Job Analysis & Design

Job analysis is the process of gathering detailed information about jobs by determining the
duties, tasks or activities of the jobs. Job analysis is an important activity to HR managers
that it has been used the data to develop job specifications and job descriptions; these are the
basis for enhancing the different HRM functions such as employee performance appraisal and
development.

Job specifications talking about the person’s attitude, skills and knowledge is to perform the
job. Job descriptions talking about the duties, task and responsibilities of a job to be
performed.

The main purpose of conducting job analysis is to prepare job specifications and job
descriptions in such a way helps to hire the right person for the right job. And second is to
improve the organizational performance and productivity ultimately.

According to US Labor Department, “Job Analysis is the process of determining, by

observation and study and reporting pertinent information relating to the nature of a
specific job. It is the determination of the tasks which comprise the job and skills,
knowledge, abilities, and responsibilities required of the worker for a successful
performance and which differentiates one job from all others.”

Relationship of job requirements to other HRM functions:

Job: A group of related activities and duties.

Position: The different duties and responsibilities performed by only one employee.

Job family: A group of individual jobs with similar characteristics. For the purpose of,

1. Recruitment:

Recruitment is the process of identifying the prospective employees and also it attracts,
stimulates and encouraging them to apply for a particular job or jobs in the organization
with the help of job specifications. It is a positive action as it invites qualified applicants
and discouraging unqualified ones.

Factors Governing Recruitment

External Factors:
• Demand and Supply (Specific Skills)
• Unemployment Rate (Area-wise)
• Labor Market Conditions
• Political and Legal Environment (Reservations, Labor laws)
• Image
Internal Factors:
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 Recruitment Policy (Internal Hiring or External Hiring?)

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• Human Resource Planning (Planning of resources required)

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 • Size of the Organization (Bigger the size lesser the recruitment problems)
• Cost and Growth and Expansion Plans.

Process of recruitment:

Before you think of inviting people to apply for a job you have to decide what type of
persons are to be invited and what their characteristics should be. This calls for fixing
the “job specifications” which may also call, “man specifications”.

Job specifications are based on job description which is dependent upon the nature
and requirements of a job. Thus, job specification will be difficult for each job.

Various elements of job specifications:

I. Physical specifications: for certain jobs some special features may be

required. For example, selection process of Military services. The particular
physical abilities and skills necessary for a given job have to be specified. It
refers to height, weight, eye sight, vision, voice, age-range, poise and etc.
II. Mental specifications: these include intelligence, memory, judgement, ability
to plan, to estimate, to read, to write, to think and concentrate, scientific
facilities, arithmetic abilities, etc. as per the requirements of jobs such abilities
and move important ones should be specified.
III. Emotional and Social specifications: these include characteristics which will
affect his working with others, like personal appearance, manners, emotional
stability, aggressiveness, extroversion or introversion, initiative and drive,
skills in dealing with others, social adaptability and etc.
IV. Behavioural specifications: A person has to apply for certain kind of jobs or
positions at higher levels, managements are expected to behave in a particular
manner in all situations. These are not specified or listed in the job
specifications but have to keep in mind during the process of recruitment,
selection, and placement.

2. Selection:

It is a process of choosing the right person for the right job and evaluates his/her
qualification, experience and other qualities with the view matching with the
organizations requirements and eliminating others. Basically it involves rejection of
unsuitable or less suitable applicants. This may be done the following ways.

I. Screening process: This is a sorting process in which prospective applicants

are given the necessary information about the nature of job and also,
information elected from the candidates about his /her qualifications,
experience, personal data, skills, salary expectations etc. if the candidate is
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found to be suitable, he is selected for further process and if not he is

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 eliminated. Presently most of the companies, Govt. Organizations must follow
the screening process.
II. Selection test (written test): A test is a sample of an aspect of an individual
behaviour, performance and attitude. And also it is a systematic process of
comparing the behaviour of two or more persons in such way ability, skills,
and knowledge can be accurately measured.

The main purpose of conducting the selection test to eliminate the un

knowledgeable, unskilled and untalented person. Now a day’s organizations
conducted the following basis. Such as Screening, Written test, Group
discussion and Final interview.

