Job analysis

Job analysis

1. JOB ANALYSIS MANPREET SINGH (ASST. PROFESSOR) GNA BUSINESS SCHOOL

2. JOB A job may be defined as a “collection or aggregation of tasks, duties and responsibilities which as a whole, are regarded as a regular assignment to individual employees ”. In other words, when the total work to be done is divided and grouped into packages, we call it a “Job”.

3. JOB ANALYSIS It is a systematic analysis of each job for the purpose of collecting information as to what the job holder does, under what circumstances it is performed and what qualifications are required for doing the job.

4. DEFINITION OF JOB ANALYSIS Edwin Flippo : “Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and responsibility of a specific job ”. Harry 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”.

5. Uses of Job Analysis 1. Human resource planning 2 . Recruitment 3. Training and development 4. Placement and Orientation 5. Job evaluation 6 . Job design 7 . Performance appraisal 8 . Career planning 9 . Safety and health 10. Personnel Information

6. Uses of Job Analysis 1. Human Resource Planning: The estimates the quantity and quality of people will be required in future. How many and what type of people will be required depends on the jobs to be staffed. Job-related information available through job analysis is, therefore, necessary for human resource planning. 2. Recruitment and Selection: Recruitment succeeds job analysis. Basically, the goal of the human resource planning is to match the right people with the right job. This is possible only after having adequate information about the jobs that need to be staffed. It is job analysis that provides job information. Thus, job analysis serves as basis for recruitment and selection of employees in the organisation . 3. Training and Development: Job analysis by providing information about what a job entails i.e., knowledge and skills required to perform a job, enables the management to design the training and development programmes to acquire these job requirements. Employee development programmes like job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, etc.

7. Uses of Job Analysis 4. Placement and Orientation: As job analysis provides information about what skills and qualities are required to do a job, the management can gear orientation programmes towards helping the employees learn the required skills and qualities. It, thus, helps management place an employee on the job best suited to him/her. 5. Job Evaluation: The job evaluation refers to determination of relative worth of different jobs. It, thus, helps in developing appropriate wage and salary structures. Relative worth is determined mainly on the basis of information provided by job analysis. 6. Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal involves comparing the actual performance of an employee with the standard one, i.e., what is expected of him/her. Such appraisal or assessment serves as basis for awarding promotions, effecting transfers, or assessing training needs. Job analysis helps in establishing job standards which may be compared with the actual performance/contribution of each employee.

8. Uses of Job Analysis 7. Personnel Information: Increasing number of organizations maintain computerized informa­tion about their employees. This is popularly known as Human Resource Information System (HRIS). HRIS is useful as it helps improve administrative efficiency and provides decision support Information relating to human resources working in the organization is provided by job analysis only. 8. Health and Safety: Job analysis helps in identifying and uncovering hazardous conditions and unhealthy environmental factors such as heat, noise, fumes, dust, etc. and, thus, facilitates management to take corrective measures to minimise and avoid the possibility of accidents causing human injury

9. 9. Job design : it is the process of deciding on the content of a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities; on the methods to be used in carrying out the job, in terms of techniques, systems and procedures and on the relationships that should exist between the job holder and his superiors, subordinates and colleagues

10. Process of job analysis :

11. Process of job analysis : 1.  Organizational Job Analysis: Job analysis begins with obtaining pertinent information about a job’. This, according to Terry is required to know the makeup of a job, its relation to other jobs, and its contribution to performance of the organization . Such information can be had by dividing back­ground information in various forms such as organization charts i.e., how the particular job is related to other jobs; class specifications i.e., the general requirement of the job family; job description i.e., starting point to build the revised job description, and flow charts i.e., flow of activities involved in a particular job. 2. Selecting Representative Jobs for Analysis: Analyzing all jobs of an organization is both costly and time consuming. Therefore, only a representative sample of jobs is selected for the purpose of detailed analysis.

12. 3. Collection of Data for Job Analysis: In this step, job data features of the job and required qualifications of the employee are collected. Data can be collected either through questionnaire, observation or interviews. However, due care should be taken to select and use the method of data collection that is the most reliable in the given situation of the job. 4. Preparing Job Description: The job information collected in the above ways is now used to prepare a job description. Job description is a written statement that describes the tasks, duties and responsibilities that need to be discharged for effective job performance. 5. Preparing Job Specification: The last step involved in job analysis is to prepare job specifi­cation on the basis of collected information. This is a written statement that specifies the personal qualities, traits, skills, qualification, aptitude etc. required to effectively perform a job.

