Job Analysis & Evaluation: Principles and Applications

• Job analysis is foundational for nearly all personnel activities, including performance appraisal, hiring, training, and job design
• Measurement methods and observation techniques are crucial
• Personnel psychology focuses on workforce creation, care, and maintenance, covering recruitment, training, performance evaluation, and worker well-being

Personnel Psychology

• It is the specialty area of I/O psychology that addresses human resources within organizations
• Human resources departments handle employee records, payroll, retirement, and address issues related to human workers
• I/O psychologists in personnel psychology are involved in employee recruitment, performance measurement, training programs, and compliance with employment laws

Job Analysis Basics

• Job analysis systematically studies a job's tasks, duties, responsibilities, and necessary skills
• It serves as the starting point for personnel functions, and for developing means to measure personnel
• Analyses should be regularly updated to reflect current work being performed
• Effective analyses allow jobs flexibility and creativity
• Work analysis can improve efficiency by focusing on work methods and procedures

Job Analysis Outcomes

• Yields key personnel products like job descriptions, job specifications, job evaluations and performance criteria
• Products provide detailed information for planning, recruitment, selection, and appraisal
• Job analyses and resulting products ensure legal rights for workers
• They prevent hasty or arbitrary personnel decisions

ADA Compliance

• Requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities
• Analysts must consider disabled workers' needs to perform jobs

Job Description

• Aims to detail job tasks, procedures, responsibilities, tools, and equipment used

Job Specification

• Focuses on required human traits like physical attributes, personal characteristics, experience, and education

Job Evaluation

• Assesses a job's relative organizational value for appropriate compensation

Job Analysis Methods

• Vary, including observational techniques, existing data examination, interviews, and surveys
• Methods yield unique information with different strengths and weaknesses
• Detailed, accurate job descriptions use combined methods

Observational Methods

• Job analysts gather information by watching job incumbents at work
• Analysts may use video recordings for detailed analysis
• Observers must know what to look for to make accurate observations
• Methods best suit manual, repetitive, or easily observed activities
• Presence of the observer may influence workers' performance

Participation Method

• Job analyst performs the job to gain firsthand experience
• Important for understanding manual dexterity tasks
• It is a firsthand way to gain expertise

Existing Data Method

• Information is gathered from records, previous analyses, or data from other organizations
• Data is acquired from government sources such as the U.S. Department of Labor
• Existing data needs checking to ensure conformity to current job conditions

Interviews

• Used to gather job analysis data
• They can be open-ended or structured
• Bias can be mitigated from multiple perspectives, including the incumbent, supervisor, and subordinates

Surveys

• Methods involve questionnaires with open-ended, closed-ended, or checklist questions
• Surveys allow simultaneous data collection from many workers
• Anonymity may reduce information distortion, but surveys cannot provide additional clarification

SMEs (Subject Matter Experts)

• Job incumbents or knowledgeable supervisors
• They present job analysis information through surveys and interviews

Job Diaries

• Incumbents record daily activities for detailed accounts of the work day
• Time consuming for both the worker and the analyst

Potential Errors

• Errors and inaccuracies are a concern
• Some examples are: carelessness, poor analyst training, biases, over/under estimating tasks and information overload

Job Element Method

• Identifies basic KSAOs needed for a job
• Experts identify and rank job elements
• Method is "person oriented" and often used in the federal government
• Scope is limited, often combined with other methods

Critical Incidents Technique (CIT)

• Records specific worker behaviors leading to successful or unsuccessful performance
• Information is gathered via interviews or questionnaires from incumbents, supervisors, or knowledgeable individuals
• CIT helps determine necessary KSAOs and develop appraisal systems

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

• One of the widely researched analysis tools, the PAQ studies jobs using a structured questionnaire of 187 elements
• Elements are divided into six categories: information input, mental processes, work output, relationships with people, job context, and other job characteristics
• Each element is rated for extent of use, importance, time, applicability, and possibility of occurrence
• Results in detailed profile to compare jobs within a company or across organizations
• PAQ standardized for consistent profiles from different analysts

Functional Job Analysis (FJA)

• Used extensively in public and private sectors
• Developed to help classify jobs and create the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)
• DOT was a reference guide that replaced by O*NET
• Structured technique examining the sequence of tasks and processes in a job

Functional Job Interactions

• Uses three categories
• Data: information, knowledge, and conceptions
• People: contact with coworkers, supervisors, and customers
• Things: interaction with tools, machines, equipment, and tangible work products

O*NET

• U.S. Department of Labor's Web site provides job and career info
• Replaced the DOT
• Contains job categories and job KSAOs, wages, training requirements
• Provides summaries of all job reports

O*NET Tools include:

• Career exploration and assess if job has related skills and training
• It features a guide for I/O psychologists, HR professionals, career counselors
• One tool "My Next Move" lists 900 careers from the ONET database

ADA and Job Analysis

• Requires reasonable accommodations for disabled persons performing essential job duties
• Thorough job analysis is needed for adapting jobs to disabled employees
• Requirements need reviewing and updating
• With automation job analysis should be updated to reflect new job updates

Exceptioning

• Ignoring pay discrepancies between jobs with equivalent duties/responsibilities

Job Evaluation

• Assesses relative job value for appropriate compensation
• Considers the required KSAOs
• Factors outside KSAOs are the supply of potential workers, job value, and job history

Compensable Factors

• Determine appropriate compensation
• Can include: physical demands, education/training required, working conditions, and responsibility carried
• Each job is scored and weighted on each factor
• Summed weights show value and translate to compensation
• Alone it does not consider supply, rather it determines rate relying on training, etc.

Wage Discrimination

• Wage discrimination remains a concern
• The Equal Pay Act mandate’s equal pay for equal work
• Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin

Gender Pay Issues

• Access to high-paying jobs and women are paid less for performing equivalent tasks
• 1980s gender-based pay disparity led to the concept of comparable worth (equal pay for equal work)

"Glass Ceiling"

• Limitations is placed on minorities and women
• Prevents advancement into management positions
• Bias and stereotypes affect this
• The "Glass Ceiling" led to slower progression of Women to ethnic minorities.

Factors preventing advancement

• Devaluing certain occupations held primarily by minorities or women
• Unsettling bias toward minorities and women continues