Personnel Management

Job Analysis

Job analysis is a formal and detailed examination of jobs. It is a systematic investigation of the tasks, duties and responsibilities necessary to do a job.

According to US Labour

 Job analysis is the process of determining, by observation and study, and reporting pertinent information relating to the nature of a specific job. It is the determination of the tasks which comprise the job and the skills, abilities and responsibilities required of the worker for a successful performance and which differentiates one job from all others.

According to Flippo

Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and responsibilities of a specific job. The immediate products of this analysis are job descriptions and job specifications.

According to  R.J.Harvey

Job analysis involves gathering data about observable job behaviours, and delineating the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics needed to perform the job.

According to R. Wayne Mondy et el.

Job analysis is the systematic process of determining the skills, duties and knowledge required for performing jobs in an organization.

According to Michael Armstrong

Job analysis is the process of collecting, analyzing, and setting out information about the content of jobs in order to provide the basis for a job description and data for the recruitment, training, job evaluation and performance management.

Thus, job analysis involves the process of identifying the nature of a job (job description) and the qualities of the likely job holder (job specification).In every organization, different types of personnel are required to perform different types of jobs. Job analysis provides the knowledge of nature and requirement of different jobs so that the suitable candidate can be found out.

Job analysis is a process of understanding, collecting and analyzing relevant facts of a job and the characteristics of the person who is likely to perform the job.

Job Analysis = Job Description + Job Specification

The Workman Power Commission in U.S.A has suggested a four point job analysis  formula to be used in making an accurate and useful job analysis.The points include in the formula are:

1. What the worker does?
2. How he does it ?
3. Why he does it ?
4. How much of skill is required for doing it ?

Important terms in Job Analysis

Job

It is group of tasks positions involving same duties, responsibilities, knowledge and skills. Each job has definite title and is different from other jobs. For example peon, typist, mail clerk, salesman, nurses, accountants etc.

Task

A task is an act which is performed as part of job. It refers to a distinct work activity with an identifiable beginning and end. For instance, planning is one of the tasks of the manager.

Duty

It is an obligation for a worker to do a job as part of a legal or moral reason. It means a related sequence of tasks. For example pickup, sort and deliver incoming mail.

Position

It implies a collection of tasks and duties regularly assigned to one person. Several persons may be classified under the same job but each may perform different work.  For instance, a cash clerk might deal with the receipt and disbursement of cash, a bill clerk deal with bills and an accounts clerk might be in charge of accounts keeping and maintenance.

Occupation

An occupation implies a group of jobs which are similar as to the type of work and which contain common characteristics. For example business is an occupation consisting of several types of jobs like production, sales etc.

Career

It broadly refers to an employee’s progression in his or work life. It indicates the chronological sequence of positions occupied by an individual in his or her profession.

Features of Job Analysis

• Job analysis is a process of gathering relevant information about various aspects of a job and is concerned with the identification of tasks required to be performed as part of it.
• It approaches the task of defining the role, context, conditions, human behavior, performance standards and responsibilities of a job systematically.
• It helps in establishing the job’s worth to an organization. In other words, it measures the value and contribution of a job to the growth of the organization.
• It establishes job relatedness, which is a crucial input for HR decisions involving recruitment, selection, compensation, training, health and safety.
• It facilitates the process of understanding the impact of environmental changes on individual jobs.

Uses of Job Analysis

(i) Provide Base for different jobs Job analysis provides the base for identifying the contents of different jobs, their interrelationship and interdependence, responsibility involved in a job, and authority that may be required to perform the job.

(ii) Helps in organisational design Job analysis provides all the required information to get the framework of organisational design. Organisational design    is building a network of relationships  among various functions and positions. In organisational design various jobs to be perform are identified and grouped together on the basis of similarity. This process can only be done with the help of job analysis.

(iii) Human resource planning Job analysis proves to be of great help in case of Human Resource Planning by providing information for forecasting human resource needs in terms of knowledge, skills and experience. Job analysis also helps in planning for promotions and transfers by showing relationships among different jobs laterally as well as vertically.

