Roles, Responsibilities & Expectations Checklist Template

Phase 1: Scoping the Role Definition Exercise

Before defining any roles, confirm why you are doing this and what outcome you need. A team restructure requires different emphasis than a new hire integration. A cross-functional project requires different output than a departmental reorganisation.

• Confirm the trigger for the exercise — new team setup, team restructure, new hire integration, cross-functional project, growth-driven role evolution, or identified performance issue linked to role ambiguity
• Define the scope — which roles, teams, or functions are included; confirm any out-of-scope boundaries
• Identify the owner of the exercise — the manager or HR business partner who leads the process and is accountable for the output
• Confirm the intended outputs — documented role definitions, a RACI matrix, an updated team structure, or a shared expectations document; confirm what success looks like
• Define the timeline — when will the exercise be complete? For new hires, this should happen in week one; for restructures, before the new structure goes live
• Identify key stakeholders to involve — team members whose roles are being defined, adjacent team managers where cross-team dependencies exist, and HR where structural decisions are involved
• Confirm access to existing role documentation — job descriptions, organisational charts, existing RACI matrices or process documentation to use as starting points
• Communicate the exercise to all participants — why it is happening, what they will be asked to contribute, and how their input will be used
• Confirm the process is collaborative — role definitions imposed without input from the people in the roles produce less accurate definitions and less commitment to honouring them
• Document the exercise scope and plan — shared with all participants before any role definition work begins

Phase 2: Documenting Individual Role Definitions

• Define the purpose of each role — a one to two sentence statement explaining why the role exists and what value it delivers; the purpose statement is more useful than a job title alone
• List the core responsibilities — the five to eight primary responsibilities of the role using active verb-led language; distinguish responsibilities from tasks (responsibilities are ongoing ownership; tasks are specific activities)
• Define the scope of each responsibility — what is included and, importantly, what is not; scope boundaries are where overlap and gaps occur
• Clarify decision-making authority — what decisions can this role make independently? What requires manager input? What requires cross-functional alignment? What is advisory only?
• Define key performance indicators — how is the role’s contribution measured? Two to four specific, measurable indicators that reflect the role’s purpose
• Identify key relationships and dependencies — who does this role work with most closely? Who does this role depend on? Who depends on this role?
• Confirm reporting lines — direct manager, any matrix reporting relationships, and any indirect leadership responsibilities (roles this person influences without managing directly)
• Note what is explicitly NOT in scope — particularly important where two adjacent roles cover similar territory; a “not responsible for” statement prevents overlap as effectively as a “responsible for” statement
• Validate the role definition with the person in the role — confirm they agree the documentation accurately reflects their responsibilities and is achievable
• Document and store the role definition — in a shared system accessible to the employee, their manager, and HR

Phase 3: Team Responsibility Mapping

Individual role definitions confirm what each person owns. Team responsibility mapping confirms the gaps and overlaps that individual definitions miss — the places where the team’s coverage either doubles up or falls short.

• List all key team responsibilities and functions — everything the team is collectively accountable for delivering; work from the team’s objectives downward
• Map each team responsibility to a role owner — who is primarily responsible for each function? Confirm there is a single primary owner for each item
• Identify where multiple roles share responsibility — confirm whether sharing is intentional (collaboration) or accidental (overlap that needs resolving)
• Identify gaps — team responsibilities that do not have a clear owner; confirm whether they need to be assigned to an existing role or create the case for a new role
• Identify single points of failure — functions where a single person holds all knowledge or ownership; assess the risk and whether cross-training or backup ownership is needed
• Assess workload distribution — are responsibilities equitably distributed across the team? Identify any roles that are overloaded or underutilised
• Map interdependencies — where one role’s output is another role’s input; confirm handoff points are clear and agreed by both sides
• Identify any external dependencies — team functions that depend on other teams or third parties; confirm those dependencies are documented and the interfaces are clear
• Review the coverage map with the full team — a team discussion about the mapping often reveals informal ownership arrangements that were not captured in formal definitions
• Document the team responsibility map — a single reference document showing the full team’s coverage and how roles connect

