What are the Steps in Job Analysis

The seven steps of job analysis are:

The seven steps of job analysis 

1.            Determine the Use of the Job Analysis Information: Start by identifying the use to which the information will be put since this will determine the type of data you collect and the technique you use to collect them.

2.            Collection of Background Information:  According to Terry, “The make-up of a job, its relation to other jobs, and its requirements for competent performance are essential information needed for a job evaluation. This information can be had by reviewing available background information such as organization charts (which show how the job in question relates to other jobs and where they fit into the overall organization); class specifications (which describe the general requirements of the class of job to which the job under analysis belongs); and the existing job descriptions which provide a starting point from which to build the revised job description”.

3.            Selection of Jobs for Analysis: To do job analysis is a costly and time-consuming process. It is hence, necessary to select a representative sample of jobs for purposes of analysis. Priorities for various jobs can also be determined. A job may be selected because it has undergone undocumented changes in job content. The request for analysis of a job may originate with the employee, supervisor, or manager.

When the employee requests an analysis it is usually because new job demands have not been reflected in changes in wages. Employee’s salaries are, in part, based on the nature of the work that they perform. Some organizations establish a time cycle for the analysis of each job. For example, A job analysis may be required for all jobs every three years. New jobs must also be subjected to analysis.

4.            Collection of Job Analysis Data: Job data on features of the job, requited employee qualifications and requirements, should be collected either from the employees who actually perform a job; or from other employees (such as foremen or supervisors) who watch the workers doing a job and thereby acquiring knowledge about it; or from the outside persons, known as the trade job analysis who are appointed to watch employees performing a job. The duties of such a trade job analyst are (i) to outline the complete scope of a job and to consider all the physical and mental activities involved in determining what the worker does.; (ii) find out why a worker does a job; and for this purpose, he studies why each task is essential for the overall result; and (iii) the skill factor which may be needed in the worker to differentiate between jobs and establish the extent of the difficulty of any job.

5.            Processing the Information: Once job analysis information has been collected, the next step is to place it in a form that will make it useful to those charged with the various personnel functions. Several issues arise from this. First, how much detail is needed? Second, can the job analysis information be expressed in quantitative terms? These must be considered properly.

6.            Preparing Job Descriptions and Job Classifications: Job information that has been collected must be processed to prepare the job description form. It is a statement showing full details of the activities of the job. Separate job description forms may be used for various activities in the job and maybe compiled later on. The job analysis is made with the help of these description forms. These forms may be used as references for the future.

7.            Developing Job Specifications: Job specifications are also prepared based on information collected. It is a statement of minimum acceptable qualities of the person to be placed on the job. It specifies the standard by which the qualities of the person are measured. A job analyst prepares such statement by taking into consideration the skills required in performing the job properly. Such a statement is used in selecting a person matching the job.

      

  Methods for Collecting Job Analysis Data

As discussed earlier, information is to be collected for job analysis. Such information may be collected by the trained job analysis, superiors concerned, and job holders themselves. Job information is collected through the following methods:

1.            Participant Diary/Logs: Workers can be to keep participant diary/long lists of things they do during the day. For every activity he or she engages in, the employee records the activity (along with the time) in a log. This can provide you with a very comprehensive picture of the job, especially when it’s supplemented with subsequent interviews with the worker and his or her supervisor. This method provides more accurate information if done faithfully. However, it is quite time-consuming. Further, each job holder may maintain records according to his own way which presents problems in analysis at a later stage. Therefore, it has limited application.

2.            Interview: There are three types of interviews you can use to collect job analysis data: individual interviews with each employee; group interviews with groups of employees having the same job; and supervisor interviews with one or more supervisors who are thoroughly knowledgeable about the job being analyzed. The group interview is used when a large number of employees are performing similar or identical work since this can be a quick and inexpensive way of learning about the job. As a rule, the worker’s immediate supervisor would attend the group session; if not, you should interview the supervisor separately to get that person’s perspective on the duties and responsibilities of the job.

3.           

Critical Incidents: In this method, job holders are asked to describe incidents concerning the job based on their past experience. The incidents so collected are analyzed and classified according to the job areas they describe, A fair picture of actual job requirements can be obtained by distinguishing between effective and ineffective behaviors of workers on the job. However, this method is time-consuming.

The analyst requires a high degree of skill to analyze the contents of descriptions given by workers.

4.            Technical Conference Method: This method utilizes supervisors with extensive knowledge of the job. Here, specific characteristics of a job are obtained from the “experts.” Although it is a good data gathering method, it often overlooks the incumbent worker’s perception about what they do on their job.

5.            Job Performance:   Under this method, the job analyst actually performs the job understudy to get first-hand experience of the actual tasks, and physical and social demands of the job. This method can be used only for jobs where skill requirements are low and can be learned quickly and easily. This is a time-consuming method and is not appropriate for jobs requiring extensive training.

