Job Analysis and Description PDF

Job Analysis and Job Design Defining job analysis ⚫ The procedure through which you determine the duties of positions in the organisation and the characteristics of the people to hire for them ⚫ A systematic way of determining which employees are expected to per...

Job Analysis and Job Design Defining job analysis ⚫ The procedure through which you determine the duties of positions in the organisation and the characteristics of the people to hire for them ⚫ A systematic way of determining which employees are expected to perform a particular function or task that must be accomplished Definition (cont….) ⚫ A purposeful, systematic process for collecting information on the important work related aspects of a job ⚫ Process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. ⚫ A process where judgments are made about data collected on a job. Definition (cont….) ⚫ Job analysis is a systematic exploration of the activities within a job. ⚫ This analysis involves compiling a detailed description of tasks, determining the relationships of the job to technology and to other jobs and examining the knowledge, qualifications or employment standards, accountabilities and other incumbent requirement. Definition (cont….) ⚫ The job analysis indicates what activities and accountabilities the job entails; it is an accurate recording of the activities involved. ⚫ It involves studying jobs to determine what tasks and responsibilities they include, their relationships to other jobs, and the conditions under which work is performed, tools and equipment used, and the personal capabilities required for satisfactory performance. Definition (cont….) ⚫ Job analysis produces information for writing job descriptions ( a list of what the job entails and job specification ( what kind of people to hire for that job) Definition (cont….) ⚫ Job description –the principal product of a job analyses. It represents a written summary of the job as an identifiable organisation unit ⚫ Job specification – a written explanation of the knowledge, skills, abilities, traits and other characteristics (KSAOs) necessary for effective performance on a given job When Job Analysis is carried out 1. When an organisation is started 2. When changes occur which require new methods and procedures in performing the job e.g. introduction of new technology 3. When a new job is created  Purpose of job analysis 1. Determining qualifications required of jobholders 2. Providing guidance in recruitment and selection: ⚫ Job analysis information helps recruiters seek and find the right person for the organisation. ⚫ And to hire the right person, the selection test must access the most critical skills and abilities needed to perform a job. This information comes from a job analysis Purpose of job analysis ( cont..) 3. Evaluating current employees for transfer or promotion 4. Provide a basis for determining training ⚫ Knowing the skills necessary for jobs is essential to building effective training programmes. ⚫ Moreover, helping people to move efficiently form one career stage to another can only be accomplished with information from job analysis 5. Providing clues for work methods simplification and improvement Purpose of job analysis ( cont..) 6. Setting compensation and maintaining fairness in wage and salary administration: ⚫ Compensation is usually tied to the duties and responsibilities of a job. ⚫ Proper compensation demands accurate assessment of what various jobs entails 7. Judging the merits of grievances that question assignments and compensation 8. Establishing responsibility, accountability, and authority Purpose of job analysis ( cont..) 9. Providing essential guidance for performance management - in the establishment of standards of performance and hence performance appraisal 10. Strategic planning ⚫ Effective job analysis can help organisations to change, eliminate or otherwise restructure work or work flow process to meet the changing demands of uncertain environments Purpose of job analysis ( cont..) ⚫ In conclusion, it should be noted that job analysis covers the entire domain of HRM as it would be difficult to be effective in hiring, training, appraising , compensation or utilize HR without the information derived from job analysis Types of information collected for job analysis ⚫ Work activities - such as cleaning, selling, teaching etc. ⚫ The what? How? Why? When? Of the tasks ⚫ Human behaviour ⚫ Sensing, communicating, deciding , writing. ⚫ job demands such as lifting weights or walking long distances Information collected ( cont..) ⚫ Machine,, tools, equipment and work aids. This category includes information regarding tools used, material processed, knowledge dealt with or applied and services rendered ⚫ Performance standards - in terms of quantity and quality levels of each job duty Information collected ( cont..) ⚫ Job context - such matters as physical working conditions, work schedule, and the organizational and social working context – for example the number of people with whom the employee would normally interact ⚫ Human requirements – included information such as job related knowledge or skills (education, training, work experience) and required personal attributes ( aptitude, physical characteristics, personality, interest) Steps in job analysis 1. Examine the total organisation and the fit of each job ⚫ Provides a broad view of how each job fits into the total fabric