Job Analysis in HRM
What is Job Analysis ?
Features of Job Analysis
- This is a process of determining the tasks that are required to be performed in the course of a job by gathering relevant information about various aspects of it.
- A systematic approach is taken when defining the role, context, conditions, human behavior, performance standards, and responsibilities of a job.
- It helps establish the value of the job to an organization. It thus measures a job’s value and contribution to the organization’s growth.
- It establishes the job relatedness, an important factor in HR decisions relating to recruitment, selection, compensation, training, health, and safety.
- It assists the organization in formulating its strategy and managing its resources in order to achieve its business objectives.
- This helps develop job profiles for each job and serves as a basis for developing job descriptions and specification statements.
- The organization uses these employees’ skills and knowledge for the growth of the organization by identifying the appropriate job for each employee.
- By using it, we can better understand the impact of changes in the environment on individual jobs.
- It helps the organization identify unnecessary skills and requirements for a job and remove them. By ensuring equal employment opportunities, this simplifies the eligibility requirements for a job.
- A job reengineering or job enlargement allows the organization to increase motivation and employee satisfaction by improving jobs.
Trend in Job Analysis
a) Job : A job is a position held by a person in an organization. A job typically entails several related tasks that must be accomplished as a part of it. As with every job, there are duties, responsibilities, and accountabilities associated with it as well as knowledge and skills necessary to do the job. Each position has its own title or another alternative title for it. These jobs include sales managers, accountants and nurses.
b) Task: Tasks are acts that are performed as part of the job. It is a separate unit of work that forms an integral part of a job. The work is performed by combining a variety of methods, techniques, and procedures. A manager’s responsibilities include planning.
c) Duty: A worker is responsible for completing a task because of legal or moral obligations. A job description specifies the tasks that must be completed. A reservation clerk’s duties include issuing reservation forms, collecting money, reserving tickets, and paying the balance after the tickets are reserved.
d) Position: Generally speaking, it refers to an employee’s job title and his or her position within an organization. A job description consists of the tasks and duties performed by an employee at a particular location. Occasionally, positions with the same name are performed in different ways but are equivalent. A cashier is responsible for receiving and disbursing cash, while a biller deals with bills of exchange, and an accounts clerk is responsible for maintaining and managing accounts.
e) Occupation: An employee can engage their time, thoughts, and attention by working on it. The terms usually refer to common job categories. These jobs are usually similar in nature and share similar characteristics.
f) Career: Generally, it refers to an employee’s progression in his or her career. An individual’s career path is outlined in the chronological order of the professional positions he or she has held.
Goals of Job Analysis
It is the purpose of a job analysis to determine whether a job being studied is actually needed by the organization. It is only when the continuation of the job is deemed essential that the remaining purposes of job analysis become relevant. The purpose of a job analysis is to collect information about a job based on two broad categories.
a) Job Evaluation
The term ‘job evaluation’ actually refers to a system of ranking jobs in an organization according to the relevant characteristics, duties, and responsibilities they involve. Job evaluations are undertaken to determine the relative value of a job to an organization. It is understandable that an organization would like to determine a job’s pay scale based on its comparative merit within the organization and its competitive merit in the labor market.
Using job analysis, an organization can offer its employees a fair salary based on systematic job evaluation. Job analysis motivates existing employees and also attracts the best employees to a company.
b) Job Design and Redesign
The process of creating a job entails combining different tasks. In order to design a job, there are many factors to consider, such as job requirements, employee satisfaction, and organizational goals. The first time a job is introduced, it is designed, and it is redesigned when it is replaced by a new job. Industrial engineering is the process of redesigning jobs to become more efficient and economical. It is human engineering, on the other hand, if it is redesigned in a way that is compatible with the employee’s efficiency levels and the job requirements.
