Job analysis, contains a simple term called "analysis", which means detailed study or examination of something (job) in order to understand more about it (job). therefore job analysis is to understand more about a specific job in order to optimize it. Job analysis is a systematic process of collecting complete information pertaining to a job. Job analysis is done by job analyst who is an officer have been trained for it.
Job analysis
is a procedure through which you determine the duties and responsibilities, nature of the jobs and finally to decide qualifications, skills and knowledge to be required for an employee to perform particular job. Job analysis helps to understand what tasks are important and how they are carried on. Job analysis forms basis for later HR activities such as developing effective training program, selection of employees, setting up of performance standards and assessment of employees ( performance appraisal)and employee remuneration system or compensation plan.
Definitions of Job Analysis
Some important definitions of job-analysis are as under :
Harry L. Wylie. "Job analysis deals with the anatomy of the job.....This is the complete study
of the job embodying every known and determinable factor, including the duties and
responsibilities involved in its performance; the conditions under which performance is
carried on; the nature of the task; the qualifications required in the worker; and the conditions
of employment such as pay, hours, opportunities and privileges"
Ale Yoder. "A Job is a collection of duties, tasks and responsibilities which
are assigned to an individual and which is different from other assignment"
According to Michael J. Jucius, "Job analysis refers to the process of studying the operations,
duties and organisational aspects of jobs in order to derive specification or, as they are called
by some job description"
Edwin B. Flippo, "Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting
information relating to the operations and responsibilities of a specific job "
According to Blum, "A job analysis is an accurate study of the various components of a job. It
is concerned not only with an analysis of the duties and conditions of work, but also with the
individual qualifications of the worker."
One of the first industrial-organizational psychologists to introduce job analysis was Morris
Viteles. In 1922, he used job analysis in order to select employees for a trolley car company. The intention behind job analysis is to answer questions such as
- What is the need of the job to exist?
OBJECTIVES OF JOB ANALYSIS
IMPORTANCE OF JOB ANALYSIS
- Organizational structure and design :- Job analysis helps the organization to make suitable changes in the organizational structure, so that it matches the needs and requirements of the organization. Duties are either added or deleted from the job.
- Recruitment and selection :-Job analysis provides information about what the job entails and what human characteristics are required to perform these activities. This information, in the form of job descriptions and specifications, helps management decide what sort of people to recruit and hire.
- Performance appraisal and training/development :- Based on the job requirements identified in the job analysis, the company decides a training program. Training is given in those areas which will help to improve the performance on the job. Similarly when appraisal is conducted we check whether the employee is able to work in a manner in which we require him to do the job.
- Job evaluation :- Job evaluation refers to studying in detail the job performance by all individual. The difficulty level
- Skills required and on that basis the salary is fixed. Information regarding qualities required, skilled levels, difficulty levels are obtained from job analysis.
- Promotions and transfer :- When we give a promotion to an employee we need to promote him on the basis of the skill and talent required for the future job. Similarly when we transfer an employee to another branch the job must be very similar to what he has done before. To take these decisions we collect information from job analysis.
- Career path planning :- Many companies have not taken up career planning for their employees. This is done to prevent the employee from leaving the company. When we plan the future career of the employee, information will be collected from job analysis. Hence job analysis becomes important or advantageous.
- Labour relations :- When companies plan to add extra duties or delete certain duties from a job, they require the help of job analysis, when this activity is systematically done using job analysis the number of problems with union members reduce and labour relations will improve.
- Health and safety :- Most companies prepare their own health and safety, plans and programs based on job analysis. From the job analysis company identifies the risk factor on the job and based on the risk factor safety equipments are provided.
- Acceptance of job offer :- When a person is given an offer/appointment letter the duties to be performed by him are clearly mentioned in it, this information is collected from job analysis, which is why job analysis becomes important.
METHODS OF JOB ANALYSIS
The information, about the duties, responsibilities and activities of a job, can be collected
through a number of techniques. According to the requirements, these techniques can be used
in isolation or the activities can be combined with one another. Performing job analysis is a
joint effort by the HR specialist, worker, supervisor, and managers. The work of observation,
analysis and developing job specification and description is performed by HR specialist,
while the questionnaires are filled by the workers and supervisors. The ultimate purpose of all
the job analysis methods is to develop job description and job specification. Interviews,
observations, diary logs and questionnaires are among the popular methods of collecting job
analysis information. However, all these methods provide realistic information about the
content and human requirement of the job. The various job analysis methods are enumerated
as below:
1. PERSONAL OBSERVATION:
Under this method, the job analyst watches and observes the person, performing the job, and
takes notes to describe the tasks and performed duties. During a complete work cycle, various
aspects, like, the tasks performed, the working conditions, the hazards involved, and the pace
at which the activities are carried out etc., are observed by the job analyst. For the jobs, that
involve manual/physical, standardized and short job cycle activities, this method is very much
suitable. Machine operator, bus driver, flight attendant, house keeper are examples of such
jobs. However, there are many aspects of a job that involve mental process and unforeseen
circumstances, cannot be directly observed by this method. This method also involves
personal biases, likes or dislikes, as every person has their own way of observing the things,
and different people think differently and interpret the findings differently. The efficiency and
effectiveness of this method depends on job analyst, whether the job analyst is skilled enough
to know what to observe and how to analyze what has been observed.
