What is job analysis?
Job analysis is the process of determining the tasks that make up the job and the skills, abilities, and responsibilities required of an individual to accomplish the job. Job analysis is essential to determine the duties and the nature of the jobs in the organizations and to decide what kinds of employees are required.
According to Edwin B. Flippo, “Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operational and responsibilities of a specific job.”
According to Gary Dessler, “Job analysis is the procedure for determining the duties and skills requirement of a job and the kind of person who should be hired for it.”
The final outcome of job analysis is the preparation of job descriptions and job specifications. The information shown in the job descriptions and specifications is useful for deciding on requirements, selection, compensation, performance appraisal, and training and for assigning jobs among job holders. A job description contains information that describes the job context, job environment, duties, and responsibilities of a specific job or position. A job specification contains information that describes the minimum job requirements in terms of skills, qualifications, and abilities. It is a profile of human characteristics needed for performing the job.
Purposes of Job Analysis
Job evaluation
Job analysis provides valuable information for carrying out job evaluation. Job description and job specification provide relevant information to evaluate a particular job to fix the salary or wage of the job.
Recruitment and selection information
When a company visualizes the need for a job and the abilities of a worker to fulfill those needs, then the company can recruit and select the appropriate employees in the respective positions. In this, job description and job specification provide useful information such as the number of employees required in the jobs, methods, and sources of recruitment and selection.
Training and development
Job analysis also aims to get help information in determining the content and subject matter of training and development. After applying job analysis techniques, the human resource manager can identify which job requires personal traits such as skills, knowledge, and capacities to perform a particular job.
Human resource planning
Information received from job analysis is beneficial to determine current and future human resource requirements, Both job description and job specification help the human resource manager to visualize the need of the human resources in the organization. Thus, the basis for making human resource planning is the job analysis by which human resource managers will be able to find what kinds of skills and knowledge are required and why these skills and knowledge are required to perform, a particular job.
Methods of collecting Job Analysis information
Observation method
In this method, the job analyst observes the workers while they are performing their jobs. This method is useful because the job analyst comes to know facts relating to a job such as materials, working conditions, equipment, and the requirements for the special skills.
Interview method
Face-to-face interview is an effective way to collect job information. The job analyst spends time with the employees to gather job information. The interview may be conducted at the place where employees are working and observing their activities.
Questionnaire method
The job analyst can use a set of structured questionnaires to obtain job information from the employees who are most familiar with the job. The information collected after using the questionnaire must be analyzed and interpreted in the form of job descriptions or job specifications that provide management with knowledge of what the job requires of the job holders.
Diary method
Jobholders keep a record of their daily work activities in a diary. If records are maintained over the entire job period., the diary can prove both an accurate and feasible way of collecting job information. Although it provides information, it is not a popular method.
Conference with job analysts/experts
Under this method, specific job characteristics are obtained from the experts. Some analysts or experts sit together to decide about job difficulty, variability, need for overtime, and so on. Experts share their opinions on every aspect of the job to be analyzed.
Job Analysis Techniques
There are two job analysis techniques
Job focused techniques
This technique mainly focuses on the job dimensions. The most detailed job focus techniques are Functional Job Analysis (FJA) and Method Analysis.
Functional job analysis
Functional job analysis describes the nature of a job in terms of people, data, and things and develops job descriptions and job summaries. The functional job analysis techniques allow managers to group job families that require similar kinds of worker behavior. With the help of this technique, management can compare, classify, and summarize the jobs and job information. It is the most popular widely used job analysis technique in America.
Method analysis
This analysis focuses on the analysis of non-managerial jobs. This is developed from industrial engineering. The main purpose of method analysis is to analyze jobs to help the employees work more effectively and efficiently. It is used to assess physical movement and economic way of performing tasks.
Person focus technique
This technique analyzes the behavioral requirements of the job. The most important procedures of this technique are the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) and Critical Incident Technique (CIT).
Position analysis questionnaire (PAQ)
It is a structured job analysis questionnaire. It tries to find out the personal or behavioral requirements for performing a job. The ain’t benefit of the position analysis questionnaire is that it provides a quantitative profile of any job in terms of job traits.
Critical incident technique (CIT)
This technique measures the critical job incidents that represent effective or ineffective performance. These incidents might be desirable or undesirable on the part of personal behavior on a particular job. Such behaviors may cause effective or ineffective performance of employees on the job.
Outcomes of Job Analysis
The main objective of job analysis is to develop job descriptions, job specifications, and job evaluations. These three components are the outcomes of job analysis. These outcomes can be explained as follows:
Job description
A job description is an important document that contains a statement of job analysis. The job description is an overall summary of tasks and requirements to conduct work in the form of written records. It is the foundation for many human resource practices ranging from the requirement to training programs. The job description should be clear regarding the work of the position, duties, etc. It provides enough information to the jobholder in the following job matters:
- The job title, department, section, and other data to identify one job from another job.
- The person to whom the employee is responsible.
- The statement of the work performed and the scope and overall purposes of the job.
- The individual’s duties, assignments, and tasks, which make up the job.
Job specification
Job specification is a written statement of qualifications, traits, and physical and mental characteristics that an individual must possess to perform the job duties and discharge responsibilities effectively.
Thus, it is a statement of personal characteristics or human qualities necessary to perform a job properly. It contains the minimum requirements of the job about the jobholders’ skill, knowledge, effort, and abilities, needed to do the job effectively. Important information in the job specification includes.
- Educational qualification, experience, professional training, and skills.
- Intellectual capacities, decision-making, judgment, etc.
- Physical structure, health, appearance, etc.
Job evaluation
Job evaluation is a process of determining the relative worth of the various jobs within the organization. Job analysis provides valuable information for carrying out job evaluation. Job description and job specification provide relevant information to evaluate a particular job to fix the salary or wage of that job. The following are the reasons for evaluating the jobs:
- It helps to identify the pay scale for different jobs in the organization.
- It helps to establish the formal structure of jobs based on their worth to the organization.
- It is an important part of compensation management in the organization.
Thus, job evaluation means using the information in the analysis to systematically determine the value of each job about all jobs within the organization. In short, job evaluation seeks to rank all the jobs in the organization and place them in a hierarchy that will reflect the relative worth of each job. It is important to note that this is a ranking of jobs, not people,