6.            Functional Job Analysis: Functional job analysis (JFA) is an employee- an oriented analytical approach to job analysis. This approach attempts to describe the whole person on the job. The main features of JFA include the following:

•        The extent to which specific instruction is necessary to perform the task

•        The extent to which reasoning and judgment are required to perform the task

•        The mathematical ability required to perform the task and

•        The verbal and language facilities required to perform the task.

7.            Observation Method: Using this method, a job analyst watches employees directly on the job. Observations are made on various tasks, activities, the pace at which tasks are carried out, and the way different activities are performed. This method is suitable for jobs that involve manual, standardized, and short job cycle activities. This method also requires that the entire range of activities be observable; possible with some jobs.

8.            Questionnaires: The method is usually employed by engineering consultants. Properly drafted questionnaires are sent out to job-holders for completion and are returned to supervisors. However, the information received is often unorganized and incoherent. The idea of issuing a questionnaire is to elicit the necessary information from job –holders so that any error may first be discussed with the employee and, after corrections, may be submitted to the job analyst.

 

	Questionnaire for Job Analysis
1.	Your Name ………..………..………..………..………..………..………..
2.	Title or Designation of your job …………………………………………
3.	Regular or Extra …………………………………………………………
4.	Your Department ……………………………………………………….
5.	To whom do you report directly (Name and Title): ………………………
6.	Description of work:  (a)  Daily Duties:  (b)  Periodical Duties:  (c)  Occasional Duties:
7.	Your knowledge Requirements:  (A)           Store Procedure and Methods:  (B)           Merchandise:
8.	What Equipment do you use?
9.	What Materials do you work with or sell?
10.	If you supervise the work of others, state how many and what their jobs are.
11.	To what job would you normally expect to be promoted?
12.	From what job were you transferred to your present job?

 

This technique is time-consuming and generally does not yield satisfactory results because many employees do not complete the questionnaire or furnish incorrect information because of their own limitations. The use of a questionnaire is recommended only in the case of those technical jobs where the job contents are not completely known to the supervisor or the operation is too complex to observe.

There are certain standardized questionnaires developed by a few agencies which are used by various organizations for job analysis. Most of these questionnaires are of two types: position analysis questionnaire and management position description questionnaire they are described as follows:

a. Position Analysis Questionnaire.  The position analysis questionnaire (PAQ) is a highly specialized instrument for analyzing a job in terms of employee activities. The PAQ developed by Purdue University is a comprehensive questionnaire for collecting information for job analysis.

In this questionnaire, various job elements have been grouped into six categories with each category containing relevant job elements resulting in 195 elements as shown in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1: Position Analysis Questionnaire

 

Job Aspects	No. of elements
Information input - Where and how do employees get information to do their job?	35
Mental processes- what reasoning, planning, organizing, and decision making is done?	14
Work output – what physical activities, tools, and machines are used?	49
Relationships – what contact with other people, both in the company and outside is maintained or developed?	36
Job context- what is the physical and social context in which the job is maintained?	19
Other job characteristics – what other activities, conditions, or Characteristics not covered by the categories are relevant?	42

 

The advantage of PAQ is that it provides a quantitative score or profile of any job in terms of how that job rates on the basic activities. The PAQ’s real strength is, thus, in classifying jobs. PAQ’s results can be used to compare the jobs relative to one another and pay levels can be assigned for each job.

The major problem with PAQ is the time it takes for a job analyst to fill out the ratings. However, PAQ has been widely researched and tested and appears to be both reliable and valid.

b. Management Position Description Questionnaire: Management position description is a highly structured questionnaire containing 208 items relating to managerial responsibilities, restrictions, demands, and other miscellaneous position characteristics. W.W. Tomov and P.R. Pinto have developed the following Management position Description factors:

•      Product, marketing, and financial strategic planning.

•      Coordination of other organization units and personnel

•      Internal business Control

•      Products and services responsibility

•      Public and customer relations

•      Advanced consulting        Autonomy of actions

•      Approval of financial commitments

•      Staff Service

•      Supervision

•      Complexity and stress

•      Advanced financial responsibility

•      Broad personnel responsibility

The above methods are the most popular ones for gathering job analysis data. They all provide realistic information about what job incumbents actually do. They can thus be used for developing job descriptions and job specifications. Caroll L. Shartle, Otis, and Lenhert have provided the following suggestions for making the job analyst’s task simple.

•      Introduce yourself so that the worker knows who you are and why you are there.

•      Show a sincere interest in the worker and the job that is analyzed;    Do not try to tell the employee how to do his job.

•      Try to talk to the employee and supervisors in their own language;

•      Do a complete job study within the objectives of the programmer: and  Verify the job information obtained.