Job Analysis

INTRODUCTION
For HRP in an organization, effective information and documentation on job analysis, job description and job
evaluation are important prerequisites. All these processes help in identifying job requirements and suitably
describing the job and job families, skill sets, skill mapping and developing skill inventories in an
organization. In HRP, these are critical inputs to decide about manpower requirement to meet present and
future needs.

JOB ANALYSIS
Job analysis is the process of gathering information about the job and evaluating such information in terms of
what is necessary and relevant. Essentially, job analysis involves three questions:

What is job? What should be analyzed? What methods of analysis should be used?

A job is a group of essentially similar activities or tasks performed by a person or a group of persons. These
activities or tasks together become a job. Obviously tasks or activities of jobs need not be identical. They may
be performed in different places, with different equipment, in a different sequence. Also, some employees
may perform certain activities in addition to the main job. Or some employees may perform a job
occasionally or temporarily, normally to fill in for persons who are absent or on vacation. This definition of a
job is typically used in compensation designing and for other management practices. However, a more generic
description of a job is used, which is identified by ‘position’ rather than job’.

1. ... Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and
responsibilities of a specific job. The immediate products of this analysis are job descriptions and job
specifications
2. ... Job analysis is a systematic exploration of the activities within a job. It is a basic technical
procedure, one that is used to define the duties, responsibilities and accountabilities of a job.

What should be analyzed?

What should be the nature of job information depends upon a number of considerations. Whether the analysis
is required for evaluation purposes or for other purposes as well what job level is to be analyzed what type of
evaluation plan is to be used and what job knowledge is held by the analyst. basic areas of info may include:

• Fundamental purpose of the job.

• Work elements in the job. It requires study of specific tasks, areas of responsibility, and examples of work.
• General importance of each job element and its relationship to the total operation. • Approximate time spent
on each task or specific area of responsibility.
• Scope of the job and its impact on the operation.
• Inherent authority (not only formal delegation but also latitude of action) & formal/informal audits of work.
• Working relationships (including supervision).
• Specific methods, equipments or techniques that are required for the job.
• Job climate, including objectives and work environment.
• Job conditions like, physical effort, hazards, discomfort, chasing of deadlines, travel requirement, creativity
and innovations required, etc.

The Job; not the person While Job Analysis data may be collected from incumbents through interviews or
questionnaires, the product of the analysis is a description or specifications of the job, not a description of
the person. The job analysis may include these activities:
 reviewing the job responsibilities of current employees,
 doing Internet research and viewing sample job descriptions online or offline highlighting similar jobs,
 analyzing the work duties, tasks, and responsibilities that need to be accomplished by the employee
filling the position,
 researching and sharing with other companies that have similar jobs, and
 Articulation of the most important outcomes or contributions needed from the position.

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 1

 Steps for Job Analysis Process of job Analysis
Collecting Information
Strategic choices

Checking Accuracy
Info. gathering

Determine KSA
Info. processing

Writing JD

JD JS
Updating Info.

HR Function (Uses)
Process Of Job Analysis in detail:
1. Strategic Choices
With regard to job analysis, an organisation is required to make atleast five choices:
a. The extent of employee involvement in job analysis.
b. The level of details of the analysis.
c. Timing and frequency of analysis.
d. Past-oriented versus future-oriented job analysis.
e. Sources of job data

a. Extent of employee involvement Employees are often asked to supply vital information about the
contents of job, given their familiarity with it. To what extent employees need to be involved is a
debatable point. Too much involvement may result in bias in favour of a job, as the employee is likely
to inflate the duties and responsibilities of his jobs, just to make it appear more important than it
actually is. On the other hand, if employees are not involved or only minimally involved, they tend to
become suspicious about the motives behind the job analysis. Besides, lack of involvement from
employees may lead to inaccurate and incomplete information. However, the organisation may also be
concerned about the employees’ reactions to having their jobs analysed. In order to prevent employee
dissatisfaction, uncertainty and anxiety, organisations should communicate the reasons for conducting
the job analysis.

b. The Level of Details The nature of job being analysed determines the level of detail in job analysis.
For example, analysing the number of movements an employee makes and the frequency of, job-related
movements would be more relevant for a crane operator’s job than a personnel manager’s position. It
would be more appropriate and informative to analyse a personnel manager’s job by describing the
various duties and responsibilities the job requires.
The level of details required in job analysis also depends upon the purpose for which job-related details
are being collected. For example, if the primary purpose of analysing the job is for a mass input for
intensive training programmes, the level of details required may be great. However, if the job analysis
is being done to add clarification to the rules and responsibilities of job holders, a less-detailed job
analysis may be needed.