Phase 4: Applying a RACI Framework to Key Processes and Decisions

• Identify the key processes, decisions, and projects where role clarity is most critical — RACI is most valuable for recurring processes, significant decisions, and cross-functional activities where ownership is ambiguous
• Define each RACI category clearly — Responsible (does the work), Accountable (ultimately answerable for the outcome), Consulted (provides input before decisions), Informed (told of outcomes); confirm all team members understand the distinctions
• Confirm there is exactly one Accountable person per activity — the most common RACI error is multiple Accountable owners; accountability shared is accountability diffused
• Assign Responsible owners for each activity — the people who will actually do the work; there can be multiple Responsible parties for a single activity
• Identify Consulted parties carefully — consulting too many people creates decision-making overhead; consulting too few creates blind spots; be deliberate about who genuinely needs to provide input
• Keep the Informed column realistic — inform only those who genuinely need to know outcomes; over-informing creates notification fatigue and reduces the signal value of being informed
• Review the RACI matrix with all parties — particularly Consulted and Informed parties; they should agree with their designation or flag any misclassification
• Identify RACI conflicts — where one person is both Accountable and Responsible for too many activities, or where the Accountable and Responsible roles are so different that handoff is unclear
• Use the RACI to resolve existing disputes — if two people believe they own an activity, the RACI exercise creates a forum for resolving the ambiguity explicitly
• Document the finalised RACI matrix — stored in a shared location accessible to all team members; updated when processes or team structure changes

Phase 5: Cross-Functional Role Alignment

• Identify interfaces with adjacent teams — where does this team’s work connect to other teams’ work? Where do handoffs happen across team boundaries?
• Map the cross-functional RACI for shared processes — for any process that spans teams, confirm which team owns each element and how the handoff is managed
• Resolve any cross-team ownership disputes — functions that both teams believe they own, or that both believe the other team owns; bring both managers together to resolve explicitly
• Confirm service level agreements between teams — where one team provides a service to another, confirm the turnaround time, quality standard, and escalation path
• Clarify any matrix management relationships — team members with functional reporting to one manager and operational reporting to another; confirm how priority conflicts are resolved
• Brief adjacent team managers — share the team’s role definitions and responsibility map with managers whose teams work closely with this one; invite feedback on interface accuracy
• Establish a process for raising cross-functional role disputes — how are cross-team ownership questions raised and resolved after the initial exercise is complete?
• Confirm escalation paths for cross-functional decisions — who has authority to resolve a dispute that cannot be resolved between the two team managers?
• Document the cross-functional interfaces — a clear record of how this team connects to adjacent teams; shared with all relevant parties
• Review cross-functional interfaces annually — or whenever a significant organisational change occurs; team structures evolve and interfaces need to evolve with them

Phase 6: Team Communication & Expectations Alignment

• Present the documented role definitions to the full team — a team meeting or workshop where each person’s role is visible to everyone; mutual understanding of colleagues’ roles is as important as self-understanding
• Allow time for questions and clarification — the presentation of role definitions should invite dialogue, not conclude it
• Invite team members to flag any remaining gaps or ambiguities — the people doing the work often identify gaps in the mapping that the manager does not see
• Discuss how the team will handle situations that fall outside defined roles — confirm the default approach when something arises that is not clearly owned
• Agree on team norms — how the team will work together, communicate, make decisions, and resolve disagreements; these complement role definitions with behavioural expectations
• Confirm individual expectations conversations will follow — the team-level exercise informs the individual one-to-one expectations conversation each team member has with their manager; confirm these are scheduled
• Share the documented role definitions and RACI with all team members — confirm everyone has access to the final documentation in a shared location
• Obtain team acknowledgement — confirm each team member has reviewed and understood their role definition and the team responsibility map
• Brief new team members using the documentation — the role definitions and RACI matrix become the primary onboarding tool for new joiners; they explain how the team works faster than any other single document
• Document the team alignment session outcomes — any changes agreed, any outstanding questions, and any follow-up actions