A position description questionnaire is an internal HR form that captures what a specific job actually involves — its duties, decision-making authority, supervisory scope, and required qualifications — so the organization can assign the correct title, pay grade, and overtime status. To complete one well, describe the position as it exists, not yourself, and use concrete language about what the work involves day to day. Vague or inflated answers are the fastest way to get the form returned or the role misclassified.
Gather Before You Start
Pull these together before you open the blank form:
- The current official job description on file with HR, not an old job posting. If you can’t locate it, ask your supervisor or check your HR portal.
- The current organizational chart, showing who you report to, who reports to you, and where your position sits among peer roles.
- Your task logs or work records from roughly the past three to six months. Duties belong on a PDQ only if they are ongoing and permanent.
- Documentation for any license or certification the job actually requires — not credentials you happen to hold that the role doesn’t need.
- Your current FLSA classification (exempt or non-exempt). A PDQ review can change it.
The FLSA piece is worth understanding before you write. An exempt position has to meet both a salary test and a duties test. After a November 2024 federal court ruling that vacated the Department of Labor’s updated thresholds, the minimum salary for exemption reverted to $684 per week, or $35,568 annually.1U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions Job titles don’t decide the duties test; what the employee actually does decides it.2U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17A: Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act So if your PDQ shows duties that no longer fit the executive, administrative, or professional exemption categories, the review can reclassify you to non-exempt, and your employer would then have to track your hours and pay overtime past 40 in a workweek.
How to Complete Each Section
Forms vary, but most share the same core sections: employee information, a job purpose statement, essential and marginal duties, supervision given and received, required qualifications, physical demands, and a comments and signature block.
Employee Information
Fill in your name, employee ID, department, current job title, your supervisor’s name and title, and the date. Some forms also ask for length of service. Simple, but check spelling and current titles carefully; errors here delay routing.
Job Purpose Statement
Two to four sentences on why the position exists. Focus on function, not tasks. A finance analyst might write: “This position analyzes departmental budgets and spending trends to support the division’s annual planning process and ensure compliance with funding restrictions.” Save the task list for the duties section.
Essential and Marginal Duties
This section carries the most weight in the classification decision. Essential duties are the core tasks that define why the position exists. Marginal duties are secondary tasks that could be reassigned without fundamentally changing the job.
The distinction also matters for ADA compliance. The EEOC weighs several factors when deciding whether a duty is essential: whether the position exists specifically to perform it, how many other employees could do it, the skill or expertise required, the time spent on it, and the consequences of not performing it.3U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The ADA: Your Responsibilities as an Employer No fixed percentage automatically makes a duty essential or marginal.
For each duty, list the task, describe how you perform it, and estimate the percentage of your work time it takes. The percentages should add up to 100%. Use specific action language. Iowa’s Department of Administrative Services warns that vague words like “assist,” “direct,” or “assign” without explanation will get a form returned; you need to explain what you actually do and how.4Iowa Department of Administrative Services. Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ) Statements like “must maintain good attendance” or “must follow policies” are not job functions and don’t belong here.
Supervision Received and Given
Describe both. For supervision received, explain how your work is assigned, how often your supervisor reviews it, and how much independent judgment you exercise. For supervision given, list the employees you oversee by title and describe your role over them: assigning work, evaluating performance, recommending hiring or discipline. The depth of supervisory responsibility is a major factor between pay grades and directly affects whether the role meets the executive exemption test under the FLSA.
Qualifications
Enter the minimum education and field of study the job requires, not what the current employee happens to have. If the role requires a bachelor’s degree in accounting, write that, even if you hold a master’s. List only certifications or licenses genuinely required for the work — a CPA license for a role that signs audit reports, a PMP credential for a position that manages formal project portfolios. Padding this section with preferred or optional credentials inflates the job’s profile and invites misclassification.
Physical Demands
Most forms rate how often the job involves sitting, standing, walking, lifting, crouching, and similar activities, usually on a scale from “rarely” to “continuously.” Rate what the job demands, not what you personally do. If the role requires lifting boxes up to 30 pounds several times a week, document that even if you’ve found workarounds. This section feeds ADA accommodation decisions, so accuracy protects everyone.