c. When and How Often Job analysis is generally conducted when (i) an organisation is established
and the job analysis is initiated for the first time; (ii) a new job is created in an established company;
(iii) a job is changed significantly due to change in technology, methods, procedures or systems; (iv) the
organisation is contemplating a new remuneration plan; or (v) the employees or managers feel that there
exist certain inequities between job demands and the remuneration it carries.

d. Past-Oriented versus Future-Oriented If an organisation is changing rapidly due to fast growth or

technological change, a more future-oriented approach to job analysis may be desired. Traditional job
analysis information describes how the job has been done in the past and the manner in which it is

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 2

being currently done. If necessary, a future orientation can be given to the job analysis and predictions
may be made as to how the job will be done in future. This will allow organisations to begin hiring and
training people for these jobs prior to the actual change. For example, personal computers began to
replace electronic typewriters, thus changing the character of many typist jobs. Many companies
anticipated these changes and began retraining their typists before changing over to personal computers.

e. Source of Job Data Although the most direct source of information about a job is the job holder, a
number of other human and non-human sources are available. These sources may provide information
which an average job holder cannot, thereby enabling the job analyst to question the job-holder more
effectively.
In deciding the sources to be used in a given job analysis, the analyst should follow at least two
guidelines:
1. For non-human sources, use such sources which are most recent, and
2. Use several sources for information whenever possible.
A job analyst who uses job incumbents and supervisors as a source of information should make sure
that these individuals have had an adequate opportunity to perform the job, or observe the job being
performed. Care should be taken to interview both males and females if both perform the job. It is
particularly important to collect job-related details from groups of individuals with varying levels of
experience on the job.
Human Sources: Job Analysts, Job Incumbents, Supervisors, Job Experts
Non Human Sources: Existing job description and specification, equipment maintenance records,
equipment design blueprints, architectural blueprints of work area, films of employee working, training
manuals, magazines and newspapers.

2. Information Gathering:
This step involves decisions on three issues, viz;
1. What type of data is to be collected?
2. What methods are to be employed for data collection?
3. ‘Who should collect the data?
Types of Job Analysis Information:

Work Activities Job Context

A. Description of work activities (tasks) A. Physical working conditions
1. How is a task performed? 1. Exposure to heat, dust, toxic
2. Why is a task performed? substances
3. When is a task performed? 2. Indoor versus outdoor environment
B. Interface with other jobs and equipment B. Organisational context
C. Procedures used C. Social context
D. Behaviours required on the jobs D. Work schedule
E. Physical movements and demands of the E. Incentives (financial and non-
jobs financial)
Machines, Tools, Equipment and Work Personal Requirements
Aids Used A. Specific skills
A. List of machines, tools, etc. used B. Specific education and training
B. Materials processed C. Work experience
C. Products made 0. Physical characteristics
D. Services rendered E. Aptitudes

With regard to the methods for data collection, there are several of them, but the more prominent of them
are—(i) observation, (ii) interview, (iii) questionnaires, (iv) checklists, (v) technical conference, and (vi)
diary methods. Detailed description is given further.

With regard to the persons employed to collect data, it may be stated that three types of individuals are
used. They are—(i) trained job analysts, (ii) supervisors, or (iii) job incumbents.
Each of these alternatives has its own merits and demerits. Trained analysts, for example, will lend
objectivity and standardisation to the data collected but they, implicitly, mean outflow of money.

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 3

Supervisors and job holders provide information with no extra cost, but the data may not be objective and
standardised. It may be stated that the individuals who collect job-related data determine the accuracy,
speed and cost of information.

3. Information Processing
Once the job information has been collected; it needs to be processed, so that it would be useful in various
personnel functions. Specifically, job-related data would be useful to prepare job description and job
specification.

4. Job Description & Job Specification:

Job description implies objective listing of the job title, tasks, duties and responsibilities involved in a job.
Job specification, on the other hand, involves listing of employee qualifications, skills and abilities. These
specifications are needed to do the job satisfactorily. Often, practitioners make no distinction between job
description and job specification. The two terms are used interchangeably.

5. Important uses of Job Analysis:

As was stated earlier, job analysis is useful for overall management of all personnel activities. Each
applications of job analysis is described in brief here.
The purpose of Job Analysis is to establish and document the 'job relatedness' of employment procedures
such as training, selection, compensation, and performance appraisal.