Fig.1. Selection Process

3. Training and Development:

Training refers to a planned effort by a company to facilitate learning of job related

(knowledge, skills, and observation) competencies. The goal of training is for employees
to master the knowledge, skills, and behaviour emphasized in training program and to
apply them to their day-to-day activities. Development as a part of the training function is
concerned with preparing employees for advancement to jobs in such a way formal
education, job experience, relationship and assessment of personality and abilities can be
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utilized to the talent extent possible.

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 Training Development
Focus Current or Short-time Future
Use of work Low High
experience
Goal Preparation for current job Preparation for changes
Participation Required Voluntary

4. Performance appraisal:

A performance appraisal compares each employee’s actual performance with his or her
performance standards. Managers use job analysis to determine the job’s specific
activities and performance standards.

5. Compensation management:

HR manager in determining the rate to be paid for performing a job, the relative worth of
the job is one of the most important factors for estimating the value of each job and its
appropriate compensation. Job analysis plays a vital role in determines the scale pay and
extra perks benefits and allowances (incentives) of employees. The scale pay depends on
the position, job title, duties and responsibilities involved in a job.

Methods of data collection:

1. Interview method: This method is probably the most widely used method for
identifying a jobs duties and responsibilities. Managers use 3 types of interviews to
collect the data.
 Individual interview with each employee.
 Group interview with groups of employees who have the same job.
 And supervisor interviews with one or more supervisors who know the job.
They use group interview when a large number of employees are performing similar
tasks. Since it can be a quick and inexpensive way to gather information about the jon
under review.
Some types of interview questions are,
 What are the major duties of your position? What exactly do you do?
 What are the job responsibilities?
 What are the health and safety precautions? And its conditions?
 Are you exposed to any hazards or unusual working conditions?
 What are the responsibilities and duties for you? And what are the
environmental and working conditions involved?
2. Questionnaires method: The job analyst may circulate carefully prepared
questionnaires are structured checklists to be filled out individually by the person or
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manager. These checklists or forms will be used to obtain data in the areas of job
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duties, tasks, purpose of jobs, requirements for performing job (education, skills,

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 physical and mental demands) equipment and materials used, and special health and
safety concern.
3. Observation method: The job analyst may learn about the jobs by observing and
recording on a standardized form the activities of jobholders (person). Video tapping
jobs for latest study is an approach used by some organizations.
4. Diaries/logs: Daily listings made by workers of every activities in which they engage
along with the time each activity tasks. But presently not used.

Approaches to job analysis:

1. Position Analysis Questionnaires (PAQ): The PAQ is a standardized job analysis
questionnaires contain 194 items representing work behaviours, conditions, and job
characteristics that across a wide variety of jobs.
The 194 items are organized into 6 sections, and the job analysis is asked to rate each
item on six scales. A computer program generates a job report based on the ratings.
The results obtained with the PAQ are quantitative and can be subjected to statistical
analysis. The six sections are,
Information input –where and how a worker gets information needed to
perform a job.
Mental process –the reasoning, decision making, planning, and information
processing activities that are involved in performing a job.
Work output –the physical activities, tools, and devices used by the worker to
perform the job.
Relationships with other persons –it is required to perform a job.
Job context –the physical and social contexts where the work is performed.
Other characteristics –the activities, conditions, and characteristics other than
those previously described that are relevant to the job.
2. Critical incident method: the main objective is to identify critical job tasks.
3. Task analysis inventory: The inventory method –CODAP method has SMEs generate
a list of tasks and then the SMEs rate each task on various dimensions such as the
time spent on the task, frequency of task performance, relative importance of task, and
relative difficulty of the task.
The Task Analysis Inventory (TAI) method is different from the CODAP method.
Once the task list is developed the SMEs are asked to identify the skills, abilities, and
personal characteristics required to perform each task.
4. Functional Job Analysis (FJA): In this method helps in collecting and recording job
–related data to a deeper extent developed by Sidney Fine and his colleagues. This
technique used for determining the complexity of duties, and responsibilities involved
in a specific job. Complexity work is determined on a scale of various scores given to
a particular job. The lower scores represent greater difficulty.
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 Job description:
The format of job descriptions various widely, of course it is a written statement of what
the worker actually does, how he or she does it, and what are the jobs working conditions
are. There is no standard format for writing a job description.

As a minimum, job description should contain a job title, job identification and essential
functions (job duties) section. A job specification section may be included.

