JOB ANALYSIS

Job Analysis:

Job analysis is an investigation of the requirement for a particular job and characteristics and requirement related to those people who will perform these jobs or tasks.

Job Analysis by Tahir 2012

Job Description

Job description includes a particular job’s  key duties, authority, communication and reporting mechanism and working conditions in which a particular job occurs or being performed.

Job Specification

Job specification focuses on individuals who fill different jobs in an organization. It provide details about what type and level of  education, knowledge, skills, attitudes, personality and background required to  fill a particular job.

Objectives / Importance of Job Analysis

Importance of job analysis can be explained by the following points.

 Basis for HR Planning:

Job analysis forms basis for Human resource planning. In Human Resource planning the qualitative and quantitative requirements of human resource are calculated based on organizational requirements. Job analysis supplements HR planning by providing useful data about different types of jobs, their individual requirements and type of people needed to fill such jobs.  Without proper job analysis, human resource planning will be meaningless statistics with no use of it. 

Basis for Recruitment and Selection:

Job analysis helps recruitment and selection function by providing useful input about jobs and the type of candidate to fill such jobs. Without job analysis organization might end up recruiting wrong people for wrong jobs or may have no idea about how different jobs are linked together and how work is accomplished in organization. 

Importance of Job Analysis by Tahir 2012

Basis for Compensation:

Job analysis guide organization about how to select salary/pay related issues. It identifies relative worth of each job and thus helps compensation specialist or Human resource manager to assign right pay or grades to each job category. Without having a proper job analysis organization might end up paying too much or paying too little for different jobs thus creating a sense of unfairness among employees and loss of motivation and productivity.

Input to Training Function:

Job analysis provides detail information about what type of knowledge, skills, abilities, behavior needed to perform a specific job. Thus it provides input in to training needs analysis (TNA) function. It enables Training function to identify training needs for newly recruited staff as well as for old staff.  It also helps to determine level, type and quantity of training. 

Use for Managing and Judging Performance:

Job analysis form basis for Performance Management by providing basic criteria to judge employee’s performance and setting future targets. It helps to identify any performance gap between desired and actual performance and thus guides management to take necessary action to correct any performance issues.

Writing a Job Description:

Job Description provides information about a particular job. It can include the following

1.       Job Identification

It is mostly a first section just like an opening statement which mentions job title as well as key information such as location, organization name and status. It helps readers to quickly identify and scrutinize jobs which match with their individual circumstances.

2.       Job Summary

It is the summary of whole job description. It helps readers to identify in minimum time that whether he / she is suitable for this particular job or not. 

3.       Relationships

This section explains the relationship of a particular job with other jobs. It also mentions whom the job holder will be reporting, who will be the coworkers and whom the jobholder will supervise. This section also mentions any external stakeholders with whom the job holder will interact with.

4.       Responsibilities and Duties

It is the most important section or essence of job description. It describes the job holder’s key responsibilities, duties and area of authority. It explains the key work or function which job holder have to perform.  This section also include the job timing, shift pattern if any and the length of contract and the status of job such as permanent or temporary basis.

5.       Performance Criteria

Some job description includes performance criteria which mention the expected criteria for judging performance in the future. It can include qualitative terms such as maintaining interpersonal relations, teamwork, or quantitative terms such as dollar amount of sales and number of units to be sold during a particular time.

6.       Working Conditions

Some job description also include working conditions such as industry or factory environment,  International location, difficulties which can effect job holder’s health or capabilities to perform job and so on.  Finally the salary, taxation and other benefits are also mentioned in this section.

Writing a Job Specification

Job specification is about type of person/people required to fill a particular position. Mostly job specification includes the following;

1.       Education

Mostly in Services sector jobs, Education is an important feature of job specification. Mostly the required education for a particular position or job is based on common understanding.  E.g.  For an accountant jobs you need a degree in Accountancy and for the post of a manager you might need an MBA degree.

2.       Experience

Almost every employer wants experienced employees except for entry level or Fresh graduate positions. Experience become more important in manufacturing related jobs. In this section required general experience or experience of particular role is mentioned along with desired industry or sector in which experience is gained.

3.       Job- Related Behavior

It is been widely researched and confirmed in HR literature that to perform a job successfully you not only needs right education and experience but also needs required job related behaviors such as risk-taking, creativity, taking initiatives, hardworking, punctuality, compliance with policies, detail orientation and being highly social and interactive.  The presence or absence of such behavior can affect the performance of an individual for a particular job, therefore most job specification now clearly mention such job related behavior.