Job Analysis

• Meaning of job analysis
• Importance of job analysis
• Process of job analysis
• Methods of conducting job analysis
• Importance of job analysis
• Use of information obtained from job analysis
• Components of job analysis
• Techniques of conducting job analysis
• Job specification and job description

 

5.0 JOB ANALYSIS THEORY

 

 

By the end of this topic, the trainee should be able to;

• Explain the meaning of analysis
• Explain the importance of job analysis
• Describe the process of job analysis
• Discuss the techniques/ methods for collecting data for job analysis
• Explain the content of job description and job specification

 

 

Introduction

A job is a collection of duties, tasks, responsibilities which are regarded as regular assignments to an individual employee. Job analysis is therefore important to identify the tasks, duties and responsibilities of any particular job. This helps in giving a reflection of the work flow and employers expectation from individual employees.

1.1  Meaning of Job Analysis

Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. It can also be defined as the procedure through which you determine the duties and nature of the jobs and the kinds of people who should be hired for them. The information obtained is used to write job descriptions and job specifications, which are utilized in recruitment and selection, compensation, performance appraisal, and training. An important concept of Job Analysis is that the analysis is conducted of the Job, not the person. While Job Analysis data may be collected from incumbents through interviews or questionnaires, the product of the analysis is a description or specifications of the job, not a description of the person.

 

 

Aims of job analysis

Job analysis aims answer questions such as:

 

• Why does the job exist?

 

• What physical and mental activities does the worker undertake?
• When is the job to be performed?
• Where is the job to be performed?
• How does the worker do the job?
• What qualifications are needed to perform the job?
• What tools are employed?
• What skills, qualifications and abilities are needed?
• Which are the hazards encountered?
• How is it related to other jobs?
• How will performance be measured?

 

The job analysis may therefore activities such as: reviewing the job responsibilities of current employees, doing Internet research and viewing sample job descriptions online or offline highlighting similar jobs, analyzing the work duties, tasks, and responsibilities that need to be accomplished the employee filling the position, researching and sharing with other companies that have similar jobs, and articulation of the most important outcomes or contributions needed from the position.

1.2  Importance of Job Analysis

One of the main purposes of conducting job analysis is to prepare job descriptions and a job specification which in turn helps hire the right quality of workforce into an organization. The general purpose of job analysis is to document the requirements of a job and the work performed. Job and task analysis is performed as a basis for later improvements, including: definition of a job domain; description of a job; development of performance appraisals, personnel selection, selection systems, promotion criteria, training needs assessment, legal defense of selection processes, and compensation plans. The human performance improvement industry uses job analysis to make sure training and development activities are focused and effective. In the fields of human resources (HR) and industrial psychology, job analysis is often used to gather information for use in personnel selection, training, classification, and/or compensation.

Industrial Psychologists use job analysis to determine the physical requirements of a job to determine whether an individual who has suffered some diminished capacity is capable of performing the job with, or without, some accommodation. Professionals developing certification exams use job analysis (often called something slightly different, such as “task analysis” or “work analysis”) to determine the elements of the domain which must be sampled in order to create a content valid exam. When a job analysis is conducted for the purpose of valuing the job (i.e., determining the appropriate compensation for incumbents) this is called “job evaluation.”

 

 

Uses of job analysis

Job analysis helps to prepare sound human resource practice and policies. Because job analysis provides a deeper understanding of the behavioral requirements of the job, it plays a vital role in the defense of employment practices. Following are the main uses of job analysis:

HR Planning

Job analysis provides useful information for human resource planning. It is the foundation for forecasting demand for and supply of human resources in an organization. It is also necessary for preparing HR inventory and HR information system in the organization.

Recruitment and Selection

 

Job analysis provides necessary information for conducting recruitment and selection of employees in the organization. Recruitment generates a pool of candidates who are willing to perform in the organization, whereas selection selects the best suited candidate out of the available candidates who are supposed to perform well in the organization. Job analysis provides information about what the job entails and what human characteristics are required in order to perform these activities. This information, in the form of job descriptions and specifications, helps management officials decide what sort of people they need to recruit and hire and select.