 Job title –it specifies the name of the job such as production supervisor, marketing
manager, Assistant executive manager-HR, and etc.
 Job identifications –it includes such items as the department, location of the job,
the date on job description was written, and prepared by indicates who wrote it.
Sometimes it contains scale pay, job code, total number of vacancies, and the
number of employees in the department where the job is located.
 Job duties or essential functions –it describes the nature of the job, and includes
only its major functions or activities. This statement stresses the responsibilities
and duties of a particular job. Job duties section must comply with law by listing
only essential function of the job to be performed.
 Job specifications –it covers two areas.
The skills required to perform a job.
The physical demands the job places on the employee perform a job.

Skills refers to a job include education, experience, special training, personal

traits or abilities etc. physical demands of a job refers to how much workers
must be done the job.

Job specifications also include interpersonal skills, specific behavioural

attributes towards job success.

Job design

Job design is the process of improving the job analysis activity which integrates work content
(task, functions, relationship) through technological and human considerations in order to
enhance organization efficiency, productivity and employee job abilities for each job
satisfaction.
Job design is a combination of four basic considerations.
1. Organizational objectives
2. Industrial engineering considerations.
3. Ergonomic considerations
4. Behavioural considerations.
Behavioural considerations –that influence an employee’s satisfaction. The job enrichment
model and job characteristics model to satisfy the intrinsic needs of employee’s.
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Job enrichment: psychologist Fredrick Herzberg states that the best way to motivate
workers is to build opportunities for challenge and achievement into their job via job
enrichment.
Job enrichment means redesigning a job by adding more meaningful tasks and duties in such
a way that increase the opportunity for the worker and fulfils the high motivational needs of
employees such as self-fulfilment and self esteem, while achieving long-term job satisfaction
and performance goals.
Herzberg motivational theory through job enrichment:
1. Increasing the level of difficulty and responsibility of the job.
2. Allowing employees to retain more authority and control over work outcomes.
3. Providing unit or individual job performance reports directly to employees.
4. Adding new tasks to the job that require training and growth.
5. Assigning individuals specific tasks, thus enabling them to become experts.
These factors allow employees to assume a greater role in decision making and involved in
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling their own work.
An enriched job very will have more responsibility, more autonomy (vertical enrichment),
and more variety of tasks (vertical expansion or horizontal enrichment) and more
opportunities.
Vertical enrichment of job may be accomplished by organizing workers into teams and
giving these teams greater authority for self-management. Vertical expansion of job may be
accomplished by increasing the autonomy and responsibility of employees.

Job characteristics model:

According to Hackman and Oldham, three critical psychological states affects a person’s
motivational of satisfaction of job, job holder result in improved work performance, internal
motivation and lower absenteeism and turnover.

A motivated, satisfied, and productive employee,

i. Experienced meaningfulness of the work performed
ii. Experience responsibility for work outcomes and
iii. Knowledge of the results of the work performed.

All 3 psychological states are positive and strongly motivate an employee through
meaningfulness, responsibility and feedback. The job characteristics model exhibits the five
core dimensions of the job. Such as,

1. Skill variety: The degree to which a job entails a variety of different activities in
carrying out the work and which use different skills and talents of the jobholder.
2. Task identity: The degree to which the job the job requires completion of a whole
and identifiable piece of work, which is doing a job from beginning to end with a
visible outcome.
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 3. Task significance: The degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives
or work of other people.
4. Autonomy: The degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence,
and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determines the
procedures to be used in carrying it out.
5. Feed back: The degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job
results in the individual being given direct and clear information about effectiveness
of his/her performance.
The first three dimensions contribute to jobs meaningfulness. The degree of autonomy
provides feeling of personal responsibility for work outcomes. The amount of feedback
provides knowledge of results.

Employee empowerment: It is a technique of involving employees in their work through the

person of inclusion and allows employees to initiate their own job changes, encouraging them
to become innovators and managers of their own work, and it involves autonomous decision
making capabilities.
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Industrial engineering considerations: Industrial engineering concerned with analyzing

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work methods and establishing time standards. Specifically, it involves the study of work

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cycles to determine which, if any, elements can be modified, combined, rearranged, or
eliminated to reduce the time needed to complete the cycle. Next, time standards are
established by recording the time required to complete each element in the work cycle, using
a stop-watch sampling technique.

