JOB ANALYSIS AND THE TALENT

MANAGEMENT PROCESS
• Define talent management, and explain what talent management-oriented managers do.
• Discuss the process of job analysis, including why it is important.
• Explain and use at least three methods of collecting job analysis information.
• Explain how you would write a job description, and what sources you would use.
• Explain how to write a job specification.
• Give examples of competency-based job analysis.
Talent management

The goal-oriented and integrated process of planning, recruiting, developing, managing, and
compensating employees.
THE BASICS OF JOB ANALYSIS

• Talent management starts with understanding what

jobs need to be filled, and the human traits and
competencies employees need to do those jobs
effectively.
• job analysis job descriptions
The procedure for determining A list of a job’s duties,
the duties and skill requirements responsibilities, reporting
of a job and the kind of person relationships, working
conditions, and supervisory
who should be hired for it.
responsibilities—one
product of a job analysis.

job specifications
A list of a job’s “human
requirements,” that is, the
requisite education, skills,
personality, and so on—
another product of a job
analysis.
• The supervisor or human resources specialist normally collects one or more of the
following types of information via the job analysis:

● Work activities. Information about the job’s actual work activities, such as cleaning, selling,
teaching, or [Link] list may also include how, why, and when the worker performs
each activity.
● Human behaviors. Information about human behaviors the job requires, like sensing,
communicating, lifting weights, or walking long distances.
● Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids. Information regarding tools used, materials
processed, knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or law), and services rendered
(such as counseling or repairing).
● Performance standards. Information about the job’s performance standards (in terms of
quantity or quality levels for each job duty, for instance).

● Job context. Information about such matters as physical working conditions, work schedule,
incentives, and, for instance, the number of people with whom the employee would normally
interact.

● Human requirements. Information such as knowledge or skills (education, training, work

experience) and required personal attributes (aptitudes, personality, interests).
CONDUCTING A JOB ANALYSIS

There are six steps in doing a job analysis of a job, as follows

Uses of job analysis information

USES OF JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION

• RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

Information about what duties the job entails and what human
characteristics are required to perform these duties helps managers
decide what sort of people to recruit and hire.
• PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
A performance appraisal compares an employee’s actual performance of his or her duties with the job's
performance standards. Managers use job analysis to learn what these duties and standards are.

• COMPENSATION
It (such as salary and bonus) usually depends on the job’s required skill and education level, safety hazards,
degree of responsibility, and so on—all factors you assess through job analysis.

• TRAINING
The job description lists the job’s specific duties and requisite skills—thus pinpointing what training the job
requires.
• STEP 1: Identify the use to which the information will be put because this will
determine how you collect the information. Some data collection techniques—like
interviewing the employee—are good for writing job descriptions.

• STEP 2: Review Relevant Background Information About the Job, Such as

Organization Charts and Process Charts
 Process chart
• organization chart Workflow analysis
A workflow chart that
A detailed study of the
shows the flow of inputs
A chart that shows the organization flow of work from job to
to and outputs from a
wide distribution of work, with titles job in a work process.
of each position and interconnecting particular job.
lines that show who reports to and
communicates with whom.

Business process reengineering

Redesigning business processes, usually by

combining steps, so that small multifunction
process teams using information
technology do the jobs formerly done by a
sequence of departments.
• The basic reengineering approach is to:
• 1. Identify a business process to be redesigned (such as processing an insurance claim)
• 2. Measure the performance of the existing processes
• 3. Identify opportunities to improve these processes
• 4. Redesign and implement a new way of doing the work
• 5. Assign ownership of sets of formerly separate tasks to an individual or a team who use
new computerized systems to support the new arrangement
• Job Redesign
Experts typically suggest three ways to redesign specialized jobs to make them more
challenging.
Job enlargement means assigning workers additional same-level activities. Thus, the
worker who previously only bolted the seat to the legs might attach the back too.
Job rotation means systematically moving workers from one job to another. Psychologist
Frederick Herzberg argued that the best way to motivate workers is through what he
called job enrichment.
Job enrichment means redesigning jobs in a way that increases the opportunities for the
worker to experience feelings of responsibility, achievement, growth, and recognition—and
therefore more motivation.
• STEP 3: Select Representative Positions

Next, with a job to analyze, the manager generally selects a sample of positions to focus on.
• For example, it is usually unnecessary to analyze the jobs of all the firm’s 200 assembly
workers; instead a sample of 10 jobs will do.
• STEP 4:

Actually Analyze the Job The actual job analysis involves greeting each job holder; briefly
explaining the job analysis process and the participants’ roles in this process; spending
about 15 minutes interviewing the employee to get agreement on a basic summary of the
job; identifying the job’s broad areas of responsibility, such as “calling on potential clients”;
and then interactively identifying specific duties/tasks within each area using one of the
methods we describe just below.
• STEP 5: Verify the Job Analysis Information with the Worker Performing the Job and with His
or Her Immediate Supervisor

This will help confirm that the information (for instance, on the job’s duties) is correct and complete and
help to gain their acceptance.