Training and Development

Up-to-date description and specification statements help to ensure the requirement of training and development needs in the organization. By comparing knowledge and skill of current employees with the expected level of performance, the need of training and development requirement can be assessed. In addition, job analysis helps in identifying / developing, training content, assessment tests to measure effectiveness of training, equipment to be used in delivering the training and methods of training.

Compensation Management

Job analysis provides necessary information for managing compensation of employees. Job Analysis can be used in compensation to identify or determine skill levels, compensable job factors, work environment (e.g., hazards; attention; physical effort) responsibilities (e.g., fiscal; supervisory) and required level of education which is indirectly related to salary level). Therefore it helps to rank the job in order to make compensation decisions. Performance Appraisal

Job analysis helps to appraise the performance of employees providing clear cut standards of performance for each job. It compares each employee’s actual performance with the predetermined standards. A performance appraisal compares each employee’s actual performance with his or her performance standards. Managers use job analysis to determine the job’s specific activities and performance standards.

Information of Duties

Job analysis provides valuable information regarding the duties and responsibilities of an incumbent through job description statement. It also provides the content and skill requirement

Health and Safety

In course of job analysis, certain unsafe environmental and operational conditions or personal habits are discovered and thus, that may lead to safety improvements.

Job Re-engineering

Job analysis provides valuable information data relating to the content and skill requirement of jobs which help to bring about improvements in the engineering design of jobs.

Employee Counseling

Vocational guidance and rehabilitation counseling is possible through comprehensive job description and specification statements.

Discovering Unassigned Duties

 

Job Analysis can also help reveal unassigned duties. For example, a company’s production manager says an employee is responsible for ten duties, such as production scheduling and raw material purchasing. Missing, however, is any reference to managing raw material inventories? On further study, it is revealed that none of the other manufacturing employees are responsible for inventory management, either. From review of other jobs like these, it is clear that someone should be managing raw material inventories. Therefore, an essential unassigned duty has been revealed.

 

 

Approaches job analysis

Since the purpose of job analysis is to combine the task demands of a job with our human attributes and produce a theory of behavior for the job in question. There are two ways to approach building that theory, meaning there are two different approaches to job analysis which are;

1. Task-oriented

Task-oriented procedures also referred to as task analysis; focus on the actual activities involved in performing work. This procedure takes into consideration work duties, responsibilities, and functions. The job analyst then develops task statements which clearly state the tasks that are performed with great detail. After creating task statements, job analysts rate the tasks on scales indicating importance, difficulty, frequency, and consequences of error. Based on these ratings, a greater sense of understanding of a job can be attained.

1. Worker-oriented

Worker-oriented procedures aim to examine the human attributes needed to perform the job successfully.  These  human  attributes  have  been  commonly  classified  into  four categories: knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAO). Knowledge is the information people need in order to perform the job. Skills are the proficiencies needed to perform each task. Abilities are the attributes that are relatively stable over time. Other characteristics are all other attributes, usually personality factors. The KSAOs required for a job are inferred from the most frequently-occurring, important tasks. In a worker-oriented job analysis, the skills are inferred from tasks and the skills are rated directly in terms of importance of frequency.

Job analysis methods have evolved using both task-oriented and worker-oriented approaches. Since the end result of both approaches is a statement of KSAOs, neither can be considered the “correct” way to conduct job analysis. Because worker-oriented job analyses tend to provide more generalized human behavior and behavior patterns and are less tied to the technological parts of a job, they produce data more useful for developing training programs and giving feedback to employees in the form of performance appraisal information. Also, the volatility that exists in the typical workplace of today can make specific task statements less valuable in isolation. For these reasons, employers are significantly more likely to use worker-oriented approaches to job analysis today than they were in the past.