Due to the rapid changes in the environment, organizations have been forced to redesign jobs more frequently than ever before. Any job redesign or redesigning process begins with a job analysis.
c) Job Classification
Classifying jobs based on their similarity means grouping them by type of work. A job can be grouped based on its level of difficulty, its authority, its responsibilities, and its accountability, as well as its behavioural requirements. In order to determine the level of skills required for each group of jobs, the firm classifies the job.
Consequently, using job classification enables the company to choose, train, and compensate employees for similar types of jobs uniformly. In this case, the job analysis provides the organization with appropriate information for classification and grouping of jobs.
d) Job Description and Job Specification
Two essential documents are created at the end of the job analysis process: a job description and a job specification. Job descriptions are written statements of the results of job analysis. A job description includes job title, alternate titles, duties, authorities, responsibilities, accountabilities, reporting authority, relationship with other jobs, working conditions, and job summary information.
The job specification is a statement about the skills, knowledge, qualifications, and other characteristics that are necessary to effectively perform the duties and responsibilities of the analyzed job. As such, job analysis is the basis for developing both job descriptions and job specifications.
e) HR Planning
Planned human resources are those required by a company, as well as their availability, both within and outside the organization, to execute corporate strategies in the future. Choosing the right person for the right job at the right cost is the purpose of HR planning. The purpose of HRM is to link human resources with the organization’s mission, goals, and vision. In fact, the HR plan determines the number and types of personnel necessary to accomplish goals efficiently and effectively.
In fact, the HR plan begins with a job analysis. Providing the necessary information about the job and the job holders helps an organization find the right balance between the demand for and supply of human resources.
e) Recruitment and Selection
An organization can conduct a job analysis once there is a job vacancy in order to determine whether it should be filled. A particular vacancy need not be filled if the results of the job analysis do not support its continuation in the organization. If, however, the position remains needed, the organization may go ahead with recruitment and selection. Usually, the recruitment strategy and the selection process are based on the job description and job specification. It usually depends on the job description statement whether to use internal or external recruitment sources to fill a job.
In the same way, a job specification forms the basis for an objective assessment of the candidates. It allows HR managers to distinguish between the essential and desirable requirements for a position. Additionally, it helps to identify the criteria for determining a candidate’s success or failure in a selection process. Any selection made without a job analysis or using a poorly written job description can cause serious problems in the future for the organization.
f) Training and Development
An organization’s training needs are determined through the results of a job analysis. It is possible to find out the exact skills and knowledge required for a job by reading the description and specification. If no candidates with the requisite skills are available after the selection process, the organization can select from the available candidates and train them to acquire these skills. Job descriptions and specifications play a critical role in determining the content, duration, and methods of training for a position.
A job analysis can also be useful for determining the training needs of employees who hold different positions within the organization. Job analysis also helps the organization to decide on the long-term development of its managerial personnel by providing information about the future skills required for the job.
g) Performance Evaluation
Evaluation of performance refers to the evaluation of the performance of employees within an organization. Prior to comparing actual performance against standards, each job requires evaluation criteria and standards. This assessment provides information about the job’s duties, responsibilities, and standards. In HR decisions regarding pay fixation, promotion, disciplinary measures, grievance identification, and feedback, the accuracy of the result of the performance evaluation is crucial.
It is critical that the job analysis mechanism is effective in ensuring accuracy and reliability in performance evaluation. The organization will be protected from accusations of discrimination and victimization if it carries out objective performance evaluations based on accurate criteria.
h) Wages and Salary Administration
Compensating employees for their work should reflect the actual value of their work to an organization. Job analyses help a company determine the relative worth of each position within the company. A job description contains information about an employee’s duties and responsibilities, level of difficulty, skill requirements, work environment, and location of the job within the organizational structure, which assists the company in determining the appropriate compensation package for each position.