 Human Resource Planning— forecasting manpower requirements

 Personnel Recruitment, Selection & placement- select the right employee for a job
 Training & Personnel Development— provides employees with knowledge & skills.
 Employee Compensation- provides information regarding the tasks, duties, responsibilities, risks
& personnel requirements.
 Engineering Design— taking into account human limitations & human strengths.
 Job Design - job is interesting & satisfying to the employee
 Performance Measurement & Rating- determining employee’s performance, satisfactory &
unsatisfactory.
 Administrative Control- co-ordinates the activities of the work force
 Health & Safety Measures- ensure the health & safety of employees.
 Career Planning – career paths & jobs available

Human Resource Planning HRP & Human resource management:

determines as to how many and what type of personnel will be needed in the near future. The number and
the type of personnel are determined by the jobs which need to be staffed. The job analysis yields an
improved process for obtaining, retaining, and managing an organization's work and human resources.

Organizational Communication: Job analyses can be utilized to enhance communication within the
organization. The job description communicates the organization's expectations to its employees. The job
description is a simple way of telling people what it is they are expected to do.

Safety & Health The process of conducting a detailed job analysis provides an excellent opportunity to
uncover & identify hazardous conditions and unhealthy environmental factors (such as heat, noise, fumes,
and dust), so that corrective measures can be taken to minimise and avoid the possibility of human injury.

Recruitment and Selection An understanding of the types of the skills needed and types of job that may
open in the future enables managers to have a better continuity and planning in staffing their organisation.
Similarly, selecting a qualified person to fill a job requires knowing clearly the work to be done and the
qualifications needed for someone to perform the work satisfactorily. Without a clear and precise
understanding of what a job entails, the HR manager cannot effectively select someone to do the job.
The job description will "define" the ideal standard against which all applicants will be compared. The
"best fit" is then determined by a comparison of the applicant's KSA's (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)
against the requirements of the job.
Job Analysis can be used in selection procedures to identify or develop:

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 4

 job duties that should be included in advertisements of vacant positions;
 appropriate salary level for position to help determine what salary should be offered to candidate;
 minimum requirements (education and/or experience) for screening applicants;
 interview questions;
 selection tests/instruments (e.g., written tests; oral tests; job simulations);
 applicant appraisal/evaluation forms; orientation materials for applicants/new hires

Job Evaluation: it involves determination of relative worth of each job for the purpose of establishing
wage and salary differentials. Relative worth is determined mainly on the
basis of job description and job specification.

Training and Development Job analysis is useful for an HRD manager inasmuch as it helps to know
what a given job demands from the incumbent in terms of knowledge and skills. T&D programmes can be
designed depending on the job requirements. The training needs assessment is a matter of comparing the
job incumbent's job performance with the actual requirements of that job (as specified in the job
description). If there is no discrepancy in this comparison, then we have no need for training. On the other
hand, if we identify a gap between the "actual" and the "ideal", then we have potentially identified a need
for training. Job Analysis can be used in training/"needs assessment" to identify or develop:
 training content & assessment tests to measure effectiveness of training
 equipment to be used in delivering the training
 methods of training (i.e., small group, computer-based, video, classroom...)

Remuneration Job evaluation helps determine wage and salary grades for all jobs. Employees
need to be compensated depending on the grades of jobs which they occupy. Remuneration also
involves fringe benefits, bonus and other benefits. Clearly, remuneration must be based on the relative
worth of each job. Relative skill level is important for setting relative compensation within the firm. Of
course, there are other factors used in determining levels of compensation; the external labor market and
seniority. However, the job analysis process should establish relative skill levels among the jobs in an
organization in order to ensure internal equity.
Job Analysis can be used in compensation to identify or determine:
 skill levels, compensable job factors
 work environment (e.g., hazards; attention; physical effort)
 responsibilities (e.g., fiscal; supervisory)

Performance Appraisal Performance appraisal involves assessment of the actual performance

of an employee against what is expected of him/her. Such assessment is the basis for awarding
promotions, effecting transfers, or assessing training needs. Job analysis facilitates performance appraisal
has inasmuch as it helps fix standards for performance in relation to which actual performance of an
employee is compared and assessed. The primary question of performance evaluation is:
"Did the employee do what the employee was asked to do?" A second question is, "Did the employee do
it at an acceptable quality level?" If the information with respect to what is actually required to do the job
is in the job analysis, then these questions should be relatively easy to answer. Job Analysis can be used
in performance review to identify or develop:
 goals and objectives
 performance standards
 evaluation criteria
 length of probationary periods

Methods

What Methods of Analysis should be used?

Job information can be obtained in various ways either by a staff analyst or by the individual line
manager. Because of functional proximity, it is always better to involve the line managers in compiling
job information.