1.3  Process of Job Analysis Process

Job analysis is a process of collecting information related to various aspects of the job. It collects and analyses the information associated with job description and specifications. The process involves several steps which include;

Information Collection

 

This is the first step of job analysis under which required information related to various aspects of jobs are collected. Information is obtained through different methods such as interview, observation, questionnaire; critical incidents etc. It is associated with preparation of plans and programs and assignment of responsibilities to the concerned person. According to Terry “the make-up of a job, its relation to other jobs and its requirements for competent performance are essential information needed for a job evaluation.” Two types of information are collected information regarding job such as its physical environment, its social environment, financial conditions etc. and (b) information relating to qualities of persons holding the job.

Review Background Information

This is the second step of job analysis process under which the previously collected information is reviewed to design organizational charts, current position descriptions and specifications, procedures, manuals and process charts. These help in detailed assessment of job.

Selection of Representative Position To Be Analyzed

Analyzing all jobs at a time is complex and costly affair. So, only a representative sample of jobs is selected for the purpose of detailed analysis. Under it, the job analyst investigates to determine which organization managers or employees require job analysis. He should also determine for what purpose the job must be analyzed.

 

 

Data collection

Under this step of job analysis process, a job analyst obtains the data and information related to the selected jobs. The information is collected on the job activities, required employee behaviors, working conditions, human traits and qualities, abilities of performing the job and other various dimension of the job. Data can be collected either through questionnaire, observation or interviews.

Develop Job Description

In this step of job analysis, a job description schedule is developed through the information collected in the above step. This is the written statement which describes the prominent characteristics of job along with duties, location and degree of risk involved in each job.

Develop Job Specification

Developing the job specification is the last step of job analysis process under which a detailed specification statement is prepared showing minimum requirement of each job (job specification). A job specification summarizes the personal qualities, traits, skills, knowledge, and background required to perform specific task. It also involves the physical and psychological attributes of the incumbent. Such statement is used in selecting a person matching with the job.

Preparation of Report and approval

The job analyst prepares a report mentioning the analysis of various activities on the job and the qualities of the individual to be placed on the job. The report is revised in the light of the suggestions given the supervisor or the personnel manager. The complete report is then submitted to the top executive for approval. The office bearers of the trade unions may also be taken into confidence before approving the report. The final report should be approved the top executive who is responsible for making final decision on the matter.

 

It should however be noted that some of these steps may be combined resulting to as few as five steps.

 

 

1.4  Techniques for Collecting Data for Job Analysis

An HR specialist (an HR specialist, job analyst, or consultant), a worker, and the worker’s supervisor usually work together in conducting the job analysis. A variety of methods are used to collect information about jobs. None of them, however, is perfect. In actual practice, therefore, a combination of several methods is used for obtaining job analysis data. These are discussed below.

1. Job performance

In this method the job analyst actually performs the job in question. The analyst, thus, receives firsthand experience of contextual factors on the job including physical hazards, social demands, emotional pressures and mental requirements. This method is useful for jobs that can be easily learned. It is not suitable for jobs that are hazardous (e.g., fire fighters) or for jobs that require extensive training (e.g., doctors, pharmacists).

1. Personal observation

The analyst observes the worker(s) doing the job. The tasks performed, the pace at which activities are done, the working conditions, etc., are observed during a complete work cycle. During observation, certain precautions should be taken

 

• The analyst must observe average workers during average
• The analyst should observe without getting directly involved in the
• The analyst must make note of the specific job needs and not the behaviors specific to particular
• The analyst must make sure that he obtains a proper sample for

 

This method allows for a deep understanding of job duties. It is appropriate for manual, short period job activities. On the negative side, the methods fail to take note of the mental aspects of jobs.

