HRMN Assignment

Researching and Writing Job Analyses

Job (work) analysis is simply gathering information on a particular function in an organization

and organizing that information in such a way that an organization's jobs are well defined for

legal and management purposes. Good job analyses are important in making an organization

more efficient and effective, and they are also used to provide a supervisory structure and a

basis for pay rates in an organization. Job analyses are an important, information-providing

component to the strategic planning process. The ultimate purpose of job analyses is to make

the organization more productive and profitable.

A job analysis looks at the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that are needed to perform a

particular job in an organization. A job is the tasks that an individual must perform to be

successful in helping the organization succeed in meeting its strategic goals. Knowledge is the

information the person needs to perform a job. Skills are tasks in which an individual needs to

apply psychomotor actions to perform adequately. Ability is the proven competence to

adequately perform a task.

An example to illustrate these terms is driving a truck for an organization. Potential truck drivers

must have knowledge about the way a truck operates and must also pass a written test to prove

to a government agency that they have this knowledge. These truck drivers may also have to

prove that they have the skill to drive a truck by passing an "on-the-road" test of their skills.

When truck drivers have a position, they have to prove their ability to take the truck and its load

from one place in the country to another in a safe and efficient manner.

Job analyses should be:

• observable

• not dependent on individual behavior

• valid

• consistent

There are three specific, legal uses for job analyses:

1. A job analysis can be used to help define whether a position is exempt or nonexempt for

overtime provisions of the FLSA. The definition of duties and responsibilities that comes

from a good job analysis makes it easy for an organization to support the classification of

a position as exempt or nonexempt under Department of Labor (DOL) guidelines.

2. A job analysis will define the essential job functions of a position as required under the

ADA. If a good job analysis is accomplished, it will be easy to list essential job functions

in the job description as required by the ADA.

3. A job analysis will clearly define, for the worker and for the organization, what the duties

are for any position in the organization. These duties can be stated clearly and be

required for new employees to read and understand. This should help to alleviate any

misunderstandings about what is expected of an employee holding a position in the

organization.

If an organization does not have good job analyses for its positions, it is asking for legal trouble.

Job analyses, or the lack thereof, are often the focus of lawsuits. An organization protects itself

from legal trouble by having good, scientifically valid job analyses.

Job analyses also have specific management uses:

• Managers can use job analyses to classify positions and place those positions in an appropriate relationship with each other. Job analyses will define which positions should

be supervisory and who should report to which supervisors.

• Job analyses can be the basis for setting up a compensation plan for people in the organization. Once the positions are classified in relationship to each other, it is easier to

place any of the positions at a fair compensation level.

• Job analyses help to define which employee should be doing what. This makes the everyday decisions as to who should be doing what work in an organization much easier.

• Job analyses are often used as the basis for employee evaluations. If the duties for a position are clearly defined using a good job analysis, those defined duties are a good

starting point for designing evaluations for the individual positions in the organization.

Basically, job analyses can make an organization more efficient and effective. The time and

expenditure put into job analyses will almost always be repaid in having more efficient

management functions.

The job analysis is the actual gathering and organizing of the data needed to define the duties of

positions in an organization. A job description is briefer than a job analysis and identifies what

the duties, tasks, and responsibilities, are for a position and to whom a person holding a position

will report. Job specifications define the KSAs that are needed to do a job and are used to

define the qualifications one must have to be hired or promoted.

There are many methods that may be used to do a job analysis. It is often best to have someone

objective from outside the organization do them because job analyses can have internal political

pressures put on them that might make them invalid. The courts will also take job analyses more

seriously if they know that they have been conducted by an objective outside source. All

methods of job analysis will have some qualitative aspects, but it is best to make job analyses as

quantitative as possible because if the organization has to defend the job analyses, the court will

give the quantitative data more credibility.

Common methods of job analysis are questionnaires, observation, having an analyst work

the job and then analyze it, interviewing individuals and groups that perform the jobs,

and using diaries or logs of workers who have performed the jobs. All of these methods

have their strengths and weaknesses. If a person holding a job is aware that the job they are

doing is being analyzed, they may perform the job differently as they are observed or

interviewed. Most people behave differently when they know others are studying them, so it is

difficult to get accurate job analyses when depending on information from people who already

perform the job. Using outsiders to analyze the job may be more objective, but often they do not

know the job's entire context and so may omit important aspects of it from the analysis. Also, at

this time it is inadvisable to use job-trait techniques or behavioral techniques, because in recent

years the courts have been dubious about them.

Among the many tools that can be used for performing job analyses are the Position Analysis

Questionnaire (PAQ), Functional Job Analysis (FJA), Job Compatibility Questionnaire

(JCQ), and Work Progress Mapping (WPM). The best tool to use depends on the

organization's particular needs and situation. FJA works well for classifying jobs, or job design. PAQ works well for job evaluation and is probably the simplest and least expensive method. Be

aware of the O*NET site, which has a wealth of information about jobs and the skills needed to

do them. Also be aware of the DOL's Occupational Outlook Handbook, which uses the Dictionary

of Occupational Titles.

It is easy to get wrapped up in the specifics of doing job analyses and forget why we do them.

The main reason stated for doing job analyses is to provide information to comply with legal and

ethical requirements. Another equally important reason is to provide information to managers so

that they can organize the company to be more efficient and effective. Behind all of the great

reasons for job analyses, however, is that job analyses are an important component in the

strategic-planning process for an organization. The information gathered from job analyses is

essential to the development of good strategic plans.