Job Analysis

Job Analysis

• A process used to identify the important tasks of a job and the essential competencies an individual should possess to satisfactorily perform the job

• A wide variety of systematic procedures for examining, documenting, and drawing inferences about work activities, work attributes, and work context

• Methods for learning about the tasks involved in doing a job and/or the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that a worker needs to have to do the job (or, do it well), and the context in which a job is performed

Importance of Job Analysis/Purpose of a Job Analysis

• Writing job descriptions

• Employee selection

• Training

• Personpower planning

• Performance appraisal

• Job classification/specification

• Job evaluation

• Job design

• Compliance with legal guidelines

• Organizational analysis

Writing Job Descriptions

• What are job requirement/tasks required?

Employee selection

• Need to know essential competencies for the job

• May have difficulty asking questions evaluating responses if they don't know the job well

Training

• When you don’t know the requirements you wont be able to plan training

Personpower Planning

• Related with mobility of employees

• Role overlap

Performance Appraisal

• Evaluate employees performance

• What is the expected performance, what are we looking for?

Job Classification

• Grouping different positions using their similarities and differences (which positions can work together [e.g., finances and accounting])

Job Specification

• core characteristics needed (KSAOs), by using them to describe the position

Job Evaluation

• Understanding the worth of the position

Job Design

• You would know if there are any useless positions, or multiple positions doing the same job under different names, know if you need to create a new position

Compliance with Legal Guidelines

• Preventing any legal issues (litigation issues)

Organizational Analysis

• To be aware of any problems in the process, be sure of every step in production, be sure that all departments are supported well

• Need to know how to evaluate problems

What is Job Analysis?

• Job analysis is the process of defining a job in terms of its component tasks or duties and the knowledge or skills required to perform them

• Family of formal methods for describing jobs and human attributes necessary for jobs

  • Job oriented (task oriented/work oriented)

  • Person oriented (worker oriented)

• Process should be systematic

• Job is broken into smaller units

• Results in some written product

Writing a Good Job Description - Conducting Job Analysis

 

• Job Title --> Brief summary --> Work activities --> Tools and equipment used --> Job context --> Work performance --> Compensation information --> job competencies

Job Title

• Describes the nature of the job

• Assists in employee selection and recruitment

• Affects perceptions of job worth and status

  • Job evaluation results

  • Employee feelings of personal worth

Brief Summary

• It should be written in an easy-to-understand style

• Describes the nature and purpose of the job

• Used in internal and external job postings

Work Activities

• Lists tasks and activities involving the worker

• Should be organized into meaningful categories

  • Similar activities

  • Similar KSAOs

  • Temporal order

Tools and Equipment Used

• Lists all tools and equipment used to perform the work activities

• Primarily used for employee selection and training

Job Context

• Important for applicants with disabilities to determine if they are able to perform the job under specific circumstances

  • Job environment

  • Work schedule

  • Degree of supervision

  • Ergonomic information

    • Stress level

    • Temperature

    • Degree of danger

    • Physical demands

Work Performance

• Describes how performance is evaluated

• This section might include

  • Standards used

  • Frequency of evaluation

  • Evaluation dimensions

  • The person doing the evaluating

Compensation Information

• Exempt status

• Salary grade

• Other compensable factors used to determine salary

Job Competencies

• Common names

  • Job specifications

  • Job competencies

  • KSAOs

• Competencies should be separated

  • Those needed before hire

  • Those that can be learned after hire

How Job Analysis is Done

• Who provides information?

• How to collect information?

• How often should a job description be updated?

Who provides information?

• Human resources

• Job analysis/external consultants

• Subject matter experts: SMEs

  • Job incumbents

  • Supervisors

• Trained observers

How to collect information?

• Observation

• Interviews

• Critical incidents and work diaries

• Questionnaires/surveys

How often should a job description be updated?

• How often a job changes significantly

  • E.g., high tech jobs vs package handling

• Job crafting

Conducting a Job Analysis Basic Steps

• Step 1: Identify tasks performed

• Step 2: Write task statements

• Step 3: Rate task statements

• Step 4: Determine essential KSAOs

• Step 5: Select tests to tap KSAOs

Step 1: Identify tasks performed

• Gathering existing information (O'NET*** use for assignment)

• Interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs)

  • Individual interviews

  • SME conferences

  • Ammerman technique

• Observing incumbents

• Job participation

Step 2: Write task statements

• Decomposed Strategy (more questions can be answered)

• Holistic strategy

• Required elements to a task statement

  • Action

  • Object

• Optional elements (for when you use decomposed strategy)

  • Where the task is done

  • How it is done

  • Why it is done

  • When it is done

• Characteristics of well-written task statements

Characteristics of well-written task statements

• One action and one object

• Appropriate reading level

• The statement should make sense by itself

• All statements should be written in the same tense

• Should include the tools and equipment used to complete the task

• Task statements should not be competencies

• Task statements should not be policies

• Makes sense by itself

• Indicates level of decision-making authority (when needed)

Step 3: Rate task statements

• Task analysis

• Research shows only two scales are necessary

  • Frequency

  • Importance

• Using the ratings

  • Create a chart summarizing the ratings

  • Add the frequency and importance ratings to form a combined rating for each task

  • Include the task in the final task inventory if:

    • Average rating is greater than .5 for both frequency and importance, or

    • Combined rating is 2.0 or higher

Step 4: Determine essential KSAOs

• Knowledge

• Skill

• Ability

• Other Characteristics

Knowledge

• A body of information needed to perform a task

Skill

• The proficiency to perform a certain task

Ability

• A basic capacity for performing a wide range of different tasks, acquiring knowledge, or developing a skill