of the organisation ⚫ Organizational chart and process chart are used to complete this step 2. Determine how the job analysis information will be used ⚫ Encourages those involved to determine how the job analysis and design information will be used – job description, recruitment, training etc Steps (cont…) 3. Select jobs to be analyzed. These would be representative job positions especially if there are too many jobs to be analysed 4. Collect data by using acceptable job analysis techniques ⚫ The techniques are used to collect data on the characteristics of the job, the required behaviours and the characteristic an employee needs to perform the job Steps (cont..) ⚫ Step 5: prepare job descriptions ⚫ Step 6: prepare job specification ⚫ Step 7: Use the information in step 1 – 6 purpose it was meant to - recruitment, selection and training, performance evaluation, compensation and benefits etc Who should conduct job analysis ⚫ If a organisation has only an occasional need for job analysis information, it may hire a temporary job analysts from outside ⚫ Other organisations will have job analyst experts on full time ⚫ Others will use supervisors, job incumbents, or some combination these to collect job analysis information ⚫ Each of these choices has strengthen and weaknesses Who should conduct job analysis - use of incumbent (cont…) ⚫ Adv - Job incumbent are a good source of information about what work is actually being done rather than what work is supposed to be done ⚫ Adv - Might increase their acceptance of any work changes stemming form the result of the analysis ⚫ Disadv – He/she may bring in his/her personal attributes in the analysis ⚫ Disadv - Tend to exaggerate the responsibilities and importance of their work hence not achieve objectivity Who should conduct job analysis (cont…) ⚫ The choice of who should analyse a job depends therefore on many factors: ⚫ Location ⚫ Complexity of the job ⚫ How receptive incumbent might be to external analysis ⚫ The intents purpose of the result of the job analysis ⚫ ( read on advantages and disadvantages of each) Methods of data collection ⚫ There are four basic methods of data collection which can be used separately or a combination: ⚫ Observation ⚫ Interview ⚫ Questionnaire ⚫ Job incumbent diaries or logs observation ⚫ Direct observation is used for jobs that require manual, standards, and shot-job cycle activities e.g. job of a assembly line work, a filing clerks, ⚫ The job analysis observes a representative sample of individuals performing the jobs Limitations of observation method ⚫ Observation method is not appropriate where the job involves significant mental activity such as work of a research scientist, lawyer, teacher etc ⚫ The observation method requires that the job analyst be trained to observe relevant job behaviours ⚫ He/she must also keep out of the way so that work must be performed interviews ⚫ Can be conducted with a single job incumbent, or with group of individuals or with a supervisor who is knowledgeable about the job ⚫ Involves face to face talk with the job incumbents ⚫ Must be structure in such a way that answers from different individual can be compares Advantages of interview ⚫ Its relatively simple and quick way of collecting information including information that might never appear in written form ⚫ A skilled interviewer can unearth important activities that occur only occasionally, or informal contacts that wouldn’t be obvious form the organizational chart ⚫ The interview also provide an opportunity to explain the need for and functions of the job ⚫ The employee might also vent frustration that might otherwise go unnoticed by management Limitations of interview ⚫ However, it should be noted that interview guides are difficult to standardize – different interviewers many ask different questions and the same interviewer might unintentionally ask different questions of different respondents ⚫ There is also possibility that the information provided by the respondents will be unintentionally distorted by the interviewer. ⚫ Finally the cost of interviewing can be very high Questionnaire method ⚫ This is usually the least costly method of collecting information ⚫ It is an effective way to collect a large amount of information in a short period of time ⚫ The questionnaire includes: ⚫ Specific questions about the job ⚫ Job requirements ⚫ Working conditions ⚫ Equipment Questionnaire method (cont..) ⚫ A less structures, more open-ended approach would be to ask job incumbents to describe their jobs in their worn terms ⚫ This open-ended format would permit job incumbent to use their won words and ideas to describe the job Job incumbent diary or log ⚫ The diary or log is a record by job incumbent of job duties. It includes: ⚫ Frequency of the duties ⚫ When the duties were accomplished ⚫ This technique requires the job incumbent to keep a diary or log ⚫ Unfortunately, most individuals are not disciplined enough to keep such a log a diary. Job incumbent diary or log (cont..) ⚫ If a diary if kept up to date, it can provide good information about a job ⚫ Comparison on a daily, weekly or monthly basis can be made ⚫ This permits an examination of the routineness or nonroutininess of the job duties ⚫ A daily log is useful when attempting to analyse jobs that are difficult to observe such as those performed by engineers, senior executives etc Which method to use ⚫ Any or a or a combination - a multimethod job analysis