Advantages:
- This method provides firsthand knowledge and information about the job that is being analyzed, as compare to other method of job analysis, in which the information is obtained indirectly.
- By this method, job analyst is able to see the actual work environment, tools and equipment used, inter relationship among workers and the complexity of the job.
- This method is very simple.
- Verification of the data, collected through this method, can be done through other sources.
Disadvantages:
- In the presence of an observer, the incumbent may alter their normal work behaviour, if they know that they are being observed. All this reduces the effectiveness of this method.
- For the jobs, that involves significant amount of mental efforts, this method is not very suitable.
- Job analyst may not be skilled enough to know what to observe and how to analyze what has been observed.
- This method is very time consuming.
2. INTERVIEW
This technique involves discussion between job analyst and job occupants. Through this
method, the occupants can come up with their own style of working, problems faced by them,
use of particular skills and techniques while performing their job, and insecurities and fear
about their career. This method enables the interviewer to know exactly what an employee
thinks about his or her job. This method actually involves analysis of the job by the employee
himself.
Interviews can be individual interview or group interview. Individual interviews are one to
one basis whereas interviews with two or more occupants in a group are group interview.
Interview with a small panel of experts such as, supervisors or long time employees are called Interviews can be unstructured or structured. In unstructured interviews, the questions and
the area of discussions are unspecified. In structured interview, each point for discussion is
clearly laid down. There is a possibility that all aspects of a job are covered in an interview by
using structured format. Generally, a standard format is used to collect the information from
different employees so that the information can be used to identify the common and critical
aspects of the job.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
3. Questionnaire:
In this method of collecting job analysis information, a questionnaire is developed and given
to the employees and supervisors / managers, to provide the answers. This questionnaire is
related to the nature of duties, tasks and responsibilities, related to the job. The questionnaire
can be of two types: structured questionnaire and unstructured questionnaire. Structured
questionnaire is like checklists. Each employee gets an inventory of perhaps hundreds of
specific duties or tasks. Employee is required to answer whether he or she performs each task
or not, and if performs, how much time is normally spent on each one. The unstructured
questionnaire is open ±ended that simply asks the employees to describe the major duties of
their job. The best questionnaire generally falls between the two extremes. A questionnaire is
a quick and efficient method of collecting information from a large number of employees.
This method is less costly as compare to the interviewing method of collecting information.
But this method is expensive and time consuming.
Various organizations use standardized questionnaires that have been developed by some
agency. Most of these questionnaires are of two types: 1) Position analysis questionnaire 2)
Management position description questionnaire, which are discussed as follows:
Management Position Description Questionnaire: Managerial jobs differ in character, from other jobs, with clearly identifiable routines and
procedures. Therefore, some specialized methods have evolved for their analysis. One of
widely used methods, known as management position description questionnaire, was
developed by a computer company. This is a structured questionnaire, containing 208 items,
related to the responsibilities, restrictions, demands, and other miscellaneous position
characteristics of the managers. These 208 items have been grouped under 13 categories as:
4. Diary or Log of Job Incumbent:
5. Checklists:
The appearance of questionnaire and checklists is similar but the checklist is more structured
than a questionnaire. A checklist contains fewer subjective judgments and tends to be either
yes or no variety but a questionnaire depends on the job holders to provide narrative
description of the tasks, skills, knowledge, abilities, working conditions etc., involved in the
performance of their job. A checklist includes a large number of activities and the job holder
is required to tick only those activities that are included in their jobs. The preparation of
checklists requires a lot of efforts by the specialists who prepares this list. While preparing
this list, all the relevant information about the job can be collected by asking the supervisors,
industrial engineers and other familiar with the work. After the preparation of the checklist it
is sent to the job holder. The responses of the job holder are clustered by applying some
statistical methods and then that will be the basis for tabulating job related data.
This method of collecting job related information is very useful in large firms that have a
large number of employees, assigned to one particular job. This technique is amenable to
tabulation and recording on electronic equipment. However, this technique is very costly and
not suitable for small firms.