Comments and Signatures
Most forms include a comments field for you and a separate one for your supervisor. Use yours to flag anything the form’s structure didn’t capture: unusual project-based work, recent scope changes, or cross-departmental responsibilities. Your supervisor then reviews the whole form, adds their own comments (including any disagreements about how duties are described), and both of you sign and date.
Mistakes That Get Forms Returned
Classification analysts see the same problems over and over. Avoiding them saves weeks:
- Copying language from a published job classification or posting. Reviewers will send it back; the PDQ needs to reflect what you actually do, in your own words.4Iowa Department of Administrative Services. Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ)
- Describing yourself instead of the position. “I have 15 years of experience and an MBA” doesn’t help if the role’s minimum is a bachelor’s degree with five years of experience.
- Leaving fields blank. Missing sections are among the most common reasons forms come back. Write “N/A” if a section doesn’t apply.
- Vague duty descriptions. “Assists with department operations” tells the analyst nothing. Specify the task, the tools or systems, and the outcome: “Reviews and reconciles monthly vendor invoices in SAP, resolving discrepancies with purchasing before payment approval.”
- Inflating responsibilities or credentials. Overstating decision-making authority or required qualifications can backfire in a desk audit, and misrepresentation can lead to discipline.
Submitting the Form
After both signatures are in place, submit through whatever channel your organization specifies: an upload to the HRIS, a shared portal, or email to a designated compensation analyst. Some agencies accept electronic submissions only. Iowa’s Department of Administrative Services, for example, rejects printed, scanned, or hard-copy forms.4Iowa Department of Administrative Services. Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ) Check your organization’s submission instructions before you finalize the document.
If your supervisor disagrees with how you’ve described a duty, most processes let them attach written comments before forwarding the form. The analyst reviews both accounts. Disagreements at this stage are normal and often give the reviewer a more complete picture.
What Happens After You Submit
Once the PDQ reaches the compensation or classification team, the review usually runs in two stages: a document review and, if the analyst needs more, a desk audit.
Document Review
An analyst reads the PDQ alongside your department’s organizational chart and the relevant job classification standards, comparing the duties, qualifications, and supervisory scope you described against the criteria for various pay grades. Turnaround times vary by employer and by workload. One large university system estimates 30 to 45 business days for reclassification reviews, with complex requests running longer.5Staff Human Resources. Classification Review Request
Desk Audit
If the analyst needs more detail, they’ll schedule a desk audit: a structured interview, in person or virtual, where you walk through your responsibilities. This is your chance to show complexity and scope that a written form can’t fully capture. Expect questions like:
- How has your position changed since the last review?
- To what extent do you decide what work to do and when?
- What decisions do you make independently, and which require supervisor approval?
- What would happen if you made the wrong call on a difficult decision?
- Do you develop department policies or procedures?
- What are the most difficult problems you solve, and how do you approach them?
The analyst will also meet separately with your supervisor to compare accounts.5Staff Human Resources. Classification Review Request Prepare the way you would for any professional conversation about your work: bring examples, reference specific projects, and be honest about what you do and don’t handle.
Final Determination
After the review, the classification team issues a formal determination that may confirm the current classification, change the job title, adjust the pay grade, or change the position’s FLSA exempt or non-exempt status. If the position moves from exempt to non-exempt, the employer must start tracking hours and paying overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. The determination goes into your official personnel file.
If You Disagree With the Decision
Most organizations have an internal appeal or reconsideration process. The specifics depend on your employer, so check with HR for deadlines and required documentation. A strong appeal usually includes new information the analyst didn’t have, concrete examples showing the original PDQ understated the role’s scope, or evidence that comparable positions at the same organization are classified at a higher grade.
Federal employees under the General Schedule have a more formal path. The Office of Personnel Management handles classification appeals for GS employees, with a separate process for Federal Wage System employees.6U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Appeal Decisions For private-sector and state-government employees, appeals are governed entirely by internal policy; no external federal agency reviews private employers’ classification decisions. If you believe a classification error caused an FLSA wage violation, that’s a separate matter you can raise with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.