Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of Content
Abstract
Job Analysis
Nature of Job Analysis
Components of Job Analysis
Uses of Job Analysis
Steps in Job Analysis
Methods of collecting information
o
o
o
o
o
o
Interview
Questionnaire
CIT
Observation
Participant diary/logs
Quantitative Job Analysis Technique
o PAQ
o FJA
Conclusion
Bibliography
Abstract
A method of performing job analyses and delivering or providing access to the results of the job analyses
by creating a list of job requirements and working conditions for each discrete task of a job, creating a
physical demands analysis comprising a list of physical requirements of each discrete task of a job, and
combining the lists into a job analysis database for determining whether a worker can perform a job.
Job Analysis
Job analysis is a systematic approach to defining the job role, description, requirements, responsibilities,
evaluation, etc. It helps in finding out required level of education, skills, knowledge, training, etc for the job
position. It also depicts the job worth i.e. measurable effectiveness of the job and contribution of job to the
organization. Thus, it effectively contributes to setting up the compensation package for the job position.
Supervisor or HR specialist normally collects one or more of the following types of information via the job
analysis:
Work Activities: First, he or she collects information about the jobs actual work activities, such as
cleaning, selling, teaching or painting. This list may also include how, why and when the worker
performs each activity.
Human Behaviour: The specialist may also collect information about human behaviours like
sensing, communicating, deciding and writing. Included here would be information regarding job
demands such as lifting weights or walking long distances.
Machines, tools, equipment & work aids: This category includes information about tools used,
materials processed, knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or law), & services rendered
(such as counselling or repairing).
Performance standards: The employer may also want information about the jobs performance
standards (in terms of quantity or quality levels for each job duty). Management will use these
standards to appraise the employees.
Job context: Information included here are about such matters as physical working conditions, work
schedule and the organisational and social context for instance, the number of people with whom
the employee would normally interact. Information regarding incentives might also be included
here.
Human requirements: This includes information regarding the jobs human requirements, such as
job-related knowledge or skills (education, training, work experience) and required personal
attributes (aptitudes, physical characteristics, personality, interests).
Job Position:
Job position refers to the designation of the job and employee in the organization. Job position forms an
important part of the compensation strategy as it determines the level of the job in the organization. For
example management level employees receive greater pay scale than non-managerial employees. The
non-monetary benefits offered to two different levels in the organization also vary.
Job Description:
Job description refers the requirements an organization looks for a particular job position. It states the key
skill requirements, the level of experience needed, level of education required, etc. It also describes the
roles and responsibilities attached with the job position. The roles and responsibilities are key determinant
factor in estimating the level of experience, education, skill, etc required for the job. It also helps in
benchmarking the performance standards.
Job Worth:
Job Worth refers to estimating the job worthiness i.e. how much the job contributes to the organization. It is
also known as job evaluation. Job description is used to analyze the job worthiness. It is also known as job
evaluation. Roles and responsibilities helps in determining the outcome from the job profile. Once it is
determined that how much the job is worth, it becomes easy to define the compensation strategy for the
position.
Uses of Job Analysis:
Job
Analysis
Job Description
& Job
Specification
Recruitment &
Selection
Performance
Appraisal
Job Evaluation
Wage & Salary
Decisions
(Compensation)
Training
Requirements
Recruitment & Selection: Job Analysis provides information about what the job entails and what
human characteristics are required to perform the job. This information, in the form of job
description and specifications, helps management decide what sort of people to recruit and hire.
Compensation: Job analysis is crucial for estimating the value of each job & its appropriate
compensation. Compensation (such as salary and bonus) usually depends upon the jobs required
skill and education level, safety hazards, degree of responsibility and so on - all the factors we can
assess through job analysis.
Performance Appraisal: A performance appraisal compares each employees actual performance
with his or her performance standards. Managers use job analysis to determine the jobs specific
activities and performance standards.
Training: The job description should show the activities and skills and therefore the training - that
job requires.