(iv) Recruitment and selection Job analysis provides the basic ingredient required for recruitment and selection. It is well understood that recruitment and selection, taken together, is a process of identifying the source from where the personnel can be hired, motivating them, analysing them and selecting the ones who match the concerned job. We can say that matching jobs and individuals is the whole process of recruitment and selection. And both the types of information in the form of job description and job specification are provided through job analysis.

(v) Orientation and placement job analysis also helps in orientation and placement by providing complete information about job requirements. It further helps when an individual is selected to perform number of jobs and not a specific job.

(vi) Career planning Job analysis helps in career planning by providing information about the opportunities in terms of career paths and jobs availability in the organisation with the help of this information, both individuals and organisation are able to chart out their plan for career planning and development.

(vii) Training Job analysis provides valuable information to identify training and development needs of various individuals. It is obvious that training and development needs can only be determined by job analysis. It is very important for every organisation to put its endeavour in the form of training and development so that the individuals are equipped to meet the requirements of their jobs.

(viii) Job evaluation Job analysis plays an important role in evaluating the job and compensating it according to its worth in comparison to other jobs in an organisation. The worth of a job is determined on the basis of job characteristics and job-holder characteristics. Job analysis provides both in the forms of job description and job specification.

(ix) Performance appraisal Job analysis helps in evaluating the performance of any individual in the organisation. Performance appraisal is done by comparing the individual’s actual job performance with what is expected of him and job analysis decides what is expected of an employee and hence, it helps in determining performance standards against which the actual job performance is measured.

(x) Employee safety Job analysis helps in taking precautions to save the employees from the hazardous environmental and operational conditions in various jobs. It is obvious that all such kind of information related to a particular job will be provided by job analysis.

(xi) Counselling Job analysis also helps in providing counselling to employees in different areas. Sometimes, employees are unable to bear the stress of a particular job, then they are advised to opt for another job, but this is only possible with the information provided by job analysis.

Process of Job Analysis

Job analysis is a sequential process undergoing the following steps

 1. Organizational Analysis

First of all an  overall view  of various jobs   in the organisation  is obtained. This  is required  to judge  the linkages between jobs  and  the organisational  goals,  interrelationships   among jobs,  and  the  contribution  of various jobs  to efficiency and  effectiveness of the organisation.  For this  purpose,  background information is collected in the form  of organisation charts, class  specifications, work flow charts,  etc.  Organisation  charts   show  the  relation  of the job  with  other  jobs  in the  organisation.  Class  specifications describe the  general requirements   of the job family. Work  flow charts   indicate the  flow of activities involved in  a job.

2. Organising Job Anatysts Programme

It is necessary  to plan  and  organize the  programme   and   must   assign   responsibilities.   A budget  and   a  time   schedule should be  developed.

3. Deciding the  Uses   of Job   Analysis Information

It has  been  stated   above that  information generated by job  analysis can be utilized for practically all functions of human resource management. Nevertheless, it is desirable to focus  on a few priority areas  in which  the job  analysis information is to be used.  These  areas   can be decided on  the  basis   of the  need,   priorities  and  constraints  of the  particular   organisation. How the job  information will be used  and  for what  purpose  will determine  the extent to which  jobs   are  to be  analyzed.

4. Selecting Representative     Jobs    for   Analysis

It would   be  highly  time consuming  and  costly  to  analyze all  the  jobs.   It is,  therefore,  desirable  to  select  a representative sample of jobs  for the purpose of detailed analysis. Priorities of various jobs  needing analysis can  also  be  determined.

5. Understand Job Design. The job analyst should obtain  information concerning

the current design of the  representative job.  For this  purpose,  current job  description and  job  specification.  procedure  manual,  systems flow charts,  etc.  can  be  studied.

6. Collection of Data  

In this  step,  data  on the  characteristics   of the job,  and qualifications and  behaviour  required  to do the job  effectively is collected. Data  may be collected from  the  employees who  actually perform the job,  or from  their  super- visors  or  from   outsiders   called   trade   job  analysts  appointed  to  watch   employees performing the job.  Several techniques  are  available for job  analysis. Care  should be taken  to  use  only  those   techniques  which   are  acceptable  and  reliable  in  the  given situation.