Ergonomic: It refers to matching the job with physical ability and characteristics of the
individual and improving an office environment which will help the person to complete the
jobs faster and in a comfortable manner. Ergonomic attempts to minimize the harmful effects
of carelessness, negligence, and other human fallibilities that otherwise may cause product
defects, damage to equipment, or even the injury or death of employees.
The Indian Society of Ergonomics established in 1983, and is affiliated to International
Ergonomics Association (IEA). This society offered ergonomics and allied studies, research
and training in India, for the benefit of the people at work, to improve their welfare and
quality of life. Certain Indian organizations use an ergonomics –based approach while
designing a work environment for their employees. For example, Kodak and many
IT/Software companies have adopted ergonomics.

Job design approaches

The vertical axis denotes the impact dimension, which means the degree to which a job
design approach is linked to factors beyond the immediate job such as reward systems,
performance appraisal methods, leadership practices, customer needs, organizational
structure, and physical working conditions these all likely effect on changes in effectiveness
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and quantity.
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The horizontal axis denotes complexity dimension, is the degree to which a job design
approach requires,
1) Changes in many factors,
2) The involvement of individuals with diverse competencies at various organizational
levels.
3) A high level of decision-making competency of successful implementation.

Job rotation: It means systematically moving works from one job to another. Job rotation is
low in both impact and complexity because it typically moves employees from one job to
another. The main advantage is to develop multiple skills in employees, which benefits the
organizations while designing a job and carrier option for the employees.

Advantages of job rotation

1. Avoids monopoly :- Job rotation helps to avoid monopoly of job and enable the
employee to learn new things and therefore enjoy his job
2. Provides an opportunity to broaden one’s knowledge: - due to job rotation the person
is able to learn different job in the organization this broadens his knowledge.
3. Avoiding fraudulent practice: - In an organization like bank jobs rotation is
undertaken to prevent employees from doing any kind of fraud i.e. if a person is
handling a particular job for a very long time he will be able to find loopholes in the
system and use them for his benefit and indulge ( participate ) in fraudulent practices
job rotation avoids this.

Disadvantages of Job Rotation

1. Frequent interruption: - Job rotation results in frequent interruption of work .A
person who is doing a particular job and gets it comfortable suddenly finds himself
shifted to another job or department .this interrupts the work in both the departments.
2. Reduces uniformity in quality :- Quality of work done by a trained worker is
different from that of a new worker .when a new worker I shifted or rotated in the
department, he takes time to learn the new job, makes mistakes in the process and
affects the quality of the job.
3. Misunderstanding with the union member: - Sometimes job rotation may lead to
misunderstanding with members of the union. The union might think that employees
are being harassed and more work is being taken from them. In reality this is not the
case.

Job engineering: In 19th century, Frederick [Link] established the basis of Industrial
engineering approach. It attempts on the tasks to be performed, methods to be used, workflow
among employees, layout of workplace, performance standards and independences between
people and machine.

Job enlargement: It means assigning workers additional same level activities, thus
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increasing the number of activities they perform.

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Job enlarge combine into one job with two or more tasks which are to be performed.
Sometimes it is called “Horizontal loading” as all tasks involve the same level of
responsibility. The main advantage is to learn more than one task, increase the value of
employees, organization offer training programme.

Advantages of job enlargement

1. Variety of skills: - Job enlargement helps the organization to improve and increase the
skills of the employee due to organization as well as the individual benefit.
2. Improves earning capacity: - Due to job enlargement the person learns many new
activities. When such people apply for jobs to other companies they can bargain for
more salary.
3. Wide range of activities: - Job enlargement provides wide range of activities for
employees. Since a single employee handles multiple activities the company can try
and reduce the number of employee’s. This reduces the salary bill for the company.

Disadvantages of job enlargement

1. Increases work burden: - Job enlargement increases the work of the employee and
not every company provides incentives and extra salary for extra work. Therefore the
efforts of the individual may remain unrecognized.
2. Increasing frustration of the employee: - In many cases employees end up being
frustrated because increased activities do not result in increased salaries.
3. Problem with union members: - Many union members may misunderstand job
enlargement as exploitation of worker and may take objection to it.

Job enrichment: psychologist Fredrick Herzberg states that the best way to motivate
workers is to build opportunities for challenge and achievement into their job via job
enrichment.
Job enrichment means redesigning a job by adding more meaningful tasks and duties in such
a way that increase the opportunity for the worker and fulfils the high motivational needs of
employees such as self-fulfilment and self esteem, while achieving long-term job satisfaction
and performance goals.
Herzberg motivational theory through job enrichment:
1. Increasing the level of difficulty and responsibility of the job.
2. Allowing employees to retain more authority and control over work outcomes.
3. Providing unit or individual job performance reports directly to employees.
4. Adding new tasks to the job that require training and growth.
5. Assigning individuals specific tasks, thus enabling them to become experts.
These factors allow employees to assume a greater role in decision making and involved in
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling their own work.

