Job Analysis and Job Description

• Job analysis is the procedure through which

you determine the duties of the positions and
the characteristics of the people to hire for
them.
 The Basics of Job Analysis
• Work activities
• Behaviors
• Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids
• Performance standards
• Job context
• Human requirements
 Uses of Job Analysis
Information
• Recruitment and selection
• Compliance
• Performance appraisal
• Compensation
• Training
 Conducting a Job
Analysis
1. How will information be used?
2. Background information
3. Representative positions
4. Collect and analyze data
5. Verify
6. Job description and specification
 Boosting Productivity through Work
Analysis andRedesign
• The Atlantic American insurance company in Atlanta conducted a
workflow analysis to identify inefficiencies in how it processes its
insurance claims. What did this involve?
• As the firm’s HR director said, “We followed the life of a claim to
where it arrived in the mail and where it eventually ended up” in
order to find ways to improve the process.
• The workflow analysis prompted several performance-boosting
redesigns of the insurance claim jobs.
• The firm reduced from four to one the number of people opening
mail, replacing three people with a machine that does it
automatically. A new date stamping machine lets staff stamp 20
pages at a time rather than 1. A new software program adds bar
codes to each claim automatically, rather than manually.
• The new system lowered costs.
 Job Analysis Guidelines
• A joint effort-Make the job analysis a joint
effort by a human resources manager, the
worker, and the worker’s supervisor.
• Clarity of questions and process-Make
sure the questions and the process are both
clear to the employees.
• Different job analysis methods- Use
several different job analysis tools. Do not
rely just on a questionnaire, for instance, but
supplement your survey with a short follow-
up interview.
• The information collected through a job analysis is used
to help manage all aspects of an effective HR program
including recruitment and selection, legal compliance,
performance appraisals, compensation, and training.
• Elements of the job analysis process include how the
information will be used, background information,
selecting representative positions for analysis, verifying
the data analyzing data, and then writing the job
description.
• Since the information collected may be sensitive to the
employee, it’s a good idea to make it a joint effort,
clarify the questions and process, and use a variety of
job analysis tools.
Methods for Collecting Job Analysis
Information
• Interviews: Job analysis interviews range
from completely unstructured interviews to
highly structured ones.
• Questionnaires: Having employees fill out
questionnaires to describe their job-related
duties and responsibilities is another popular
way to obtain job analysis information.
• Observation: Direct observation is especially
useful when jobs consist mainly of observable
physical activities—assembly-line worker and
accounting clerk are examples.
• Diary/logs: Another method is to ask workers to keep a diary/log
of what they do during the day. For every activity engaged in, the
employee records the activity (along with the time) in a log.

• Quantitative techniques: Qualitative methods like interviews and

questionnaires are not always suitable. You may need to say that,
in effect, “Job A is twice as challenging as Job B, and so is worth
twice the pay.” Now, of course, you must be able to prove such a
claim quantitatively.
• The position analysis questionnaire (PAQ) is a very popular
quantitative job analysis tool, consisting of a questionnaire
containing 194 items. The 194 items (such as “written materials”)
each represent a basic element that may play a role in the job.

• DOL method: Experts at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) did

much of the early work developing job analysis. The DOL method
uses a set of standard basic activities called worker functions to
describe what a worker must do with respect to data, people, and
things.
 Collecting Job Analysis Information –
Interviews
Managers may conduct individual interviews with each employee, group
interviews with groups of employees who have the same job, and/or
supervisor interviews with one or more supervisors who know the job.
Some typical interview questions include the following:
• What is the job being performed?
• What are the education, experience, skill, and certification and licensing
requirements?
• What are the job’s physical demands? The emotional and mental
demands?
• And many others
• Many managers use a structured format to guide the interview to
ensure consistency and be certain key elements are not overlooked.

• The interview’s wide use reflects its advantages. It’s a simple and
quick way to collect information, including information that might
not appear on a written form.

• Distortion of information is the main problem—whether due to

outright falsification or honest misunderstanding.

• The basic interviewing guidelines include:

1.Quickly establish rapport.
2.Use a structured guide.
3.Ask the worker to list his or her duties in order of importance and
frequency of occurrence.
4.Review the information with the worker’s immediate supervisor and
with the interviewee.
 JOB DESCRIPTION
• A job description is a written statement of what the
worker actually does, how he or she does it, and what
the job’s working conditions are.
• This information is used to write a job specification;
this lists the knowledge, abilities, and skills required to
perform the job satisfactorily. There is no standard
format for writing a job description. However, most
descriptions contain sections that cover:
• Identification
• Summary
• Relationships
• Responsibilities and duties
• Performance standards & working conditions
• The job specification takes the job description
and answers the question, “What human
traits and experience are required to do this
job effectively?”
• It shows what kind of person to recruit and for
what qualities you should test that person. It
may be a section of the job description, or a
separate document.
 Writing job specifications
Writing job specifications for trained employees is
relatively straightforward.
• Here your job specifications might focus mostly on
traits like length of previous service, quality of relevant
training, and previous job performance.
• The problems are more complex when you’re filling
jobs with untrained people. Here you must specify
qualities such as physical traits, personality, interests,
or sensory skills that imply some potential for
performing or for being trained to do the job.
Finally, the job analyst compiles all this information in a job
requirements matrix for this job.
• This matrix would list the following information, in 5 columns:
• Column 1: Each of the four or five main job duties;
• Column 2: The task statements associated with each main job duty;
• Column 3: The relative importance of each main job duty;
• Column 4: The time spent on each main job duty; and
• Column 5: The knowledge, skills, ability, and other human
characteristics related to each main job duty.

• Such a job requirements matrix provides a more complete picture

of what the worker does on the job and how and why he or she
does it than does a job description. (For instance, it specifies each
task’s purpose.) And, the list of each duty’s required knowledge,
skills, abilities, and other characteristics is useful for selection,
training, and appraisal decisions.