Job descriptions before job grouping: how to fix them in one week

By 31 December 2026 an employer must adopt a pay system or, if it already has one, review it and amend it where needed (Article 23(4) of Law No. XV-969). If a collective agreement sets the system, the employer need not adopt a separate one (DK Article 140(3)), but, in our view, the duty to review an existing system applies to that employer too (Article 23(4) of Law No. XV-969). In it, jobs are grouped by skills, qualification, effort, responsibility and working conditions (DK Article 140(3)). You can assess these only once they are written down. A job title does not tell you: a “manager” answers phones in one company and negotiates deals in another. So our recommendation: put job descriptions in order before the evaluation. The law does not require a private employer to keep job descriptions, but without them you cannot justify the scoring. Below are a five-day plan, a one-page template and a staff questionnaire. For an overview of all the duties, see “Pay transparency in Lithuania: what employers must do, and by when”.

Why descriptions come first

The law: the Labour Code defines effort as the amount of physical, mental and emotional resources needed to perform the tasks under the job description (DK Article 140(3)). So the law itself ties the evaluation to the job description.

VDI recommends checking, before the evaluation, that all job descriptions are accurate, clear and describe the work actually done. If a description does not reflect the real work, it should be corrected before the evaluation (VDI FAQ, question 2.2). VDI also notes that standard titles do not reflect the content of the work (VDI FAQ, question 2.2).

Three rules worth knowing in advance:

• Describe the job, not the person. VDI says jobs are assessed as vacant, without linking them to the abilities of the people holding them (VDI FAQ, question 2.1). Write what the work requires, not what the current employee can do.
• Real titles. The system’s groups should list the specific job titles that actually exist in the company, as they appear in the job list, employment contracts and job descriptions (VDI FAQ, question 1.3). Our recommendation: titles should match across all three documents.
• Soft skills are a job requirement. The law counts communication, cooperation, conflict resolution and the ability to work with people as skills (DK Article 140(3)). VDI stresses they must not be undervalued, especially in customer service and similar jobs (VDI FAQ, question 2.9).

Five-day plan

| Day | Task | Who | Result | |—|—|—|—| | 1 | Job list: titles from employment contracts, headcount per job | CEO or office manager | a list matching the contracts | | 2 | Staff questionnaire (see below), 20 minutes each | every employee | completed questionnaires | | 3 | Draft descriptions using the template | CEO and line managers | one-page descriptions | | 4 | Check with line managers: is this the real work | line managers | corrected descriptions | | 5 | Align titles, approve descriptions, inform staff | CEO | approved descriptions |

A small company with 7–10 jobs can do this in a week. A company with 30–40 jobs should allow two weeks, but the order stays the same.

One-page description template

The template follows the five criteria of DK Article 140(3). At the evaluation you will then already have facts for each criterion.

> Job description > > Job title: [as in the employment contract] Level: [junior / – / senior, if used] > Reports to: [whom; how many people report to this job] > Purpose: [one sentence: why this job exists] > > 1. Main functions (3–7 points, most important first) > > 2. Skills: [professional skills; communication with customers or colleagues; conflict resolution; teamwork] > 3. Qualification: [required education, certificates, licences; required experience in years] > 4. Effort: [physical – e.g. lifts loads up to [x] kg; mental – e.g. analyses data, takes decisions; emotional – e.g. serves dissatisfied customers, works with ill people] > 5. Responsibility: [responsible for: own tasks, equipment, money, customer data, other employees’ work, contracts; size of decisions taken alone] > 6. Working conditions: [workplace; shifts, night work; noise, temperature; travel; peak-pressure periods] > > Autonomy: [what the job decides alone, what it agrees with the manager] > Approved: [date, CEO’s name and signature]

Keep each point short and concrete. “Communicates with customers” is too little. “Handles customer complaints daily by phone and email, including conflict situations” lets you assess both skills and emotional effort.

Staff questionnaire

Employees know best what they actually do. Ask for written answers and say clearly that the questions are about the work, not an assessment of the person.