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 5

 Interviews

Observation Questionnaires

Job Data
Checklists Diary

Technical Conference Quantitative Techniques

Questionnaire It is a printed form, in which essential information about the job may be listed either by
the employee or by his supervisors. Job holders fill in the given structured questionnaire, which are then
approved by their supervisors. The filled-in questionnaires offer enough data on jobs. Standard
questionnaires are available or they may be prepared for the purpose by the analysts. Standard or
prepared, questionnaires should contain the following basic information:”
I. The job title of the job holder and the job holder’s manager or supervisor;
3. The job titles & numbers of staff reporting to job holder (best recorded by an organisation chart);
4. A brief description of the overall role or purpose of the job; and
5. A list of the main tasks or duties that the job holder has to carry out.
The replies obtained may be too vague or misleading and usually have to be checked with the job holder’s
supervisor. But they at least give the job holder an opportunity to express his/her feelings about the job
and they can provide useful leads for further clarifications.

Advantages: The questionnaire method helps save time and the staff required to carry out the programme.
All the job holders participate in the method unlike in an interview where one or two workers only would
participate. The major advantage it uses the knowledge of those who are proximate to the job, it gives
each employee an opportunity to participate and contribute by giving responses.
Disadvantage: The average employee, although, knows best what his/her duties are, he/she is not trained
to identify the essential aspects of his/her work and often cannot express the information in a meaningful
and clear fashion. To depend exclusively upon questionnaires as the source of job information is bound to
create some errors in the programme.

Observation
The job analyst carefully observes the job holder at work and records what he/she does, how he/she does, &
how much time is needed for completion of given task. On the positive side, the method is simple; data
collected are accurate because of direct observation. On the flip side, it may be told that the method is time
consuming and inapplicable to jobs which involve high proportions of unobservable mental activities and
those which do not have complete and easily observable job cycles. The analyst needs to be trained to
carefully observe and record competence of a job incumbent. And training means additional cost. Hence,
observation method may be used for analysing repetitive, short-cycle, unskilled and semi-skilled jobs.
Better results will be available when observation method is used along with other method(s)of job analysis.

Interview
In this, the analyst interviews the job holder and his/her supervisor to elicit information about the job.
Usually, a structured interview form is used to record the information. During the interview, the analyst
must make judgments about the information to be included and its degree of importance.
The interview method is time consuming. The time problem will be compounded if the interviewer talks
with two or more employees doing the same job. Furthermore, professional and managerial jobs are more
complicated to analyse & usually require a longer interview. Then, there is a problem of bias. Bias on the
part of analyst and job holder may cloud the accuracy and objectivity of the data obtained. The interview
method has one positive feature, that is, it involves talking to job holders who are in a good position to
describe what they do, as well as qualifications needed to perform their duties in a competent manner.

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 6

Technical Conference Method
In this method, services of supervisors who possess extensive knowledge about a job are used. It is from
these experts that details about the job are obtained. Here, a conference of supervisors is used. The analyst
initiates discussion which provides details about jobs. Though a good method of data collection, this
method lacks accuracy because the actual job holders are not involved in collecting information.

Checklists
A checklist is similar to a questionnaire, but the response sheet contains fewer subjective judgments and
tends to be either-yes-or-no variety. Checklists can cover 100 activities and job holders tick those tasks
that are included in their jobs. Preparation of a checklist is a challenging job. The specialists who prepare
the list must collect all relevant information about the job concerned. Such information can be obtained
by asking supervisors, industrial engineers, and others familiar with the work. When a checklist has been
prepared for a job, it is sent to the job holder. The job holder is asked to check all listed tasks that he/she
performs and indicate the amount of time spent on each task as well as the training and experience
required to be proficient in each task. He/she may also be asked to write any additional tasks he/she
performs which is not stated in the checklist. The checklist, thus answered, will be the basis for tabulating
job-related data.
One advantage of the checklist method is that it is useful in large organisations that have a large number
of people assigned to one particular job. Also, this technique is amenable to tabulation and recording on
electronic data-processing equipment. The technique, however, is costly and, hence, not suitable for small
organisations.

Diary Method
This method requires the job holders to record in detail their activities each day. If done faithfully, this
technique is accurate and eliminates errors caused by memory lapses the job holder makes while
answering questionnaires and checklists. This method, however, is time consuming because the recording
of tasks may have to be spread over a number of days. It also engages considerable time of a production
worker. No wonder, the diary method is not used much in practice.
The methods described above are not to be viewed as mutually exclusive. None of them is universally
superior. The best results can be obtained by a combination of these methods.

Quantitative Techniques
The methods of collecting job-related data, described above, are used by most employers. But there are
occasions where these narrative approaches are not appropriate. For example, where it is desired to assign
a quantitative value to each job so that jobs can be compared for pay purposes, a more quantitative
approach will be appropriate. The position analysis questionnaire, management position description
questionnaire and functional job analysis are the three popular techniques of job analysis.

