the role holds, and the point at which a matter escalates.
Person Specifications
The qualifications, experience, skills and attributes the position needs, written apart from its duties.
Role Measures
Two or three measures specific to the position that can be used in review and accountability conversations.
Role Families and Levels
How positions with several holders or several seniority levels can share one description with agreed differences.
Description Format and Templates
One consistent layout for every description, with plain language and a stated reading order.
Use in Recruitment, Appraisal and Pay
How the description feeds the vacancy brief, the appraisal form and any later grading or benchmarking work.
Library and Review Cycle
Version control, named owners and review dates, and a simple route for updating a description when a role changes.
Working together
Ways to Work With Us
Role Design Diagnostic
A focused review of a handful of roles where accountability is unclear or actively disputed, closing with a findings discussion and a recommended treatment for each.
Description Library Build
The full engagement across all or most positions: roles analysed, responsibilities mapped, descriptions and specifications drafted, and the library organised with owners and review dates.
Paired With Organisation Design
Role definitions written for the positions on a newly designed structure, sequenced after the structure is agreed so nothing is written against a box that is about to move.
Ongoing Maintenance
A continuing arrangement that reviews and updates descriptions as roles evolve, new positions are created, or the structure changes around them.
We define positions, not people. Who should hold a role, and whether a particular person fits it, are decisions for you and the relevant manager.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the scope of your engagement, deliverables can include:
- A job description for every role in scope, covering purpose, responsibilities, reporting line, authority level and measures.
- A person specification for every role in scope, naming the qualifications, experience and skills it genuinely requires.
- A responsibility map showing where roles in scope overlap, hand off, or leave a gap between them.
- Authority-level definitions naming what each role may decide without escalating.
- Role-based measures written for direct use in appraisal and accountability conversations.
- A consolidated description library, version-controlled, with an owner and review date against each role.
- A briefing session for managers on using the descriptions in recruitment, appraisal and day-to-day accountability.
- A recommended treatment for any duplicated, split or unowned activity found during the mapping.
- A role purpose statement for every role in scope, written as one clear sentence on what the position exists to achieve.
- A role family and level note showing where positions with several holders share one description and how they differ.
- A short guide for HR and managers on updating a description when a role changes, and who approves the change.
Step by step
How We Work
Confirm the Roles in Scope
We agree which positions are being designed or redefined: a handful of senior roles where accountability is disputed, an entire department, or every position on a newly agreed chart.
Analyse Each Role
Interviews with the role holder, their manager and the functions they work with closely, checked against what the business actually needs the position to deliver rather than against what it currently does.
Map the Boundaries
Activities are checked for overlap, gaps and unclear ownership against the roles around each position, so boundaries are settled on paper before they are argued over during a delivery problem.
Draft and Agree Authority and Measures
Purpose, responsibilities, reporting line, authority level, measures and the person specification are drafted in one format. What a role may decide, and what it is judged on, are put to you as working decisions.
Finalise, Build the Library and Brief
Drafts go to the manager and, where appropriate, the role holder, come back marked up and are finalised with a version date. The set is organised into a library, and managers are briefed on using it. Where it is included in the engagement, a pilot with one department is run first, and the format is refined from what its managers found before it is used elsewhere.
The difference
What Written Roles Give You
A defined set of roles helps you:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering which roles currently have descriptions, and whether those match what the position actually does, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Settle a disputed responsibility by reading a document instead of arguing from memory.
- Start recruitment from a clear definition, so the advertisement, the interview and the offer measure the same thing.
- Know a role's authority in advance, so a decision escalates only when it genuinely should.
- Hold appraisal conversations against measures specific to that role rather than a generic list.
- Find and assign two roles doing parts of the same work, or a task nobody owns.
- Describe every current and future role to the same standard, in one place, with a date on it.
- Write a recruitment brief from an existing description instead of starting from a blank page.
- Explain to a new joiner what the role owns and where it stops, from the first week.
- See which roles belong to a family and can share one description with local adjustments.
- Review a role when it changes, with a named owner and a date for doing so.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Companies With Drifting Designations
Businesses where the same title means different things depending on who holds it, and descriptions have not kept pace with how roles evolved.
Businesses About to Recruit
Companies hiring for a position that has never had a clear definition, and who need one before the job can be advertised.
Companies With Recurring Disputes
Businesses where accountability arguments between roles keep returning because responsibilities were never written down.
Businesses Moving to a New Structure
Companies that need role definitions for the positions on a newly agreed chart.
Companies Rebuilding Performance
Businesses introducing or rebuilding an appraisal process that needs role-based measures to assess people against.
Family Businesses
Companies where roles grew around individuals and no longer describe what the business needs the position to do.
Growing Teams Adding Managers
Businesses where new managers inherit teams and need to know in writing what each direct report owns.
Companies Preparing Pay or Grade Work
Businesses that need clear role content before positions can be grouped into grades or compared with the market.
First-Time HR Leads
Teams building the first set of role documents and wanting a format and a review routine they can maintain themselves.
Good to know
A Clear Path from Role Question to Maintained Description
Defining the role
- Scope: agree the positions in scope and the reason each one needs attention.
- Analyse: interview the role holder, the manager and the neighbouring functions.