> 1. List the 5 tasks you spend most time on. What percentage of your time does each take? > 2. What knowledge, licences or certificates does your work need? > 3. Whom do you deal with at work (customers, suppliers, colleagues, authorities)? Do you have to resolve conflicts? > 4. Is your work physically hard? Emotionally stressful? When and why? > 5. What are you responsible for: money, equipment, data, other people’s work? What decisions do you take yourself? > 6. Under what conditions do you work (shifts, travel, noise, outdoors)? > 7. What is missing from your current description, or wrong in it?

Use the answers to draft the description. If an employee describes more than the job requires, keep in the description what the work needs. Personal competences matter later, when setting the person’s place in the pay range.

Example: a 12-person company with 7 jobs

A trading and service company has 12 people. Under the employment contracts the jobs are: CEO (1), sales manager (3), customer service specialist (2), warehouse worker (2), driver (1), accountant (1), office administrator (2).

On day one two problems appear. First, of the three sales managers, one negotiates with key accounts and drafts contracts, while two take orders by phone. Second, one office administrator also handles HR paperwork.

Solution:

• the sales managers get two levels: “sales manager” and “senior sales manager”, with separate functions and responsibility, and the employment contract is updated accordingly with the employee’s written consent (DK Article 45(1));
• the administrator’s description is extended with the HR function; if it is separate work with its own workload, a separate job is considered;
• the customer service description records emotional effort: daily work with complaints;
• the warehouse description records physical effort and working conditions: an unheated warehouse, lifting loads.

After a week the company has 8 descriptions (sales managers on two levels) and can start the evaluation.

Mistakes to avoid

• Old description copied. It was written years ago and does not match the real work.
• The person is described. “Has 15 years of experience and communicates excellently” is about the employee, not the job.
• No emotional effort. In customer service, care or teaching work it is essential, and the law names it expressly.
• Titles do not match. “Manager” in the contract, “sales specialist” in the description, “consultant” in the list.
• Only education is written. VDI says a different education alone is not enough for different groups (VDI FAQ, question 2.4); the description needs the other criteria too.

What to do if…

…two people with the same title do different work? VDI says that if functions, responsibility and qualification differ substantially, the employees should be placed in different groups. If the contract only names a general job, it recommends stating the level clearly in the contract or description (VDI FAQ, question 2.8). Write two descriptions and align the contracts with the employees’ written consent (DK Article 45(1)).

…one person does two jobs? Describe both jobs separately. If they fall into different groups, from 2027 the data on different job groups is reported to Sodra separately (Order A1-433, Description point 4.3). Our recommendation: split working time clearly between them so the data can be reported separately.

…there are no descriptions at all? Start with the questionnaire. You can build the first version from staff answers and line managers’ notes. It does not need to be perfect: it needs to match the real work under the five criteria.

…an employee disagrees with their description? Listen and write down their comments. The employer decides, but the comments show what is missing. If the description changes the work function, the employment contract must also be changed with the employee’s consent.

What comes next

Once descriptions are in order, the evaluation starts: levels are set for each criterion, jobs are scored and grouped. That is the next stage, covered in “Job evaluation and grouping for a pay system: a practical guide”.

Checklist

1. The job list matches the employment contracts.
2. Each job has a one-page description built on the five criteria.
3. Emotional and physical effort is recorded where it exists.
4. Work at different levels is described separately.
5. Descriptions are approved and staff have been informed.

Related articles

• Job evaluation and grouping for a pay system: a practical guide
• Small employers: a minimum pay system by 31 December 2026
• Can you pay a new hire more than a long-serving employee?
• Pay system without a works council: how to consult employees in Lithuania
• Pay transparency in Lithuania: what employers must do, and by when

How to start

Send us your job list and any existing descriptions. We will prepare the questionnaire and description templates, and then the job evaluation and the pay system.

Linden’s full solution, from the pay system to informing employees, is at atlygis.linden.lt. Check which requirements apply to you: atlygis.linden.lt/en/self-check.

Phone +370 5 212 1506, email info@linden.lt

More about this service: drafting labour law documents.