7. Developing a Job   Description.

This step involves describing the content of the job in terms of functions, duties, responsibilities, operations etc. The job holder is required to discharge the duties and responsibilities and perform the operations listed in job description.

8. Preparing a Job   Specification. 

This step involves conversion of the job description statements into a job specification. Job specifications is a written statement of personal attributes in terms of traits, skills. Training, experience needed to carry out the job.

Purpose of Job Analysis

It is very important to identify and well define the purpose of job analysis. In this regard, following points must be considered

•  If the organisation does not have a person who is well trained to conduct it effectively then job analysis consultant prove to be extremely helpful as they offer unbiased advice, guidelines and methods. Therefore, it will be good to analyse a job without any personal likes and dislikes.
• It is necessary to have a planned approach about how to carry the whole process in order to investigate a specific job.
• If the person is not an expert then it is extremely important to schedule training for the job analyst.
• It is also mandatory for the HR Managers to communicate the whole thing properly. So, that employees offer their full support.
• It is required to very careful and conscious while collecting data related to educational qualifications of employees, skills and abilities required to perform the job.
• Logical, rational and analytical approach is required to verify the authenticity of collected data as it will be the final information to describe a specific job.
• Job description and job specification also needs to be dealt carefully as job description will describe the roles, activities, duties and responsibilities of the job and job specification will describe educational qualifications, experience, personal traits required to perform a job.

Techniques  of Job  Analysis (Methods of Data  Collection)

A variety of sources  and  methods  are  used  to collect data  relating to a job.  The  main methods are  given  below:

1. Job Performance.  

In  this  method, the job  analyst actually performs the job under   study   to  obtain a first  hand   experience of the  actual tasks,   physical and social demands  and  the  environment  of the job.  This  method  can  be  used  only for jobs  where  skill   requirements   are  low  and   can,   therefore,  be  learnt    quickly and easily. This  is  a time-consuming  method  and  is not  appropriate  for jobs   requiring extensive training. It is not suitable  for jobs that are hazardous (e.g., fire fighters) or for jobs that require extensive training (e.g. doctors, pharmacists).

2. Personal Observation.     

Here  the  analyst directly observes  the  worker  or  a   group engaged in  doing  the  job.  The  tasks   performed,  the  pace   at which activities are  carried  out,   the  working  conditions,  the  hazards  involved, etc.  are  observed during  a  complete  work   cycle. The  information  thus   obtained  is  recorded  in  a standard format. This  method is appropriate for jobs  which involve

manual/physical, standardised  and   short   job   cycle   activities.  Draftsman,   mechanic,   weaver, are examples of such  jobs.   There are,  however, many  aspects  of a job  involving mental

process  and   unforeseen  circumstances   which cannot  be  directly  observed.  Such jobs  do not  have  an  easily observable and  complete job  cycles. Observation method can be effective only when  the job  analyst is skilled enough to know  what  to observe and  how  to  analyze what  is observed.

3. 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. Although the interview method provides opportunities to elicit information sometimes not available through other methods, it has its limitations.

i. It is time consuming and hence costly.

ii. The value of data is primarily dependent on the interviewer’s skills and may be faulty if they put ambiguous questions to workers.

iii. Interviewees may be suspicious about the motives and may distort the information they provide. If seen as an opportunity to improve their position such as to increase their wages, workers may exaggerate their job duties to add greater weightage to their position

4. Questionnaire

In this  method, properly drafted questionnaires  are  sent  out to jobholders.  After  completion  these   are  returned  to  supervisors.   As  the  data  is often  incoherent  and   disorganized,   it is  discussed  with  the  jobholders.   After  due corrections,  the  same   is submitted  to the job  analyst.

