Job Analysis

Tehzeeb Sakina Amir

HRM-session 4

Spring 2011-MBA

Job Analysis

• Analyze a job– What the job entails– What kind of people should be hired for the

job

Job Analysis

• Job Analysis– The procedure for determining the duties and skill

requirement of job and the kind of person should be hired for it

– Job Descriptions• A list of job duties, responsibilities, reporting relationships,

working conditions, safety hazards and supervisory responsibilities – one product of JA

– Job Specifications• A list of job’s ‘human requirements’ that is the requisite

education, skills, personality and so on – another product of JA

Job Analysis

• Uses of JA– Recruitment and Selection– Compensation– Training – Performance Appraisal– Discovering unassigned duties– Legal Compliance

Job Analysis

• Basics of JA– Work activities– Human behaviors– Machines, tools, equipments, work aids– Performance standards (quality or quantity level of the

job use to assess employee)– Job context – physical working conditions, work

schedule, social context, incentives– Human requirement – education, work experience,

aptitude, physical & personality characteristics

Job Analysis

• Steps in JA– Step 1 – determine purpose of JA so you collect the

data in the way that is most useful (interviews vs PAQ)

– Step 2 – review background information as organization chart, process charts and job descriptions

• Organization chart – title, interacting lines etc• Process chart – a work flow chart show the inputs & outputs

from a particular job

– Step 3 – select ‘representative’ positions

Job Analysis

• Steps in JA– Step 4 – actually analyzing! Use more than

one methods– Step 5 – verification of information collected

(worker and supervisor input)– Step 6 – develop job description and job

specification

Guidelines for collecting JA info

• Some practical considerations!1. It’s a joint effort

2. Get information from several people – subject matter experts

3. Understand context

4. Questions must be clear and comprehensible

5. Pre observation and questioning

Methods for collecting JA info

• Qualitative Approaches– Interviews– Questionnaires– Observation– Daily logs

• Quantitative Approaches– Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)– US Department of Labor job analysis procedure

• Internet based JA

Methods for collecting JA info

• The Interview– Unstructured to highly structured interviews– Group interviews OR individual interviews– With or without supervisor– These interviews are NOT 'efficiency evaluations!’– Pros and Cons

• Simple and quick, undiscovered areas are brought up, vent out feelings, etc

• Distortion of information, exaggeration of job, inflate job importance

– Typical questions

Structured interviews

• Structured or checklist format

• Includes detailed questions regarding matters like purpose of job, responsibilities, duties, education etc

• These structured lists can also be used as questionnaires.

Interviewing Guidelines

• Several guidelines:– Job analyst and supervisor must work

together to identify workers to be interviewed– Establish rapport with the interviewee– Follow the structured guide or list– Identify critical yet infrequently performed

duties too– Review and verify data with supervisor and

interviewee

Methods for collecting JA info

• Questionnaire– Have employees fill out questionnaires to obtain JA

information– Structured questionnaire and what questions to be

included– Open ended questions too– It is a quick and efficient way to obtain information

from large number of employees, less costly– Developing & testing questionnaire can be a tiresome

job!

Methods for collecting JA info

• Observation– Direct observation (physical activities not mental

activities)– Infrequent yet important behaviors need to be cared

for..– Reactivity (aware of being observed)– Use observation followed by interviews. Or

simultaneously interviewing

Methods for collecting JA info

• Participant Diary / Logs – Daily listings made by workers of their activities– Records the activity, time taken, frequency, etc– Followed by subsequent interviews– Beware of Exaggeration and Undermining– Hi-tech logs

Quantitative Method - PAQ• Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

– A questionnaire used to collect quantifiable data concerning the duties and responsibilities of various jobs

• Very structured, contains 194 items each of which represents a basic element

• Provides a quantitative score or profile of job in terms of five basic activities

– Decision making, communication, social responsibility– Performing skilled activities– Being physically active– Operating vehicles / equipment– Processing information

• The PAQ score is used to determine pay levels

Quantitative Method - PAQ

Information input – visual sources of information input

1 4 Written materials (books, reports)

2 2 Quantitative materials (graphs, accounts)

3 1 Pictorial materials (pictures, drawings, maps)

4 1 Patterns/related devices (stencils, templates)

5 2 Visual displays (dials, gauges, signal lights)

6 5 Measuring devices (rulers, scales, thermometer)

Quantitative Method - DOL

• DOL Procedure– It quantitatively rate, classify and compare different jobs– The heart of this analysis is a data, people and things rating for

each job– Use a set of standard basic activities called worker functions to

describe what a worker can do with respect to data, people and things

– Each worker function gets an importance level– Functional Job Analysis is similar to DOL method but rating goes

further to task requiring specific instructions, reasoning, judgment, verbal, language & mathematical abilities