Discovering unassigned duties: Job analysis can also help reveal unassigned duties. For
example, a companys production manager says Mr. X is responsible for a dozen or so duties, such
as production scheduling and raw material purchasing. However any reference of raw material
inventory management was missing. On further study, the manager finds that none of the other
manufacturing people are responsible of inventory management. Thus a manger has uncovered an
essential unassigned duty with regards to job analysis.
b. A process chart provide more detailed picture of the work flow. In its simplest form a
process chart shows the flow of inputs to and the outputs from the job you are analysing.
Finally, the existing job description, if there is one, usually provides a starting point for
building the revised job description. In the figure below the quality control clerk is expected
to review components from suppliers, check components going to the plan managers and
give information regarding components quality to these managers.
Information
input form the
plant manager
Components
input from
Suppliers
Product Quality
output to Plant
Manager
(3) Select representative positions. Why? Because there may be too many similar jobs to analyse. For
example, it is usually necessary to analyse the jobs of 200 assembly workers when a sample of 10
jobs will do.
(4) Actually analyse the job by collecting data on job activities, required employee behaviours,
working condition, and human traits & abilities needed to perform the job. For this step, use one or
more of the job analysis methods.
(5) Verify the job analysis information with the worker performing the job & with his or her immediate
supervisor. This will help confirm that the information is factually correct and complete. This review
can also help gain the employees acceptance of the job analysis data and conclusions by giving
that person a chance to review and modify your description of the job activities.
(6) Develop a job description and job specification. These are two tangible products og the job
analysis. The job description is a written statement that describes the activities and
responsibilities of the job, as well as its important features, such as working conditions and safety
hazards. The job specification summarises the personal qualities, traits, skill and background
required for getting job done. In maybe in a separate document or in the same document as the job
description.
The Interview
Managers use three types of interview to collect job analysis data individual interview with each
employee, group interview with groups of employees who have the same jobs & the supervisor interviews
with one or more supervisor who know the job. They use group interviews when a large number of
employees are performing similar or identical work, since it can be a quick and inexpensive way to gather
information.
Whichever kind of interviews we use, we need to be sure the interviewee fully understands the reason fro
the interview since there is a tendency for such interviews to be viewed, rightly or wrongly, as efficiency
evaluation. If so, interviewees may hesitate to describe their jobs accurately.
The interview is probably the most widely used method for identifying the jobs duties & responsibilities and
its wide use reflects its advantages. It is a relatively simple and quick way to collect information, including
information that might never appear on a written form. The interview also provides an opportunity to explain
the need for and function of the job analysis. And the employee can vent frustration that might otherwise go
unnoticed by the management.
Distortion of the information is the main problem whether due to outright falsification or honest
misunderstanding. Job analysis is often a prelude to changing a jobs pay rate. Employees therefore may
legitimately view the interview as the efficiency evaluation that may affect their pay. They may then tend to
exaggerate certain responsibilities while minimising others.
Typical Questions
What is the job being performed?
What are the major duties of your position? What exactly do you do?
What physical location do you work in?
What are the education, experience, skill and (where applicable) certification and licensing
requirements?
In what activities do you participate?
What are the job responsibilities and duties?
What are the basic accountabilities or performance that typifies your work?
What are your responsibilities? What is the environmental and working condition involved?
What are the jobs physical demands? The emotional and mental demands?
What are the health and safety condition?
Are you exposed to any hazards or any unusual working conditions?
Interview Guidelines
There are several things which should be kept in mind while conducting a job analysis interview.
1. The job analyst and supervisor should work together to identify the workers who know the job best.
2. Quickly establish rapport with the interviewee. Know the persons name, speak in easily understood
language, briefly review the interview purpose and explain how the person was chosen for the
interview.
3. Follow a structured guide or checklist. One that lists questions and provides space for answers.
This ensures you to identify crucial question ahead of time and that all the interviewers (if there are
more than one) cover all the questions.
4. When duties are not performed in a regular manner for instance when the worker doesnt
performs the same job over and over again many times a day- ask the worker to list his/her duties
in order of importance and frequency of occurrence. This will ensure that you dont overlook crucial
but infrequently performed activities.