- Map: check boundaries and authority against the roles around each position.
Writing it and keeping it current
- Draft: write the description, person specification and measures in one format.
- Agree: take drafts through manager and role-holder review and fix the wording with a version date.
- Maintain: set an owner and a review date so the description changes when the role does.
Role design is not finished when the document is signed off. The review date keeps the description in step with how the role develops.
Good to know
Track Role Clarity
Coverage and currency
- Roles with a current description: how much of the structure is covered.
- Description age: which descriptions are past their review date.
- Open overlaps and gaps: how many boundary questions remain unresolved.
- Review ownership: whether each description has a named owner.
Use in practice
- Vacancy brief readiness: whether a role can be advertised from its description.
- Appraisal fit: whether review conversations use the role's own measures.
- Authority escalations: which decisions keep rising that the role was meant to settle.
- Shared descriptions: where one description covers jobs that have drifted apart.
Measures use agreed definitions and are reviewed by the people who own the descriptions.
Good to know
Scope and Service Boundaries
Each engagement defines
The roles or departments in scope, whether person specifications, authority levels and measures are included, and the manager briefing and library handover provided.
Requires a separate agreement
- Organisation structure design beyond the roles in scope.
- Job evaluation, grading and pay benchmarking.
- Recruitment for the roles once they are defined.
- Drafting employment contracts or appointment terms.
- Maintenance of the library beyond the agreed period.
Who holds each role and what each role may approve remain with authorised management. Descriptions that feed contracts, performance actions or formal employment decisions should receive appropriate specialist review.
Good to know
Timeline and How to Prepare
Timeline
The schedule depends on the number of roles, how much cross-checking against neighbouring roles is needed and how quickly managers can review drafts. We confirm it after agreeing the scope.
Useful inputs
- Existing job descriptions and past advertisements.
- The current organisation chart or reporting list.
- Appraisal forms and any role-based goals in use.
- A list of roles where responsibility is disputed or unclear.
- Approval limits and delegations currently followed.
- Recent recruitment briefs.
Where possible, reviews use redacted records or agreed samples.
Good to know
Confidentiality and Role Information
Handled by agreement
Role analysis involves conversations about what people do, how they are managed and what they may decide. Before work begins we agree who is interviewed, how notes are kept, who may see drafts, the confidentiality terms and retention arrangements.
Findings and drafts
The output describes the position rather than the person, and individual comments are not attributed. Drafts go only to the people agreed for review.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
It is the work of defining what a position exists to achieve, mapping what it owns against the roles around it, deciding its reporting line and approval authority, and writing that down as a description a person can be measured against.
No. Organisation design settles how positions are arranged, who reports to whom and who decides what at each level. Role design settles what an individual position owns and is judged on. Where both are needed, the structure is usually agreed first.
No. We define what the position requires and what it is accountable for. Whether a particular person fits it is a decision for you and the relevant manager, and the description is designed to make that conversation more concrete.
No. The format is consistent, but the content comes from interviews with the role holder, the manager and the neighbouring functions, checked against what the business needs. A generic description is the reason most existing ones go unused.
Anything from a handful of disputed senior roles to every position on the chart. Larger sets are usually done department by department, and role families with several holders are drafted once and adjusted, which keeps the work proportionate.
That disagreement is useful and surfaces during the review step, where drafts go to the manager and, where appropriate, the role holder. It is usually about boundaries or authority, which is exactly what the exercise exists to settle. The final call is management's.
What an individual says is not attributed in anything we produce. The output describes the position rather than the person, and people speak more usefully about overlaps and gaps when that is clear at the start.
Yes. The library can sit in whichever document system you already use, or on the GullyHR platform where descriptions can be linked to the employee record, the recruitment brief and the appraisal form.
After agreeing which positions are included and why. The scope names the roles or departments in scope, whether person specifications and measures are included, and whether the manager briefing forms part of it.
Usually when the same title means different things depending on who holds it, when a vacancy cannot be advertised clearly, when accountability disputes keep returning, or when a new structure needs role definitions.
The job description sets out what the role does and is accountable for. The person specification sets out what a candidate needs to bring. Keeping them apart helps recruitment measure the right thing.
No. A description that lists every task goes out of date quickly and is rarely read. We aim for purpose, main responsibilities, boundaries, authority and measures, written so they can be used in a real conversation.
Yes. Senior roles often benefit most, because their authority and boundaries are where disputes arise. These are drafted with the role holder and the person they report to, and the final wording is management's.
Many businesses review them once a year and whenever a role changes materially. We set a review date and a named owner against each description so the library does not go stale.
It depends on how many roles are in scope, how much cross-checking is needed and how quickly managers can review. Manager availability is usually the constraint rather than the drafting. We confirm the timeline once the scope is agreed.
Yes. The purpose, responsibilities and person specification give a clear base for an advertisement. We can show how to turn a description into a vacancy brief, as part of the manager briefing where it is included.
Pricing depends on the number of roles, how many departments are involved and the support required. Share your requirements and we will send a tailored proposal.
Write the Role Down Before You Need It Settled
Define what each position owns, what it may decide and what it is judged on, in one format, in one library, with an owner and a review date against each.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
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