Quantitative Method - DOL

Data People Things

0 Synthesizing 0 Mentoring 0 Setting Up

1 Coordinating 1 Negotiating 1 Precision working

2 Analyzing 2 Instructing 2 operating/control

3 Compiling 3 Supervising 3 Driving

4 Computing 4 Diverting 4 Manipulating

5 Copying 5 Persuading 5 Tending

6 Comparing 6 Speaking/signaling 6 Feeding

7 Serving 7 Handling

Internet based JA

• Internet – Based JA– O*Net…US Occupational information network

www.onetcenter.org– DOT Dictionary of Occupational Titles now it is SOC (Standard

Occupational Classification) – it classifies all workers into 23 major groups of jobs which are subdivided into minor groups of jobs and detailed occupations.

– Methods are becoming more time & cost consuming, updating is difficult, international perspective is difficult to attain

– Use of on-line methods – quick, easy to update, etc– May lose critical information, faking and absence of job analyst

may lead to these misunderstandings

Job Descriptions

Job Description is a written statement of what the worker actually does, how he does it and what

the job working conditions are.• It must have sections like:

– Job identification– Job summary– Responsibilities and duties– Authority of incumbent– Standards of performance– Working conditions– Job specifications

Job Descriptions are important

• Clarifies employer expectations for employee• Provides basis of measuring job performance• Provides clear description of role for candidates• Provides structure and discipline in the organization• Makes pay & grading system structure more fairly and

logically• Prevents arbitrary interpretations• Essential reference in matter of disputes• Identify training & development areas and career planning• Provides neutrality in performance appraisal

Job Specifications

• Step ahead of Job Description, entails as to what human skills, knowledge and abilities are required to perform the particular job.

• What kind of person should be recruited, tested …

Job Specifications

• Trained vs Untrained Personnel job specifications would be different

– Trained - # of years, previous job performance etc– Untrained – physical traits, personality, interests etc

• Job Specifications are based on1. Judgments2. Statistical Analysis

• Intelligent judgments or smart guess-works of supervisors/HRMs

– Review job duties and determine human traits and skills the job requires

– Can also refer to competencies listed in JD web-based sites

Job Specifications – work behavior

• Judgments use Common Sense in listing human traits.

• Some Work Behaviors are generic / important in almost all jobs:– Industriousness - hardworking– Thoroughness - detailing– Schedule flexibility – accept flexibility– Attendance - regular– Off-task behavior (reverse) – personal work– Unruliness (reverse) – bully, threatens coworkers– Theft (reverse) – breaking rules, cheating– Drug misuse (reverse)

Job Specifications – statistical analysis based

• More defensible approach but more difficult too!• Statistically determine the relationship between

predictor (trait) and some indicator of job performance, it has five steps:– Analyze job to decide KPIs– Select personal traits that predict successful

performance– Test candidates for these skills– Measure candidates subsequent job performance– Statistically analysis the relationship

Changing the ‘Job’ meaning

• Industrial revolution emphasized on specialized (repetitive) jobs positively related to efficiency!

• Mid 1900s it is viewed as ‘dehumanizing’– Result was: Job rotation, Job Enlargement Job

Enrichment

• Now it is ‘dejobbing’ - team-based, self managed, cross-functional multi-skilled teams, reengineering, flatter organizations, are encouraged

The new way to JACompetency-Based

• Writing JA on the basis of competencies rather than job duties

• Job competencies are observable and measurable work behaviors! (knowledge, skills and/or behaviors)

• “In order to perform the job the employee should be able to…” focus on how the worker meets the expectations of the job and performs it well!

• Traditional JA is job focused, competency based is worker-focused (what he is competent to do)

Reason for Competency based JA

• Three reasons:– When high performance work system is the

organizational goal– More strategic way to describe the job– it supports organization performance

management process, performance appraisals focused on more skill acquisition

Writing Competency based JA

• Competencies can be broadly divided into 2-3 clusters:– General competencies (reading, writing,

mathematical)– Technical competencies (specific technical

requirements)– Leadership competencies (leadership,

teaching, guiding, strategic thinking)

Writing Competency based JA

• The Traditional way – interviewing, identifying critical areas etc

• The Skill Matrix– Listing the basic / specific skills needed– The minimum level of each skill– Change employee perception from traditional job

description to a more flexible and motivating approach– Focus on specifying and developing new skills– Skill-based pay plans that rewards rise with skill

improvement

The Skill Matrix

G G G G G

F F F F F

E E E E E

D D D D D

C C C C C

B B B B B

A A A A ATechnical expertise

Business awareness

Communication & interpersonal

Decision making & initiative

Leadership & guidance

Group Activity

• Working in group, develop the Job Description on the basis of guidelines provided in the sheet.

• Redo it with the corrections marked

• Submit it again

• Time: 30 mins