approach ⚫ It is recommended a combination because each of the method has its strengths and can elicit more of some specific information ⚫ The choice of method may also be determined by circumstances such as the purpose of the job analysis, and time and budgetary constraints Job description ⚫ A job description, is a written description of what the job entails ⚫ Written statement of what the worker actually does, how he does or she does it, and what the working conditions are ⚫ job description clarifies work functions and reporting relationships, helping employees understand their jobs. ⚫ Job descriptions aid in maintaining a consistent salary structure. ⚫ Performance evaluations may be based on job descriptions Information contained in a JD ⚫ Job title/job identification ⚫ Job summary ⚫ Relationships ⚫ Responsibilities and duties ⚫ Standards of performance ⚫ Environmental conditions Job identification ⚫ Job title/job identification -Includes: ⚫ Job title ⚫ location of the job in terms of department, division or section. ⚫ May also include immediate supervisor’s title ⚫ Information regarding salary and /or pay scale ⚫ grade/level of the job Job summary ⚫ Brief one or two sentence statements describing the purpose of the job and what outputs are expected from the incumbents ⚫ Describes general nature of the job and includes only the major functions of the job or activities e.g. the marketing managers job is to plan, direct and coordinate the marketing Relationships ⚫ Shows job holders relationship with others inside and outside the company. Includes: ⚫ reporting to ⚫ Supervises ⚫ Works with ⚫ Outside the company Responsibilities and duties ⚫ List each of the job major responsibilities separately, and describes it in a few sentences ⚫ Responsibilities and duties , includes: ⚫ description of the job duties, responsibilities, and behaviour performed on the job. ⚫ Describe the social interaction associated with the work ( for example, size of the work group, amount of dependence in the work) ⚫ This section should also define the limits of the jobholders authority, including his or her decision making authority, direct supervision of other personnel and budgetary limits. ⚫ Includes general statements like “perform other assignments as required” purpose is to give supervisor more flexibility in assigning duties. Standard of performance ⚫ List the standard the employee is expected to achieve under each of the job descriptions main duties and responsibilities.g. accurately post accounts payables, meet daily production targets etc Environmental conditions ⚫ Environment/conditions – description of the working conditions of the job, the location an environment such as hazards and noise levels Job descriptions are important because……. 1. Clarifies employer expectations for employee 2. Provides basis of measuring job performance 3. Provides clear description of role for job candidates 4. Provides a structure for company to understand and structure all jobs and ensure necessary activities, duties and responsibilities are covered by one job or another 5. Provides continuity of role parameters irrespective of manager interpretation 6. Enables pay and grading systems to be structured fairly and logically 7. Prevents arbitrary interpretation of role content and limit by employee and employer and manager 8. Essential reference tool in issues of employee/employer dispute 9. Essential reference tool for discipline issues 10. Provides important reference points for training and development areas 11. Provides neutral and objective (as opposed to subjective or arbitrary) reference points for appraisals, performance reviews and counselling 12. Enables formulation of skill set and behaviour set requirements per role 13. Enables organization to structure and manage roles in a uniform way, thus increasing efficiency and effectiveness of recruitment, training and development, organizational structure, work flow and activities, customer service, etc 14. Enables factual view (as opposed to instinctual) to be taken by employees and managers in career progression and succession planning Job specification ⚫ This evolves form the JD ⚫ It is a statement of employees characteristics and qualification required for satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job or function. ⚫ It addresses the question “what personal traits and experience are needed to perform the job effectively” ⚫ the JS is specifically useful in offering guidance for recruitment and selection e.g. the job for HR manager would require a university degree, six year of experience in HRM Components of a Job Specification ⚫ Personal characteristics such as education, job experience, age, sex, and extra co-curricular activities. ⚫ Physical characteristics such as height, weight, chest, vision, hearing, health, voice poise, and hand and foot coordination, (for specific positions only). Mental characteristics such as general intelligence, memory, judgment, foresight, ability to concentrate, etc. Social and psychological characteristics such as emotional ability, flexibility, manners, drive, conversational ability, interpersonal ability, attitude, values, creativity etc. ⚫ Various contents of a job specification can be prescribed in three terms: ⚫ Essential qualities which a person must possess; ⚫ Desirable qualities which a person may possess; and ⚫ Contra-indicators which are likely to become a handicap to successful job performance.