What is Job Analysis – Meaning, Definitions, Uses, Process, Purpose and Techniques

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.

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 is useful in classifying jobs and interrelationship among them. In order to improve organizational efficiency , sound decisions concerning hierarchical positions and functional differentiation can be taken on the basis of information obtained through 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 informations 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 endeavor 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) Health and 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.

What is Job Analysis – Meaning, Definitions, Uses, Process, Purpose and Techniques

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