• STEP 6: Develop a Job Description and Job Specification

The job description lists the duties, activities, and responsibilities of the job, as well as its important features,
such as working conditions. The job specification summarizes the personal qualities, traits, skills, and
background required for getting the job done.
METHODS FOR COLLECTING JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION

• There are many ways (interviews or questionnaires, for instance) to collect job
information. The basic rule is to use those that best fit your purpose.

• Make the job analysis a joint effort by a human resources manager, the worker, and the
supervisor. The human resource manager might observe the worker doing the job, and
have the supervisor and worker complete job questionnaires.
The Interview
Job analysis interviews range from unstructured (“Tell me about your job”) to highly
structured ones with hundreds of specific items to check off.
STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS

Many managers use questionnaires to guide the interview.

It includes questions regarding matters like the general purpose of the job, supervisory
responsibilities, job duties, and skills required.
• PROS AND CONS

The interview’s wide use reflects its advantages. It’s a simple and quick way to collect
information. Skilled interviewers can also unearth important activities that occur
occasionally, or informal contacts not on the organization chart.
• INTERVIEWING GUIDELINES

To get the best information possible:

Establish rapport with the interviewee. Know the person’s name, speak understandably,
briefly review the interview’s purpose, and explain how the person was chosen for the
interview.
• Questionnaires

Having employees fill out questionnaires to describe their job duties and responsibilities is
another popular job analysis approach.
• Observation

Direct observation is especially useful when jobs consist of observable physical activities—
assembly-line worker and accounting clerk are examples. However, it’s usually not
appropriate when the job entails a lot of mental activity (lawyer, design engineer). Nor is it
useful if the employee only occasionally engages in important activities, such as a nurse who
handles emergencies. Reactivity—the worker’s changing what he or she normally does
because you are watching—is another problem.
• Participant Diary/Logs

Another method is to ask workers to keep a diary/log; here for every activity engaged in,
the employee records the activity (along with the time) in a log.
• Quantitative Job Analysis Techniques

Qualitative methods like interviews and questionnaires are not always suitable. For
example, if your aim is to compare jobs for pay purposes, a mere listing of duties may not
[Link] may need to say that, in effect, “Job A is twice as challenging as Job B, and so is
worth twice the pay.” To do this, it helps to have quantitative ratings for each job. The
position analysis questionnaire and the Department of Labor approach are quantitative
methods for doing this.
• POSITION ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE
The position analysis questionnaire (PAQ) is a very popular quantitative job analysis tool,
consisting of a questionnaire containing 194 items.
The 194 items (such as “written materials”) each represent a basic element that may play a role
in the job. The items each belong to one of five PAQ basic activities:
(1) Having Decision-Making/Communication/Social Responsibilities,
(2) Performing Skilled Activities,
(3) Being Physically Active,
(4) Operating Vehicles/ Equipment, and
(5) Processing Information.
• Online Job Analysis Methods

Employers also use online job analysis methods. Here the human resource department
generally distributes standardized job analysis questionnaires to geographically disbursed
employees online, with instructions to complete the forms and return them by a particular
date.
• Writing Job Descriptions

The most important product of job analysis is the job description. A job description is a
written statement of what the worker actually does, how he or she does it, and what the
job’s working conditions are.
• Diversity Counts
You might assume that job descriptions are only of use in business settings, but that’s not
the case. For example, for parents who want the best care for their kids, writing up a job
description before hiring a child-care worker could be quite useful.
• There is no standard format for writing a job description. However, most descriptions
contain sections that cover:
• 1. Job identification
• 2. Job summary
• 3. Responsibilities and duties
• 4. Authority of incumbent
• 5. Standards of performance
• 6. Working conditions
• 7. Job specification
• Specifications for Trained versus Untrained Personnel

Writing job specifications for trained and experienced employees is relatively

straightforward. Here job specifications tend to focus on factors such as length of previous
service, quality of relevant training, and previous job performance.
• Specifications Based on Judgment
• Job Specifications Based on Statistical Analysis
• Job-requirements matrix

A more complete description of what the worker does and how and why he or she does it;
it clarifies each task’s purpose and each duty’s required knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics.
A typical matrix lists the following information, in five columns:
• Column 1: Each of the job’s four or five main job duties (such as post accounts payable)
• Column 2: The task statements for the main tasks associated with each main job duty
• Column 3: The relative importance of each main job duty
• Column 4: The time spent on each main job duty
• Column 5: The knowledge, skills, ability, and other human characteristics (KSAO) related
to each main job duty.