It will be easier for the company to achieve its desired level of motivation, attrition rate and job satisfaction if employees perceive fair pay as being fair.
i) Safety and Health
Analyzing a job can provide important insights into the nature and type of work conditions necessary for a safe workplace. Analyzing a job can also provide insight into safe workplace requirements. Furthermore, it could identify the physical hazards of the job as well as behaviors and conditions that can contribute to injuries and accidents. With the aid of a job analysis, it is possible to determine whether safety training and safety apparatus are necessary. This makes the job analysis report a valuable tool for health and safety management.
j) Industrial Relations
Relationships between employers and employees that are based on employment can be defined as industrial relations. Within the organizational setting, it describes the relationship between the management and the employees. Job analysis findings in the form of job descriptions enhance the objectivity of decisions regarding promotions, transfers, disciplinary actions, compensation, and grievance handling. By analyzing jobs, the organization can reduce friction with unions and also ensure harmonious industrial relations. The information provided by a job analysis can also be used by both management and unions to reach decisions through collective bargaining.
k) Legal Requirements
In order to justify actions such as hiring, promotion, termination, disciplinary action, and grievance redress procedures legally and morally, organizations must create a job description statement. Organizations are legally obligated to keep job descriptions for all positions within the company. Furthermore, job analysis can help a company clarify ambiguities in its employees’ minds as to their rights and obligations in a job. This will prevent a possible legal problem over an employment contract in the future.
Job Analysis Process
Following are the points that describes the process of Job Analysis in detail.
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a) Determining the Purpose of Job Analysis
During the job analysis process, the first step is to determine the end use of the analysis. It is true that job analysis is relevant to most HR functions within an organization. However, organizations sometimes perform job analyses for specific reasons, such as determining the employee’s salary. An organization may focus specifically on certain important aspects of a job depending on the purpose of the analysis.
When a job analysis is done in order to figure out safety measures, for example, the focus may be more on identifying relevant information pertaining to physical hazards, job difficulties, and work environment. If the organization is able to identify the expected uses of the job analysis, the needed data types, the data collection techniques, and the analysis focus will be able to be determined.
b) Gathering Background Information about the Job
For an organization to understand the job’s relative importance, it is crucial to review the job’s background information. When conducting the job analysis, it’s important to find out information about all aspects of the job. An organization chart, a process chart, and a job classification can help gather this information.
An organizational chart provides information about the title and alternate title of each job, the relationships among them, and the reporting authorities for each job. Process diagrams can also be used to determine the flow of activities involved in a task.
c) Choosing Representative Jobs for Analysis
Organizations often choose not to analyze all jobs, but instead focus on just a few. This is because many job functions are similar and share the same characteristics. Furthermore, analyzing all jobs within an organization is likely to be time-consuming and expensive. Consequently, it becomes essential for an organization to identify representative jobs from a group of identical jobs.
d) Collecting Relevant Job Information
This step involves gathering information pertaining to all aspects of the job. The information gathered includes duties, level of responsibility, authority, accountability, content and context of the job, desired employee behavior, critical knowledge, knowledge skills and abilities (KSA) and training requirements.
It is possible to gather these pieces of information by contacting the supervisors and managers, as well as the current and former employees of the position. Data collection methods include structured or open-ended questionnaires, interviews, task inventories, checklists, and observation.
e) Reviewing the Information Gathered
A job analysis report is prepared for the job being reviewed after the collected data has been carefully analyzed. In general, such an analysis process includes the job holders and their immediate supervisors. We verify that the job analysis report is accurate and complete by asking the employee who performs the job. An employee or supervisor may request further information if the report is incomplete or discrepant.
f) Developing a Job Description and Job Specification
This is the final step in the job analysis process. On the basis of the job analysis report, the firm prepares its two essential documents: the job description and the job specification. In job descriptions, you will find information about duties, responsibilities, accountabilities, and working conditions, as well as the risks involved in the job. Essentially, it is a summary of the various characteristics of a job.
The purpose of a job specification is to provide information from the standpoint of the job holder. In an employment contract, the terms associated with the eligibility requirements for a job holder are usually discussed in terms of educational qualifications, experience, knowledge, skills, personal characteristics, aptitude, and background requirements.
