A couple years ago, when we had a team member transition out of our organization, I searched for the job description we had used in their hiring process, noticed that less than 50% of it remained accurate, updated it to align with our revised strategy and context, and began using it in the hiring process for the replacement. And then I was struck by a pattern — this wasn’t the first time I’d engaged in this process. In fact, every hire in the past few years was the same. The job description they entered into wasn’t the same job description they exited from.

In every case, this created a problem — over time, and often pretty quickly, my team members lost the ability to know how to win at their jobs. More importantly, they lost the ability to have confidence in their contribution to a mission — whether that’s the organization’s or their own personal mission within the organization. And in a world of accelerating complexity, the fog of culture and competition rolls in fast, leaving employees blind to their connection to meaningful work. Why is this important? In a 2011 HBR article, researchers Teresa Anabil and Steven Kramer show that measurable progress in meaningful work is the most important contributor to workplace happiness.

Measurement + Meaning = Job Happiness

Let’s translate these into the components of a good job description.