Position Analysis Questionnaire The PAQ was developed in the early 19through the efforts of
McCormick and others. It consists of 194 job elements of a “worker-oriented” nature which a job is
created depending on the degree to which an element (or descriptor) is present. These elements are
grouped into six general categories. The job elements are normally rated by the analyst on a scale of 0 to
5. However, administering PAQ is not at all simple.

Management Position Description Questionnaire The Management Position Description Questionnaire

(MPDQ) is a highly structured questionnaire containing 208 items relating to managerial responsibilities,
restrictions, demands and other miscellaneous position characteristics. These 208 items are grouped under
the 13 categories. The PAQ and MPDQ yield standardised information about the worker and the job.

1. Product, Marketing and Financial strategy 7. Autonomy of actions.

Planning 8. Approval of financial commitments.
2. Co-ordination of other organisational units 9. Staff service.
and personnel. 10. Supervision.
3. Internal business control. 11. Complexity and stress.
4. Products and services responsibility. 12. Advanced financial responsibility.
5. Public and customer relations. 13. Broad personnel responsibility.
6. Advanced consulting.

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 7

Functional Job Analysis Functional Job Analysis (FJA) is a worker-oriented job analytical approach
which attempts to describe the whole person on the job. The main features of FJA include the following:
1. A fundamental distinction must be made between what has been done & what employees need to do to
get things done. For example, bus crew does not carry passengers, but they drive vehicle and collect fare.
2. Jobs are performed in relation to data, people and things.
3. In relation to things, employees draw on physical resources; in relation to data, employees draw on
mental resources; and in relation to people, employees draw on interpersonal resources.
4. All jobs require employees to relate data, people and things to some degree.
5. The levels of difficulty required in dealing with data, people and things are hierarchical and can be
represented by an ordinal scale.
The lower the number associated with the function, the more difficult the function is.
For example, synthesising data (0) is more difficult than compiling data (3). After a job’s difficulty has
been described using this numerical scheme, the information can be compared to the job elements
reported in the Dictionary of Occupation Titles (DOT), which is a standardised data-source describing a
wide range of jobs. Once the closest job in the DOT has been located, the accompanying job description
can be modified as necessary, to fit the specific job being analysed. Functional job analysis has the
advantage of being relatively easy to learn, using a standardised format.

Problems

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS WITH JOB ANALYSIS

Certain problems crop up while conducting job analysis. The major ones are described below:
Support from Top Management In most cases, top management support is missing. The top
management should make it clear to all employees that their full and honest participation is extremely
important for the process. This message is, often, not communicated.
Single Means and Source This relates to the defect in the process of job analysis. There are many proven
methods and sources of collecting data. All too often, analysts rely on only one of the methods when a
combination of two methods might provide a better data.
No Training or Motivation This also relates to the defect in the job-analysis process. Job holders are a
great source of information about the job. But they are not trained or motivated to generate quality data
for job analysis. Further, job holders are rarely made aware of the importance of the data, and are never
rewarded for providing accurate data.
Activities may be Distorted Where training and preparedness do not exist, job holders tend to submit
distorted data, either intentionally or inadvertently. For example, employees are likely to speed up, if they
know they are being watched.

Job Design

MEANING OF JOB DESIGN

— Job design is a deliberate and systematic attempt to structure the technical and social aspects of work
so as to improve efficiency and satisfaction at work.
— Job design attempts to create a match between job requirements and human attributes.
The logical sequence to job analysis is job design. It provides job-related data as well as the skills and
knowledge expected of the incumbent to discharge the job. Job design, then, involves conscious efforts to
organise tasks, duties, and responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain objectives. A clearer
definition of job design is:
it integrates work content (tasks, functions, relationships), the rewards (extrinsic and intrinsic), and the
qualifications required (skills, knowledge, abilities) for each job in a way that meets the needs of
employees and the organisations.

The main objectives are:

NEEDS OF EMPLOYEES:
The need of employees refers to job satisfaction, interests, challenge and achievements

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 8

REQUIREMENTS OF THE ORGANISATION:
Organizational requirements refer to high productivity, technical efficiency and quality of work

DEFINITON OF JOB DESIGN BY

WENDELL FRENCH:
‘Job design is the process of
determining the specific task and
responsibilities to be carried out by
each member of organization and/or
teams.”

FACTORS AFFECTING JOB DESIGN

Organizational Factors Environmental Factors Behavioral Factors

• Task Characteristics • Employee Ability

• Feedback
• Work Flow • Employee Availability
• Autonomy
• Ergonomics • Social & Cultural Expectations
• Use of abilities

• Variety

FACTORS AFFECTING JOB DESIGN

Job design is affected by organisational, environmental, and behavioral factors. A properly designed job
will make it productive and satisfying. If a job fails on this count, the fault lies with the job designers
who, based on the feedback, must redesign the job (see Fig. 5.5). We now propose to elaborate the
various factors affecting job design.