Structured  questionnaires  on different aspects of a job,  e.g.,  manual  and  mental processes,  coordinating  and  negotiating behaviour, etc.  are  developed. Each  task  or behaviour is described in terms  of characteristics  such  as frequency, significance, difficulty and  relationship  to overall performance.  The job holders  give their  ratings of these  dimensions. The  questionnaire  method  provides comprehensive  information  about   a job.  It also enables the analyst to cover  a large  number ofjobholders  in the shortest  possible time.  Data  obtained  through  a questionnaire  can  be  quantified  and  processed  with the help  of a computer. But  it is time-consuming  and  costly  to develop standardised questionnaires.  Direct  rapport  between the analyst and  respondents   is not possible. In the  absence of a personal  touch,   the  cooperation  and  motivation  of respondents tend  to be  low.

Some of the standard questionnaires that are widely used are discussed below:

1. The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

The PAQ is a standard questionnaire developed at Purdue University to quantitatively sample work oriented job elements. It contains 194 items divided into six major divisions. The PAQ permits management to scientifically and quantitatively group interrelated job elements into job dimensions. These are explained below:

a) Information Input :

Where and how does the employees get the information he/she in performing his/her job.

b) Mental Processes :

What reasoning, decision making, planning and information processing activities are involved in performing the job?

c) Physical activities :

What physical activities does the employee perform and what tools or devices does he/she use?

d) Relationships with other people :

What relationships with other people are required in performing the job?

e) Job context

In what physical and social context is the work performed?

d) Other Job characteristics :

What activites, conditions or characteristics other than those described above are relevant to the job?

2. Management Position Description Questionnaire (MPDQ)

MPQD isa standardized instrument designed specifically for use in analyzing managerial jobs. The 274 item questionnaire contains 15 sections. It would take 2 ½ hours to complete the questionnaire. In most cases the respondents are asked to state how important each item is to the position.

3. Fuctional Job Analysis (FJA)

FJA is a worker oriented job analysis approach that attemptes to describe the whole person on the job. It tries to examine the fundamental components of “data, people and things”. There are five steps to be followed:

• The first involves the identification of the organization’s goals for the FJA analysis. This analysis describes what should be, as well as, what is.
• The second step is the identification and description of tasks, wherein tasks are defined as actions. The task actions may be physical (operating a computer), mental (analysis data ) or interpersonal (consulting another person).The task statements developed in FJA must conform to s specific written format.
• The third step deals with analysis of tasks. Each task is analysed using 7 scales. This include three worker function scales ( data, people, things) , a worker instruction scale ( degree of supervision imposed ) and three scales of reasoning, mathematics and language.
• In the fourth step, the analyst develops performance standards to assess the results of a worker’s tasks.

FJA is frequently used for government jobs. It provides a quantitative score of each job as a function of its complexity in relationship with people, data and things. The results are helpful in fixing wage rates and in developing employee succession plans. On the negative side, FJA takes a lot of time. Training in its use may mean considerable investment of money.

5. Critical Incidents
   In this  method, jobholders are  asked  to describe incidents concerning the job  on  the  basis   of their  past  experience. The  incidents  so collected are  analysed and  classified  according to the  job  areas   they  describe.  A fairly  clear picture of actual  job  requirements  can be obtained by distinguishing between effective and   ineffective behaviours   of workers  on  the  job.   However, this   method  is  time- consuming. The  analyst  requires   a  high  degree of skill   to  analyse  the  content  of descriptions given  by workers.

6. Log Records

  In this  method,  a diary  or logbook is given  to each  jobholder.The jobholder  daily  records  the  duties   performed  making  the  time  at  which   each task  is started  and  finished.  The  record  so maintained  provides  information  about the job.  This   method  is  time-consuming.   Moreover, it  provides  incomplete  data because information concerning working conditions, equipment used  and  supervisory relationship is not  available from  the  logbook. Most  employees are  not  disciplined enough to maintain  a regular  diary.  But if kept  up-to-date,  the  diary  provides useful information on  the job.  This  method  is useful  for jobs  that  are  difficult to observe, e.g., engineers,  scientists,  research  men,  senior   managers,  etc.

7. Panel of experts

This method utilizes senior job incumbents and superiors with extensive knowledge of the job. To get the job analysis information, the analyst conducts an interview with the group. The interaction of the members during the interview can add insight and detail that the analyst might not get from individual interviews.