Job Analysis

Objective and definition of job analysis

Objectives of job analysis:
1. The organization needs to know what every employee’s job contain with respect to:
• what they do.
• What are their responsibilities
• what they need to know.
2. Creating job description:
Job analysis creates a definition of each position so that its role in accomplishing the organizational
goals and objectives is clear. Once this is understood, the job description is created.
Job analysis definition:
- Is the process of defining the essential duties of the job, as well as the skills,
knowledge and abilities needed to accomplish the job.
Steps of job analysis
1. understanding the purpose of conducting the job analysis.
• HRM must understand the purpose of job analysis is to create job
description which is important in Recruiting, Training, setting
performance standards, evaluating performance, and compensation.
2. understanding the role of jobs in the organization.
• Every job in the organization should have a purpose. Before
conducting the job analysis, HRM must establish the job’s link to the
organization’s objective. If a link cannot be established, then maybe
the job is unnecessary
Steps of job analysis
3. benchmarking positions.
• In a large organization, it would be impossible to evaluate every job at
one time, therefore, by involving employees, Some jobs can be
compared to jobs of others similar organizations.
Steps of job analysis
4. determining how to collect job analysis information:
The methods for collecting job analysis information includes:
- Structured questionnaires.
- Group interviews.
- Technical conferences.
Steps of job analysis
5. seeking clarification wherever necessary.
• When the job analyst doesn’t entirely understand some of the information collected, it’s time to seek
clarification from those who possess the critical information, including employees holding the position and
the supervisor.

6. developing the first draft of the job description.

• The common elements include the job title, a summary sentence of the job’s main activities, the job’s level of
authority and accountability, performance requirements, and working conditions. The last paragraph of the
job description typically includes the job specifications, or those personal characteristics the job incumbent
should possess to be successful on the job.

7. reviewing the draft with the job supervisor.

• The supervisor of the position being analyzed should approve the job description. Review comments from the
supervisor can assist in determining a final job description document.
Sources of job analysis information.
1. observation method
• A job analysis technique in which data are gathered by
watching employees work.
Disadvantages:
- Most of worker not work efficiently when they are being
observed.
- This method require all activities of the job to be observable
which is impossible for some jobs such as managerial jobs.
Sources of job analysis information.
2. individual interview method
• Meeting with an employee to determine what his or her job tasks.
3. Group Interview Method The group interview method is similar to
the individual interview method except that several people who hold the
position are interviewed simultaneously. This may result in a more
accurate picture of the position, but it’s also possible that group
dynamics distort the information.
Sources of job analysis information.
• Structured Questionnaire Method The structured questionnaire method gives
workers a specifically designed questionnaire on which they check or rate items they
perform in their job from a long list of possible task items.
• Disadvantage: But there will be no follow- up questions to clarify the information
received.

• Technical Conference Method The technical conference method uses supervisors

with extensive knowledge of the job, Here, specific job characteristics are obtained
from the experts.
• Disadvantages: it often overlooks the workers’ perceptions about what they do on the
job.
Outcomes of Job analysis
• The outcomes of job analysis are:
- Job description.
- Job specification.
- Job evaluation.
Job description
• A job description is a written statement of what the jobholder does, how the job is
done, under what conditions, the essential functions, how the work is to be
completed, what the purpose of the work is, and how it relates to the
organizational mission.
• The contents of job description:
Identifying information includes:
- Job title.
- Whether the job is full time or part time.
- The job identification code.
- The department of the job.
- The location of the job.
- Who the person report to.
- The grade range.
Job description
• Supervisory responsibilities if the position is responsible for supervising others,
those responsibilities will be listed here.
• Job summary including an outline of the job responsibilities and how it relates to
other positions and the organizational mission.
• Essential functions with a detailed list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities an
employee absolutely must be able to perform to successfully fill a position.
• An accurate list is important to avoid hiring decisions that may unfair, or
discriminatory.
• If specific skills or abilities are necessary they must be included. For example,
airline pilots need acceptable vision to fly a plane; firefighters need to be able
to lift and carry heavy equipment or possibly even people; and receptionists
must be able to greet people, answer phones, and use computers.
• Job specifications state the minimum acceptable qualifications that the incumbent
must possess to perform the job successfully. These includes knowledge, skills,
education, experience, certification.
Uses of job description
• Job description is used in the following HRM activities:
(1) describing the job to potential candidates (either verbally
by recruiters and interviewers or in written advertisements).
(2) guiding newly hired employees in what they are
specifically expected to do.
(3) developing criteria for evaluating performance of the
individual holding that job.
(4) establishing the relative worth of the job for compensation.
Updating Job Descriptions

• Job descriptions need to be reviewed and updated at regular

basis, usually annually or at least, the job descriptions should
be reviewed whenever the position is open.
• The job may have changed so that important essential
functions are not included, resulting in hiring unqualified
candidates, or problems with disciplining employees for not
competing tasks that are not in the job description.
• Workforce planning will not be accurate if the employee
qualifications in the job descriptions are not accurate.
Job evaluation
• Job evaluation is the process of specifying the relative value
of each job in the organization, which makes it an important
part of compensation administration. In other words, people
whose jobs are similar in value to the organization should
have similar compensation if they do their job well.
• Job analysis provides valuable information for making
comparisons of the relative value of each job.
• Jobs that have similar demands in terms of skills, knowledge,
and abilities should be placed in common compensation
groups.