1. Organisational Factors
Organisational factors include characteristics of task, work flow, ergonomics, and work practices.

Characteristics of Task Job design requires the assembly of a number of tasks into a job or a group of
jobs. An individual may carry out one main task which consists of a number of interrelated designing and
shaping jobs to fit the physical abilities and characteristics of employees. Nature of jobs remains the same
but the location of tools, switches and other facilities is changed to make the jobholder feel comfortable,
elements or functions.
The internal structure of each task consists of three elements: (i) planning (deciding the course of action,
timing and the resources required), (ii) executing (carrying out the plan), and (iii) controlling (monitoring
performance and taking corrective action when required). The worker (or group of workers) having been
given objectives in terms of output, quality and cost targets, decides on how the work is to be done,
assembles the resources, performs the work, and monitors output, quality and cost standards. The ideal
job design is to integrate all the three elements.

Work Flow The flow of work in an organisation is strongly influenced by the nature of the product or
service. The product or service usually suggests the sequence and balance between jobs if the work is to
be done efficiently. For Ergonomics is example, the frame of a car must be built before the fenders, and
the doors can be added later. After the sequence of jobs is determined, the balance between jobs
is established.

Ergonomics is concerned with designing and shaping jobs to fit the physical abilities and characteristics
of individuals so that they can perform their jobs effectively. Ergonomics helps employers to design jobs
in such a way that workers’ physical abilities and job demands are balanced. Ergonomics does not alter

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 9

the nature of job tasks but the location of tools, switches and other facilities, keeping in view that the
handling the job is the primary consideration.
Some of the areas where ergonomics has been successfully applied are as under:
Design of: equipment, power and hand tools, of displays and warning systems, of furniture, seats, rests
and steps for operators, of tools, jigs and fixtures. Plant layout, Improvement in working conditions and
environments, Computation of relaxation allowances for workers, Selection, training and placement of
personnel, Motivation of workers.

However, for better understanding, the areas of ergonomic investigation of a work system may be
grouped as below:

1. Human 2. Work: Physical 3. Working Conditions: 4. Environment:

Characteristics: loads, perceptual loads, Workplace layout, Illumination,
Health,, personal mental loads, displays postures, motion and ventilation, temperature
background, education, and warning systems, movements, fatigue, and humidity, colour
training, experience, controls, compatibility monotony & relaxation dynamics, fumes, dust,
age, gender, of inputs and outputs. allowances, comfort, door, odour and smoke,
intelligence, aptitude, safety & health, landscape, scenery and
reaction time, interest, , Working hours & garden, cleanliness and
motivation, etc. Shift work conditions. sanitation.

Work Practices Work practices are set ways of performing work. These methods may arise from
tradition or the collective wishes of employees. Either way, the HR department’s flexibility to design jobs
is limited, especially when such practices are part of a union-management relationship. Failure to consider
work practices can have undesirable outcomes.

2. Environmental Factors
These elements affect all activities of HRM, and job design is no exception. The external factors that have
a bearing on job design are employee abilities and availability, and social and cultural expectations.
Employee Abilities and Availability Efficiency consideration must he balanced against the abilities and
availability of the people who are to do the work. When Henry Ford made use of the assembly line, for
example, he was aware that most potential workers lacked any automobile-making experience. So jobs
were designed simple and required little training. Therefore, considerable thought must be given as to
who will actually do the work.
Social and Cultural Expectations Literacy, knowledge and awareness among workers have improved
considerably, so also their expectations from jobs. Hence jobs must be designed to meet the expectations
of workers. Hours of work, holidays, vacations, rest breaks, religious beliefs, management styles, and
worker sophistication and attitudes are just some of the predictable differences that can affect the design
of jobs across international borders. Failure to consider these social expectations can create
dissatisfaction, low motivation, hard-to-fill job openings and a low quality of work life, especially when
foreign nationals are involved in the home country or overseas.