Advantages of job enrichment

1. Interesting and challenging job: - When a certain amount of power is given to

employees it makes the job more challenging for them, we can say that job
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enrichment is a method of employee empowerment.

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 2. Improves decision making: - Through job enrichment we can improve the
decision making ability of the employee by asking him to decide on factory layout,
method and style of working.
3. Identifies future managerial calibre: - When we provide decision making
opportunities to employees, we can identify which employee is better that other in
decision making and mark employees for future promotion.
4. Identifies higher order needs of employees: - This method identifies higher order
needs of the employee. Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation speaks of these
higher order needs e.g. Ego and esteemed needs, self-actualization etc. These needs
can be achieved through job enrichment.
5. Reduces work load of superiors:-Job enrichment reduces the work load of senior staff.
When decisions are taken by juniors the seniors work load is reduced.

Disadvantages of job enrichment

1. Job enrichment is based on the assumptions that workers have complete knowledge to
take decisions and they have the right attitude. In reality this might not be the case due
to which there can be problems in working.
2. Job enrichment has negative implications i.e. Along with usual work decision making
work is also given to the employees and not many may be comfortable with this.
3. Superiors may feel that power is being taken away from them and given to the
junior’s. This might lead to ego problems.
4. This method will only work in certain situations. Some jobs already give a lot of
freedom and responsibility; this method will not work for such jobs.
5. Some people are internally dissatisfied with the organization. For such people no
amount of job enrichment can solve the problem.

Socio-technical system: It focuses on the interaction between technology and the work group
(people). This approach attempts to develop jobs that adjust the needs of the production
process technology to the needs of the worker and work group.

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Factors affecting job design

There are various factors which affect job design in the company. They can be explained with
the help of diagram.

1. Task characteristics 1. Task 1. Employee availability

2. Process or flow of work 2. Autonomy and ability
3. Ergonomics 3. Variety 2. Social and cultural
4. Work practices expectations

1. Organizational factors:-

Organizational factors to refer to factors inside the organization which affect job design they
are

Task characteristics:-

Task characteristics refer to features of the job that is depending on the type of job and the
duties involved in it the organization will decide, how the job design must be done. In case
the company is not in a position to appoint many people; a single job may have many duties
and vice versa.

The process or flow of work in the organization:-

There is a certain order in which jobs are performed in the company. In case the company
wishes it could combine similar job and give it to one person this can be done if all the jobs
come one after the other in a sequence.

Ergonomics:-

Ergonomics refers to matching the job with physical ability and characteristics of the
individual and in providing an office environment which will help the person to complete the
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jobs faster and in a comfortable manner.

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Work practices:-

Every organization has different work practices. Although the job may be the same the
method of doing the job differs from company to company. This is called work practice and it
affects job design.

2. Environmental factors:-

Environmental factors which affect job design are as follows

Employee availability and ability:-

Certain countries face the problem of lack of skilled labour. They are not able to get
employees with specific education levels for jobs and have to depend on other countries due
to this job design gets affected.

Social and cultural expectations:-

The social and cultural conditions of every country is different so when an MNC appoints an
Indian it has to take into account like festivals, auspicious time, inauspicious time, etc. to suit
the Indian conditions. This applies to every country and therefore job design will change
accordingly.

3. Behavioural factors:-

Job design is affected by behavioural factors also. These factors are

Feedback:-

Job design is normally prepared on the basis of job analysis and job analysis requires
employee feedback based on this employee feedback all other activities take place. Many
employees are however not interested in providing a true feedback because of fear and
insecurity. This in turn affects job deign.

Autonomy:-

Every worker desires a certain level of freedom to his job effectively. This is called
autonomy. Thus when we prepare a job design we must see to it that certain amount of
autonomy is provided to the worker so that he carries his job effectively.

Variety:-

When the same job is repeated again and again it leads to burden and monotony. This leads to
lack of interest and carelessness on the job. Therefore, while preparing job design certain
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amount of variety must be provided to keep the person interested in the job.
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