13. METHODS/TECHNIQUES OF JOB ANALYSIS 1. Observation 2. Interview 3. Questionnaire 4. Checklists 5. Critical incidents 6. Log Records/ Diaries 7. Technical Conference Method

14. Observation: Under this method, data is collected through observing an employee while at work. The job analyst on the basis of observation carefully records what the worker does, how he/she does, and how much time is needed for completion of a given task. This is the most reliable method of seeking first hand information relating to a job. This method is suitable for jobs that consist primarily of observable physical ability, short job cycle activities. The jobs of draftsman, mechanic, spinner or weaver are the examples of such jobs. However, the flip side of this method is that this method is not suitable for jobs that involve unobservable mental activities reveal overlaps and grey areas and have not complete job cycle.

15. Interview: In this method, the job analyst directly interviews the job holder through a structured interview form to elicit information about the job. This method is found suitable particularly for jobs wherein direct observation is not feasible. By way of directly talking to the job holder, the interviewer job analyst may extract meaningful information from the job holder about his/her job.

16. Questionnaire: Questionnaire method of job data collection is desirable especially in the following two situa­tions: First , where the number of people doing the same job is large and to personally interview them is difficult and impracticable. Second, where giving enough time to employees is desirable to enable them to divulge and explore the special aspects of the jobs. In this method, the employee is given structured questionnaire to fill in, which are then returned to the supervisors. The supervisor, after making the required and necessary corrections in the infor­mation contained in the questionnaire, submits the corrected information to the job analyst. Question­naire provides comprehensive information about the job. Information so obtained can be quantified and processed in the computer. The greatest advantage of the questionnaire method is that it enables the analyst to cover a large number of job holders in the shortest possible time. However, the method suffers from certain short­comings as well.

17. Checklists: The checklist method of job data collection differs from the questionnaire method in the sense that it contains a few subjective questions in the form of yes or no. The job holder is asked to tick the questions that are related to his/her job. Checklist can be prepared on the basis of job informa­tion obtained from various sources such as supervisors, industrial engineers, and other people who are familiar with the particular job. Once the checklist is prepared, it is then sent, to the job holder to check all the tasks listed in the list he/she performs. He/she is also asked to mention the amount of time spent on each task by him/her and the type of training and experience required to do each task. Information contained in checklist is, then, tabulated to obtain the job-related data.

18. Critical Incidents: This method is based on the job holder’s past experiences on the job. They are asked to recapitu­late and describe the past incidents related to their jobs. The incidents so reported by the job holders are, then, classified into various categories and analyzed in detail. Yes, the job analyst requires a high degree of skill to analyze the incidents appropriately described by the job holders. However, this method is also time-consuming one. Diaries or Log Records: In this method, the job holder is asked to maintain a diary recording in detail the job-related activities each day. If done judiciously, this method provides accurate and comprehensive information about the job. This overcomes memory lapses on the part of the job holder. As recording of activities may spread over several days, the method, thus, becomes time-consuming one.

19. Technical Conference Method: In this method, a conference is organised for the supervisors who possess extensive knowledge about job. They deliberate on various aspects of the job. The job analyst obtains job information from the discussion held among these experts/supervisors. The method consumes less amount of time. However, the main drawback of this method is that it lacks accuracy and authenticity as the actual job holders are not involved in collecting job information.

20. Job Description The preparation of job description is necessary before a vacancy is advertised . It tells in brief the nature of a job. In other words, it emphasizes the job requirements . Edwin Flippo : “Job Description is an organized factual statement of the duties and responsibilities of a specific job. It should tell what is to be done, how it is done and why.”

21. The details given in Job Description 1. Job Title 2 . Functions 3. Duties and Responsibilities 4. Nature of Supervision 5. Place of Job 6. Tools, Implements, Machines 7. Environment at Workplace 8. Future Prospects

22. The details given in Job Description Definition of unusual terms Conditions of work: Location, time, speed of work, accuracy, health hazards, accident hazards Training and development facilities Promotional chances and channels

23. Job Specification Job specification is based on job description . It is a written statement of qualifications , traits, physical and mental characteristics that an individual must possess to perform the job duties and discharge responsibilities effectively .

24. Definition of Job Specification Edwin Flippo : “Job Specification is a statement of minimum acceptable human qualities necessary to perform a job properly ”.