3. Behavioural Elements
Behavioural factors have to do with human needs and the necessity to satisfy them.
Feedback Individuals must receive meaningful feedback about their performance, preferably by
evaluating their own performance and defining the feedback. This implies that they should ideally work
on a complete product or on a significant part of it.
Autonomy is being responsible for what one does. It is the freedom to control one’s responses to the
environment. Jobs that give workers authority to make decisions will provide added responsibilities,
which tend to increase the employee’s sense of recognition and self-esteem.29 The absence of autonomy,
on the other hand, can cause employee apathy or poor performance.
Use of Abilities The job must be perceived by individuals as requiring them to use abilities they value in
order to perform the job effectively.
Variety Lack of variety may cause boredom. Boredom, in turn, leads to fatigue and fatigue causes
mistakes. By injecting variety into jobs, personnel specialists can reduce errors caused by fatigue.3°

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 10

Work Specialisation
Early in the last century, Henry Ford became rich and famous by building automobiles on an assembly
line. Every Ford worker was assigned a specific, repetitive task. For instance, one person would just put
on the right-front wheel and someone else would install the right-front door. By breaking jobs up into
small standardised tasks, which could be performed over and over again, Ford was able to produce cars at
the rate of one every ten seconds while using employees who had relatively limited skills.
Ford demonstrated that work can be performed more efficiently if employees are allowed to specialize.
Today, we use the term, work specialisation, or division of labour to describe the degree to which tasks in
the organisation are subdivided into separate jobs.
The essence of work specialisation is that, rather than an entire job being done by one individual, each
step being completed by a separate individual. It is easier and less costly to find and train workers to do
specific and repetitive tasks. But the point had been reached in some jobs where the human diseconomies
from specialisation—which surface as boredom, fatigue, stress, low productivity, poor quality, increased
absenteeism, and high turnover—more than offset the economic advantages.
Jobs that are not satisfying or are too demanding are difficult to fill. Boring jobs may lead to a higher
turnover. For an employee, motivation and job satisfaction are affected by the match between job factors
(content, qualifications and rewards) and personal needs.

JOB DESIGN APPROACHES:

Five popular approaches to job design are job rotation, job engineering, job enlargement, job enrichment
and socio-technical systems. Comparison of Five Job Design Approaches

High Social-Technical
Job Enrichment

Job Enlargement

Impact Medium
Job Engineering

Job Rotation
Low

Low Medium High

Complexity
Job Rotation refers to moving employees from job to job to add variety and reduce boredom by allowing
them to perform a variety of tasks. When an activity is no longer challenging, the employee would be
moved to another job are at the same level that has similar skill requirements. It reduces boredom and
disinterest through diversifying the employee’s activities. Employees with a wider range of skills give the
management more flexibility in scheduling work, adapting to changes and filling vacancies. Job rotation
also has its drawbacks. Training costs are increased, work is disrupted as rotated employees take time to
adjust to a new set-up, and it can demotivate intelligent and ambitious trainees who seek specific
responsibilities in their chosen speciality. According to Herzberg, job rotation is merely “substituting one
zero for another zero”.

Job Engineering focuses on the tasks to be performed, methods to be used, workflows among
employees, layout of the workplace, performance standards, and interdependencies among people and
machines. Specialisation of labour is the hallmark of job engineering. High level of specialisation is
intended to (a) allow employees to learn a task rapidly; (b) permit short work cycles so that
performance can be almost automatic and involve little or no mental effort; (c) make hiring easier
because low-skilled people can be easily trained and paid relatively low wages; and (d) reduce the need
for supervision, using simplified jobs and standardisation.
Although job engineering can also create boring jobs, it remains an important job design approach
because the resulting cost savings can be measured immediately and easily.
Job engineering may be used with success, subject to following golden rules of work design ensured:

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 11

• The end product/output of the work is clearly defined and fully understood by the employees.
• The steps/tasks to be performed are clearly defined.
• The employees know and understand where their responsibility starts and finishes.
• The tools, facilities and information needed to perform the work are readily available.
• There is a process whereby the employees can suggest possible improvements in the work design.
• The employees are involved in the work design process.

Job Enlargement: refers to the expansion of the number of different tasks performed by an employee
in a single job. For example, an auto mechanic undergoes job enlargement when he switches from only
changing oil to changing oil, greasing and changing transmission fluid. Job enlargement attempts to add
somewhat similar tasks to the existing job so that it has more variety and be more interesting.
Disadvantages: First, training costs tend to rise. Workers may require additional training for their new,
enlarged tasks. Another drawback is that unions often argue for increased pay because of the increased
workload. Finally, even after enlargement many jobs may still be routine and boring. Frederick
Herzberg was right when he said that job enlargement is simply “adding zero to zero”, meaning that one
set of boring tasks (zero) is simply added to another set of boring tasks (zero).