5. Finally, after completing the interview, review and verify the data. Specifically review the information
with the workers immediate supervisor and the interviewee.
Questionnaires
Having employees fill out questionnaires to describe their job-related duties & responsibilities is another
good way to obtain job analysis information.
We have to decide how structured the questionnaire should be and what question to include. Some
questionnaires are very structured checklists. Each employee gets an inventory of perhaps hundreds of
specific duties or tasks (such as change and splice via). He or she is asked to indicate whether or not
he/she performs each tasks and, it so, how much time is normally spent on each. At the other extreme, the
questionnaire can be open-ended and simply ask the employee to describe the major duties of your job.
In practice, the best questionnaire often falls between these two extremes.
Whether structured or unstructured, questionnaires have both pros & cons. A questionnaire is a quick and
efficient way to obtain information from a large number of employees, its less costly than interviewing
hundreds of workers, for instance. However, developing any questionnaire an testing it can be expensive
and time-consuming.
CIT
The critical incident technique involves observation and recording of examples of particularly effective or
ineffective behaviors. Behaviors are judged to be "effective" or "ineffective" in terms of results produced by
the
behavior.
The following information should be recorded for each "critical incident" of behavior: (1) what led up to the
incident and the situation in which it occurred; (2) exactly what the employee did that was particularly
effective or ineffective; (3) the perceived consequences or results of the behavior; and (4) a judgment as to
the degree of control an employee had over the results his or her behavior produced (to what degree
should
the
employee
be
held
responsible
for
what
resulted?).
The critical incident method differs from direct observation and work methods analysis in that observations
of behavior are not recorded as the behavior occurs, but only after the behavior has been judged to be
either particularly effective or ineffective in terms of results produced. This means that a person using the
critical incident method must describe a behavior in retrospect, or after the fact, rather than as the activity
unfolds. Accurate recording of past observations is more difficult than recording the behaviors as they
occur.
Observation
Direct observation is specially useful when jobs consist mainly of observable physical activities assembly
line worker and accounting clerk are examples. On the other hand, observation is usually not appropriate
when the job entails a lot of mental activities (lawyer, designengineer). Nor it is useful if the employee only
occasionally engages in important activities, such as a nurse who handles emergencies. And reactivity
the workers changing what he or she normally does because you are watching can also be a problem.
Manager often use direct observation and interviewing together. One approach is to observe the worker on
the job during a complete work cycle. Here you take notes of all job activities. Then after accumulating as
much information as possible, you interview the worker. Ask the person to clarify points not understood and
to explain what are the activities he or she performs that you didnt observe.
Participant Diary/Logs
Another approach is to ask workers to keep a diary/log of what they do during the day. For every activity
he or she engages in, the employee records the activity in a log. This can produce a very complete picture
of the job, specially when supplemented with subsequent interviews with the worker and the supervisor.
The employee, of course, might try to exaggerate some activities and underplay others. However, the
detailed, chronological nature of the log tends to mediate against this.
Some firms take a hi-tech approach to diary/logs. They give employees pocket dictating machines and
pagers. Then at random times during the day, they page the workers, who dictate what they are doing at
that time. This approach can avoid one pitfall of the traditional diary/log method: relying on workers to
remember what they did hours earlier when they complete their logs at the end of the day.
Relationships with others: What relationships are required to perform the job?
Job context: What working conditions and social contexts are involved?
The PAQ focuses on worker-oriented elements that describe behaviors necessary to do the job,
rather than on job-oriented elements that describe the technical aspects of the work. Although
its complexity may deter many potential users, the PAQ is easily quantified and can be used to
conduct validity studies on selection tests. It is also useful in helping to ensure internal pay
fairness because it considers the varying demands of different jobs.
Conclusion
From Job Analysis, specific details of what is being done and the skills utilized in the job are obtained. Job
Analysis enables the managers to understand jobs and job structures to improve work flow or develop
techniques to improve productivity.
Bibliography