1. Critical incidents

The critical incident technique (CIT) is a qualitative approach to job analysis used to obtain specific, behaviorally focused descriptions of work or other activities. Here the job holders are asked to describe several incidents based on their past experience. The incidents so collected are analyzed and classified according to the job areas they describe. The job requirements will become clear once the analyst draws the line between effective and ineffective behaviors of workers on the job. The critical incidents are recorded after the events have already taken place – both routine and non- routine. The process of collecting a fairly good number of incidents is a lengthy one. Since, incidents of behavior can be quite dissimilar, the process of classifying data into usable job descriptions can be difficult. The analysts overseeing the work must have analytical skills and ability to translate the content of descriptions into meaningful statements.

1. Interview

The interview method consists of asking questions to both incumbents and supervisors in either an individual or a group setting. The reason behind the use of this method is that job holders are most familiar with the job and can supplement the information obtained through observation. Workers

 

know the specific duties of the job and supervisors are aware of the job’s relationship to the rest of the organization.

Due diligence must be exercised while using the interview method. The interviewer must be trained in proper interviewing techniques. It is advisable to use a standard format so as to focus the interview to the purpose of analyst. The advantages of using an interview are that it is: simple, quick, and more comprehensive because the interviewer can unearth activities that may never appear in written form.

Although the interview method provides opportunities to elicit information sometimes not available through other methods, it has limitations. First, it is time consuming and hence costly. Second, the value of data is primarily dependent on the interviewer’s skills and may be faulty if they put ambiguous questions to workers. Last, interviewees may be suspicious about the motives and may distort the information they provide. If seen as an opportunity to improve their positions such as to increase their wages, workers may exaggerate their job duties to add greater weight to their positions. The following interview guidelines may be used to mitigate against these limitation: a) the job analyst and supervisor should identify the workers who know the job best and would be objective; b) establish a rapport with the interviewee; c) follow a structured guide or checklist; d) ask worker to list duties in order of importance and frequency of occurrence; and e) review and verify the data.

1. Questionnaire method

The questionnaire is a widely used method of analyzing jobs and work. Here the job holders are given a properly designed questionnaire aimed at eliciting relevant job-related information. After completion, the questionnaires are handed over to supervisors. The supervisors can seek further clarifications on various items talking to the job holders directly. After everything is finalized, the data is given to the job analyst.

The success of the method depends on various factors. The structured questionnaire must cover all job related tasks and behaviors. Each task or behavior should be described in terms of features such as importance, difficulty, frequency, and relationship to overall performance. The job holders should be asked to properly rate the various job factors and communicate the same on paper. The ratings thus collected are then put to close examination with a view to find out the actual job requirements.

Questionnaire method is highly economical as it covers a large number of job holders at a time. The collected data can be quantified and processed through a computer. The participants can complete the items leisurely. Designing questionnaires, however, is not an easy task. Proper care must be taken to see that the respondents do not misinterpret the questions. Further, it is difficult to motivate the participants to complete the questionnaires truthfully and to return them.

1. Log records/Daily Diary

Companies can ask employees to maintain log records or daily diary and job analysis can be done on the basis of information collected from the record. A log record is a book in which employee records /writes all the activities performed him on the job. The records are extensive as well as exhausted in nature and provide a fair idea about the duties and responsibilities in any job. In this method worker actually does the work himself and idea of the skill required, the difficulty level of the job, the efforts required can be known easily.

1. Human resource department records

Records of every employee are maintained HR department. The record contain details about educational qualification, name of the job, number of years of experience, duties handled, any

 

mistakes committed in the past and actions taken, number of promotions received, area of work, core competency area, etc. based on these records job analysis can be done.

 

 

Aspects of a job are analyzed

Job Analysis should collect information on the following areas:

 

• Duties and Tasks the basic unit of a job is the performance of specific tasks and Information to be collected about these items may include: frequency, duration, effort, skill, complexity, equipment, standards, etc.
• Environment This may have a significant impact on the physical requirements to be able to perform a The work environment may include unpleasant conditions such as offensive odors and temperature extremes. There may also be definite risks to the incumbent such as noxious fumes, radioactive substances, hostile and aggressive people, and dangerous explosives.
• Tools and Equipment some duties and tasks are performed using specific equipment and Equipment may include protective clothing. These items need to be specified in a Job Analysis.
• Relationships Supervision given and Relationships with internal or external people.
• Requirements The knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA’s) required when performing the While an incumbent may have higher KSA’s than those required for the job, a Job Analysis typically only states the minimum requirements to perform the job.