Other Characteristics

• Personal factors such as personality, willingness, interest, and motivation and such tangible factors as licenses, degrees, and years of experience

Step 5: Select tests to tap KSAOs

• Determine best method to tap KSAOs at time of hire

  • E.g., interviews, work samples, tests, biodata, assessment centers

• Used to select new employees

Methods Providing General Information About Worker Activities: PAQ

• Position Analysis Questionnaire

  • 300 items

  • 6 main dimensions

    • Information input

    • Mental processes

    • Work output

    • Interpersonal activities

    • Job context

    • Other

  • Inexpensive

  • Standardized

  • Difficult to read for average employee

Methods Providing Information About Worker Activities: JSP, JEI, and FJA

• Job Structure Profile

• Job Elements Inventory

• Functional Job Analysis

Job Structure Profile

• Designed as a replacement for the PAQ

• Easier to read than the PAQ

• Good reliability

Job Elements Inventory

• 153 items

• 10th grade readability level

• Correlates highly with PAQ

Functional Job Analysis

• Data

• People

• Things

Methods Providing General Information About Tools and Equipment

• Job Components Inventory

  • More than 400 questions

  • 5 main categories

    • Tools and equipment used

    • Perceptual and physical requirements

    • Mathematical requirements

    • Communication requirements

    • Decision making and responsibility

  • Good reliability

Methods Providing General Information About the Work Environment

• AET (ergonomic job analysis procedure)

  • Concerned with the relationship between the worker and work objects

  • 216 items

Methods Providing General Information About Competencies

• Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

  • Developed to replace the Dictionary of Occupational Titles

  • Economic, organizational, occupational, and individual

  • 923 occupations (2021)

  • Occupation, worker characteristics, and economic factors

Methods Providing General Information About Competencies: Critical Incident Technique

• Critical Incident Technique

  • Job incumbents generate incidents of excellent and poor performance

  • Job experts examine each incident to determine if its an example of good or poor performance

  • 3-4 incumbents sort incidents into categories

  • Job analyst combines and names categories

  • 3 incumbents re-sort incidents into combined categories

  • Number of incidents per category provides an idea of the importance of each category

Methods Providing General Information About Competencies: JCI and TTA

• Job Competencies Inventory

• Threshold Traits Analysis

Job Competencies Inventory

• In addition to tools and equipment used on the job, also provides information about skills needed for the job, such as:

  • Perceptual skills

  • Physical skills

  • Mathematical skills

  • Communication skills

  • Decision making skills

  • Responsibility level

Threshold Traits Analysis

• 33 items

• 5 main categories

  • Physical traits

  • Mental traits

  • Learned traits

  • Motivational traits

  • Social traits

• Reliable

• Short and quick to use

Methods Providing General Information About Competencies: F-JAS and JAI

• Fleishman Job Analysis Survey

• Job Adaptability Inventory

Fleishman Job Analysis Survey

• 73 abilities

  • Cognitive

  • Physical

  • Psychomotor

  • Sensory-perceptual

  • Social/interpersonal

• Good reliability

• Detailed

• Commercially available

Job Adaptability Inventory

• 132 items

• 8 adaptability dimensions

  • Handling emergencies

  • Handling work stress

  • Solving problems creatively

  • Dealing with uncertainty

  • Learning

  • Interpersonal adaptability

  • Cultural adaptability

  • Physically oriented adaptability

Methods Providing General Information About Competencies: Personality and Performance

• Personality-Related Position Requirements Form

  • 107 items

  • 12 personality dimensions

• Performance Improvement Characteristics

  • 48 questions

  • 7 main personality traits

There is no answer for which method is the best

• Worker oriented methods

  • Critical incidents technique

  • Job components inventory

  • Threshold traits analysis

• Most standardized technique = PAQ

• Least standardized = critical incidents T

• Least costly = PAQ

• Most costly = CIT

• Least amount of time to complete = PAQ

The Ideal Compensation System

• Will attract and retain desired employees

• Will motivate current employees while also providing security

• Is equitable

• Is in compliance with legal guidelines

Determining Internal Pay Equity

• Step 1: Determine compensable factors

• Step 2: Determine levels for each factor

• Step 3: Determine factor weights

Step 1: Determine compensable factors

• Compensable factors

  • Examples:

    • Level of responsibility

    • Physical demands

    • Mental demands

    • Education requirements

    • Training and experience requirements

    • Working conditions

Step 2: Determine levels for each factor

• Education

• Responsibility

• Physical demands

Education

• High school degree or less

• Two-year college degree

• Bachelor's degree

• Master's degree

Responsibility

• Makes no decisions

• Makes decisions for self

• Makes decisions for 1-5 employees

• Makes decisions for more than 5 employees

Physical Demands

• Lifts no heavy objects

• Lifts objects between 25 and 100 pounds

• Lifts objects more than 100 pounds

Step 3: Determine factor weights

• Determine total number of points to distribute among factors

• Assign points to each factor

• Divide number of points assigned to a factor into each level

• Run regression (wage trend line) to determine how well points predict salary midpoints

• Used to identify jobs that are equitable, underpaid, and overpaid using the difference between the current salary and the wage trend line

Determining External Pay Equity

• Worth based on external market

• Determined through salary surveys

• Information obtained

  • Salary range

  • Starting salary

  • Actual salaries paid

  • Benefits