Job Analysis Quiz
Check List For Job Safety Analysis (JSA) Consists Of
(A) Men, Machine, Material, Tools
(B) Men, Machine, Work Area, Tools
(C) Men, Work Area. Material, Tools
(D) Work Area, Material, Machine, Tools
___ is an organisation’s basic function.
(A) Work
(B) Labor
(C) Raw material
(D) All of the above
Data includes
(A) synthesizing
(B) analyzing
(C) computing
(D) all of the above
A ___ is a “collection of tasks and responsibilities regularly assigned to one person”
(A) job
(B) position
(C) duty
(D) none of the above
A group of positions similar in their significant duties, is known as
(A) Task
(B) Duty
(C) Position
(D) Job
The final process of a job analysis is the preparation of two statements, namely,
a) job observation and job description
b) job specification and job observation
c) job description and job specification
d) None of the above
Which of the following terms is not associated with job analysis?
a) task
b) duty
c) position
d) competitor
The process of bringing together different tasks to build a job is called
a)job evaluation
b) job design
c) job classification
d) job description
Job Analysis is a process where ___ are made about data collected on a job.
(A) payments
(B) judgements
(C) decisions
(D) all of the above
Job analysis is a process of gathering information about the
a) Job holder
b) Management
c) Job
d) Organization
Job Analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the ___ of a specific job.
(A) operations
(B) responsibility
(C) both (A) and (B)
(D) none of the above
The immediate products of job analysis are.
(A) job description
(B) job specifications
(C) both (A) and (B)
(D) none of the above
MPQD stands for
(A) Management Position Described Quality
(B) Management Position Described Questionnaire
(C) Management Position Description Questionnaire
(D) None of the above
The process of grouping of similar types of works together is known as
a) job classification
b) job design
c) job evaluation
d) job description
The system of ranking jobs in a firm on the basis of the relevant characteristics, duties, and responsibilities is known as
a) job evaluation
b) job design
c) job specification
d) job description
The written statement of the findings of job analysis is called
a)job design
b) job classification
c) job description
d) job evaluation
A structured questionnaire method for collecting data about the personal qualities of employees is called
a)functional job analysis
b) management position description questionnaire
c) work profiling system
d) none of the above
Following is (are) importance of Job Analysis
(A) Organization and Manpower Planning
(B) Recruitment and Selection
(C) Wages and Salary Administration:
(D) All of the above
The correct sequence of Steps in Job Analysis are
(A) Collection of Background Information – Collection of Job Analysis Data – Selection of Representative Position to be Analyzed – Developing a Job Description – Developing a Job Specification
(B) Collection of Background Information – Selection of Representative Position to be Analyzed – Collection of Job Analysis Data – Developing a Job Description – Developing a Job Specification
(C) Selection of Representative Position to be Analyzed – Collection of Background Information – Collection of Job Analysis Data – Developing a Job Description – Developing a Job Specification
(D) Collection of Background Information – Selection of Representative Position to be Analyzed – Collection of Job Analysis Data – Developing a Job Specification – Developing a Job Description
KSAs stands for
(A) knowledge, skills and abilities
(B) knowledge, salary and abilities
(C) knowledge, skills and activities
(D) none of the above
Job Description provides
(A) organizational information
(B) functional information
(C) both (A) and (B)
(D) none of the above
Job Description helps in
(A) the development of job specifications
(B) providing orientation to new employees towards their basic responsibilities and duties.
(C) developing performance standard
(D) all of the above
___ tells what kind of person to recruit and for what qualities that person should be tested.
(A) Job Description
(B) Job specification
(C) Job Design
(D) All of the above
Job specification relates to
(A) Physical Characteristics
(B) Psychological Characteristics
(C) Personal Characteristics
(D) All of the above
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MBA,BBA.
I am Smirti Bam, an enthusiastic edu blogger with a passion for sharing insights into the dynamic world of business and management through this website.
I hold a MBA degree from Presidential Business School, Kathmandu, and a BBA degree with a specialization in Finance from Apex College,
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