25. Job Specification covers: Educational and professional qualifications Skills Practical experience Physical fitness Special qualities required for performing the job Intelligence , judgement and initiative required for performing the job

26. Job Design Job design is defined by Michael Armstrong , “it is the process of deciding on the content of a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities ; on the methods to be used in carrying out the job, in terms of techniques, systems and procedures and on the relationships that should exist between the job holder and his superiors, subordinates and colleagues”.

27. Characteristics of Job Design Task Variety Task Identity Task Significance Autonomy Feedback

28. Task Variety: Task variety varies the tasks to be performed so that an individual employee can move from one job to another at various points of time. This makes it possible for the employees to move to different job verticals and such variations provide a change in both their mental activity as well as in their physical well-being. Change in mental activity takes place through movement from one job vertical to another (one job to another) and changes in the physical well-being take place through different body postures for different nature of jobs. Task Identity: Wherever possible, tasks should fit together to make a complete job, since this gives the employee a sense of doing a whole job from the beginning till the end, with a visible output. The important benefits derived from the task identity are that it can facilitate a worker to trace his/her performance to the overall goals and target the achievement of the organization. Workers can cultivate their sense of belongingness and can start realizing that they are the partners in the organizational progress.

29. Feedback: The last characteristic of job design is the provision for feedback. Feedback provides an opportunity to workers to understand their strengths and weaknesses and in the process helps them to mature and achieve greater perfection in future job assignments. Many organizations provide automated feedback systems, so that workers can self-assess their extent of performance.

30. Task Significance: By establishing task significance, organizations can make workers feel that they have achieved something meaningful in course of their working. This establishes their importance and enhances their self-esteem. Workers can autonomously contribute to the organizational growth and prosperity, once they understand their task significance. This requires organizations to value each task by inculcating a culture of mutual respect. Autonomy: To ensure autonomy in job design, organizations should wherever possible, give inputs to their employees, on how their jobs should be done—the order of tasks, the speed of work, etc. Thereafter, these employees should be given a free hand, by reducing the extent of supervision and control so that they start realizing that they are doing their own jobs and that they are the job owners.

31. Methods and Techniques of Job Design Job Rotation Job Enlargement Job Enrichment Sub-Contracting

32. Job Rotation: Job rotation involves a periodic vertical and horizontal movement of the groups of employees between a set of jobs or tasks. Job rotation, therefore, provides some relief from boredom and monotony of doing the same jobs or tasks repeatedly. However, this requires organizations to initiate multi- skilling of employees through continuous training and learning activities. In some organizations, we get the opportunity for skill interchangeability, due to the commonality of tasks or jobs. However, in some other organizations, the scope of skill interchangeability may be very little, due to the specialized nature of jobs. In the second case, multi-skilling initiatives can provide the results.

33. Job Enlargement: Job enlargement is the horizontal expansion of jobs and it involves the grouping of a variety of jobs within a job rather than between jobs. Obviously, the time cycle of the job, that is the time taken to complete a job increases. For example, a particular employee may be required to perform some similar tasks or jobs of several employees in an assembly line. To some extent, it may increase the job load, but employees can autonomously feel satisfied with the variety and develop their sense of responsibility, realizing their importance in the organization. Since in this process jobs are horizontally integrated keeping in view the skill compatibility, organizations can also derive the benefit of cost optimization, by making people work with more responsibility.

34. Job Enrichment: Job enrichment is another important process of job design or redesign, which reverses the effects of repetitive tasks. Employees develop fatigue by doing repetitive tasks again and again. Boredom and lack of flexibility in jobs make them feel dissatisfied. Through vertical expansion of jobs, job enrichment expands the scope of jobs and employees feel more motivated and self-sufficient. For the variety of exposure to jobs or tasks, employees can also groom themselves for future higher positions.

35. Sub-Contracting: Sub-contracting is another form of autonomous work group, but in this process, workers no longer remain on the pay roll of the organizations. They form their own organizations and become self-employed. Here, workers become fully responsible for the results. Within organizations, such an arrangement can be made by making the work design more specific and measurable for the pricing of jobs and fixing of responsibility. These apart, it is important for organizations to understand that work undergoes constant modification because of frequent technological changes. While designing a job, management must also consider the practical aspects of the quantity and quality of manpower available (both within and outside the organization).

36. Factor affecting Job Design 1. Extent of job specialization 2. Degree of changing technology 3. Prevailing labour -union policies 4. Abilities of present employees 5. Adequate availability of potential manpower 6. Inter-activity between the jobs and systems 7. Psychological and social needs of the job