Job Enrichment First coined by Herzberg in his famous research motivators and maintenance factors,
job enrichment has become a popular concept. It simply means adding a few more motivators to a job
to make it more rewarding. To be specific, a job is enriched when the nature of the job is exciting,
challenging and creative, or gives the ob holder more decision-making, planning and controlling
powers. According to Herzberg an enriched job has eight characteristics.
 Direct Feedback  Unique experience
 Client relationship  Control over resources
 New learning  Direct communication authority
 Scheduling of own work  Personal accountability

Job enrichment is also called as vertical job loading. Vertical job loading means addition of duties of a
higher level, previously un-handled involving more responsibility and greater authority.
Richard Hackman and Greg Qldham developed a specific method of job enrichment. According to them,
for enriching job, attention should be paid to five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task
significance, autonomy and feedback.
I) Skill Variety: means that the employee should be required to perform different duties requiring
different abilities and different skills.
ii) Task Identity: means giving an employee a complete job and not a highly specialized part of a job.
iii) Task Significance: means the degree to which people are affected by one’s work, directly or
indirectly, inside or outside the organization.
iv) Autonomy: means more freedom to do scheduling of the job, to make decisions and to decide the
procedure of how to work.
v) Feedback: It is the degree to which employee gets direct knowledge of how well he is doing the job.

SELF - MANAGING TEAMS:

Self-managing teams are sometimes referred to as semi-autonomous work groups or socio-technical
teams. Self-managing teams re natural work groups that are given a large degree of decision - making
autonomy, they are expected to control their own behavior and results.

Typically, self-managing teams consists of small numbers of employees often around ten, who take duties
that used to be performed by their supervisors. Their task includes making work assignments, deciding on
the pace of work, determining how quality is to be assessed and even who gets to join the team.

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 12

 Job Description & Specification

Job Descriptions
Compiled job information is translated to job descriptions. Job descriptions are written records of job
duties and responsibilities and they provide a factual basis for job evaluation. Objectives of JD:

OBJECTIVES OF JOB DESCRIPTION

Job descriptions help in getting the things done through people and it help management to accomplish
following objectives:
1. Efficient organisation of jobs.
2. Proper recruitment or staffing in the organisation.
3. Communicating to employees their duties and responsibilities and by setting job standards.
4. Reviewing performance of the people.
5. Improving performance through appraisal and training.
6. Rewarding employees.
Job descriptions also facilitate proper manpower utilization. By periodic reviewing of the listed duties, a
manager can identify which jobs are time consuming but require lower skill set. Finally, job descriptions,
as a basic management tool, also influence operating procedures by identifying duplication of work,
indicating a scientific work flow, suggesting better allocation of jobs and by pointing out possible job
bottlenecks.

JOB SPECIFICATIONS
In addition to providing information about duties associated with job assignments, job descriptions also
outline basic specification of the job. Such specifications include education or experience, required to do
the job and special knowledge and skill set necessary to carry put the job. In addition, specifications also
identify the soft skills like, inter-personal skills, analytical ability, problem solving skills or decision
making skill, etc., which are required to perform the duties assigned.
This Exercise of processing job information is known as developing job specification. It helps in the
evaluation of jobs and at the same time it defines the attributes required for a job position, which are
required while going for recruitment. Therefore, job specifications list out all those attributes, like;
education, experience, age, physical fitness, etc. along with other soft skills required for performing a job.
This also requires special skill of the analyst, as any judgmental mistake, may defeat the purpose, not only
by selecting a wrong person for a job but also for wrongly evaluating a job, which is directly associated
with job pricing.
A central peripheral relational model of job analysis is given below:

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 13

 SAMPLE JOB DESCRIPTION
Junior Trader

Positions Junior Commodity/ Equity Trader

Department Trading
Location Mumbai
Reporting to Trading Manager & Senior Associate (Training)

Objective Of The Role To trade in commodities/ equities markets using proprietary short term trading models.

Key responsibilities Execution: (80%)

 Buy & sell equities using proprietary short term trading models
 Use spread sheet software to enter access or retrieve data
Technical & Financial Analysis: (5%)
 Analyze market conditions, economic data & financial information.
Risk Management: (5%)
 Evaluate financial risk, make decisions & prepare reports
Theory: (5%)
 Maintain a through understanding of & be able to explain market terms &
companies trading practice.
Research & Development: (5%)
 Identify potential trading strategies, offer ideas to improve existing strategies or
create new ones.

Competencies/Skills Technical skills

 Loves to play with numbers
 Strong Proficiency in Excel
 Strong analytical ability/technical concentration including intraday stock/equity
& market patterns
 Experience in quantitative arbitrage trading
Soft skills
 Ability to work in team-environment
 Creative Thinking
 Enjoys Strategic Gaming
Education
 Finance degree/Background

Key performance indicators  Ability to contain losses & practice

 Ability to execute trades with speed & accuracy

HRM Lecture Notes, Job Analysis 14