 

 

 

1.5  Contents of Job Description and Job Specification

a)  Contents of job description

A job description is a formal document defining what an employee is supposed to do on a certain job. It summarizes the tasks, responsibilities and duties of a position holder; hence it describes the job not the job holder. It is used three key stakeholders: the human resources department, the employee or potential employee, and the employee’s supervisor or manager. It is an important tool in recruitment. The manager uses it initially to gain approval and budget to recruit someone for the role. It is then used as part of the advertising program to attract candidates. Once someone has been recruited, the job description is used as the basis for performance management and identifying training and development needs. Although job descriptions vary in structure and form, they all contain three main elements which are; – job identification, job summary and duties and responsibilities. However, other contents such as relation to others, supervision, working conditions etc. may be included.

Job identification or organization position: This includes the job title, alternative title, department, division and plant and code number of the job. The job title identifies and designates the job properly. The department, division etc. indicate the name of department, where it is situated and the location given the name of the place.

Job summary: this serves two important purposes. First it gives additional identification information when the job title is not adequate; and secondly it gives a summary about that particular job.

Job duties and responsibilities;- This gives a total listing of duties together with some indication of the frequency of occurrence or percentage of the time allocated to each major duty.

 

Relation to others: – this gives helps the person to locate the job in the organization indicating the job immediately below or above it in the job hierarchy.

Supervision: – This will give an idea of the number of person to be supervised along with their job titles and the extent of supervision.

Machine: – These will give information about the tools, machines and equipment to be used. Working conditions: – It gives information about the environment in which a job holder must work. Hazards:–it gives the nature of risks of life and their possibilities of occurrence.

Additional Information:-In addition to the above components, most employers’ direct candidates and employees to relevant organizational information such as the company’s vision and values. While the main sections of the job description might be used to determine eligibility for a role, both the job candidate and the employer should consider the organization’s culture and ethics to determine if they are a good fit.

 

 

Characteristics of a good job description

A good job description should have the following qualities;-

1. The job description should indicate the scope and nature of work including important
2. The job description should be clear regarding the work of the position, duties,
3. More specific words should be selected to show;-
   1. The kind of work
   2. The degree of complexity

• The extent to which problems are standardized

1. The degree of skills required
2. The extent of worker’s responsibility for each phase of the

 

 

Limitations of job descriptions

Prescriptive job descriptions may be seen as a hindrance in certain circumstances:

 

• Job descriptions may not be suitable for some senior managers as they should have the freedom to take the initiative and find fruitful new directions;
• Job descriptions may be too inflexible in a rapidly-changing organization, for instance in an area subject to rapid technological change;
• Other changes in job content may lead to the job description being out of date;
• The process that an organization uses to create job descriptions may not be

 

Contents of job specifications

Job specification is also referred to as many specification and is a statement of minimum acceptable human qualities needed for the job. It gives the knowledge, background and experience that a person should have to perform the work efficiently hence it helps to ‘look’ for the right person for the job. Its main components are

 

• Knowledge is an organized body of information that a person mentally possesses as a result of formal education, training, or personal
• Skill requirements: skills include on the job skills and any specialized
• Experience: describe minimum experience required to perform job satisfactorily; may include preferred/desired experience).
• Abilities: Ability includes physical ability, metal ability,

 

 

 

1.6  Review questions

1. Define the term job analysis
2. Explain ten uses of job analysis in an organization
3. Discuss the process of job analysis
4. Discuss five techniques applied in collecting data for job analysis
5. Outline the contents of a job description