Job Analysis & Design

8th July 2010 IIPM, Ahmedabad

Job Analysis The Basis

For achievement of effective HRP Knowledge of all duties, skills required to perform all jobs is gained through Job Analysis Major thrust of Job Analysis The civil rights movement factors governing hiring, firing & promoting should be job related.

Job Analysis - Definition

A process of collecting information about a job. A Job Analysis is the systematic exploration of the activities within a job. It is a technical procedure used to define a jobs duties, responsibilities, and accountabilities. This analysis involves identification and description of what is happening on the jobaccurately and precisely identifying the required tasks, the knowledge and the skills necessary for performing them and the conditions under which they must be performed. Process of Job analysis results in two sets of data: Job Description Job Specification

Job Analysis Competitive Advantage

Enhancement of HR Activities

Human Resource Planning number & type of staff Employee Hiring anticipation of vacancies in organization, understanding of skills required in future during selection procedure, matching Right Person with Right Job (Position). Training & Development designing T&D programmes as per job requirements, selection of trainees as per gap analysis. Performance Appraisal Helps in assessment of actual performance against expected performance. Remuneration Job evaluation determines relative worth of each job for purpose of establishing wage & salary differentials. Employees need to be compensated as per their grades of jobs which they occupy. Personnel Information Recording of personnel information in computerised systems. Improvement of administrative efficiency, provide decision making support. Safety & Health Uncovering working under typical work conditions viz. hazardous & unhealthy environmental factors noise, heat, fumes, dust etc. for taking corrective measures & avoid human injury.

Process of Job Analysis

Strategic Choices

Information Gathering

Information Processing

Job Description

Job Specification

Process of Job Analysis- Step 1 Strategic Choices

Strategic Choices: Organization must make atleast 5 choices..

1.

Extent of employee involvement in job analysis- Information about job related information not job incumbent is obtained. Job holder is consulted. Extent of involvement of employees in evolution of Job analysis is debatable. Level of details of analysis- Variation from Time & Motion Studies to broad analysis of jobs on general duties. For e.g. Crane Operator analysis of frequency of job movements more relevant than a personnel managers position. In the latter, description of jobs duties & responsibilities would be more relevant.

2.

Process of Job Analysis contd

Strategic Choices: Organization must make atleast 5 choices.. 3. Timing & frequency of analysis- Job analysis generally conducted when: An organization is newly established & J.A. is initiated for the first time A new job is created in company A job is changed significantly due to change in technology, methods, procedures or systems. The organization is contemplating a new remuneration plan; or The employees or managers feel that there are certain inequities between job demands & remuneration. 4. Past-oriented v/s future oriented job analysis- Organizations changing rapidly due to fast growth or technological change need a more future-oriented approach to job analysis. Future orientation will allow organizations to begin hiring and training people for these jobs prior to actual change. E.g. [Link] replaced type writers. 5. Sources of job data Non-human sources such as existing [Link], training manuals, films of employees working on the job, literature such as magazines, newspapers etc. Human sources such as job analysts, incumbents, supervisors, job experts etc.

Process of Job Analysis Step 2 Information Gathering

Information gathering Decision on 3 issues: 1. What type of data is to be gathered work activities, Machines/ tools/ equipments used, Job context physical working conditions, work schedule, social context ; Personal Requirements Specific skills, training, work experience, education, aptitude etc. 2. Methods for data collection Observation, Interview, Questionnaires, Checklists, Technical conference, Diary methods. 3. Who collects the data Trained analyst, supervisor, job holder Information Processing Job Description Job Specification

Job Description
Job description implies objective listing of job title, tasks, duties & responsibilities involved in job. Job Specification involves listing of employee qualifications, skills and abilities. Often practitioners make no distinction between job description & job specification.

Methods of collecting Job Data

Observation Method Job analyst carefully observes the job holder at work & records what he or she does, or how he or she does & how much time is needed for completion of task. This method though simple, is time consuming & inapplicable to jobs with unobservable mental activities & complete & repetitive job cycles. Preferred for shortcycle, unskilled & semi-skilled jobs. Interviews Job analyst interviews the job holder & his/her supervisor to elicit information about the job. It is time consuming & may require more time & complication of analysis to analyse professional & managerial jobs. Bias on part of analyst & job holder may also cloud data. But, it involves talking to job holder who have a first hand data of how the job is performed. Questionnaire Job holders fill in a detailed structured questionnaire which are then approved by supervisors. The questions should contain: Job title of job holder & that of his/her manager / supervisor Job titles & numbers of staff reporting to the job holder Brief description of overall role or purpose of job A list of main tasks & duties that job holder has to carry out. It should contain the resources controlled, equipment used, the contracts made and frequency with which the tasks are carried out. Checklists Similar to questionnaire but contains fewer questions & has fewer subjective judgements & tends to be more objective in pattern through Yes or No answers variety. Job holders may tick only tasks that are included in their job. Checklists preparation must be done through specialists who must collect all relevant data before creating checklists. This technique is useful in large organizations where large number of people are assigned to one particular job. This technique is amenable to tabulation and recording on electronic data processing equipment. Technical conferences A conference of supervisors is used wherein the analyst initiates discussion which provides details of job. But, it lacks accuracy because actual job holders are not involved. Diary this method requires job holders to record in detail their activities each day. A combination of these approaches may be used depending upon the situation & organizational need.

Methods of collecting Job DataQuantitative Techniques

Position Analysis Questionnaire The PAQ contains 194 job elements on which a job is created depending on the degree to which an element is present. These elements are grouped into 6 general categories. The PAQ needs to be completed only by the Trained Job Analyst.

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:
1. 2. 3.

4.
5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Product, Marketing and financial strategy planning Co-ordination of other organizational units and personnel Internal business control Products and services responsibility Public and customer relations Advanced consulting Autonomy of actions Approval of financial commitments Staff service Supervision Complexity & Stress Advanced financial responsibility Broad personnel responsibility

Functional Job Analysis FJA is a worker-oriented job analytical approach which attempts to describe the whole person on the job.

Potential problems with Job Analysis

Support from Top management Single Means & Source No training or motivation Activities may be distorted

JOB DESIGN

Logical sequence to Job Analysis Job Design involves conscious efforts to organize tasks, duties & responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain objectives. Job Design integrates work content (tasks, functions, relationships), the rewards (extrinsic & intrinsic), and the qualifications required (skills, knowledge & abilities) for each job in a way that meets the needs of the employees and organizations.

Job Design Approaches

Job Rotation Moving employees from job to job to add variety/ challenge & reduce boredom. 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 & machines. Specialization of labour is the hallmark of job engineering. Job Enlargement It refers to the expansion of the number of different tasks performed by an employee in a single job. It attempts to add somewhat similar tasks to existing job so as to make it more interesting. An enlarged job can motivate for these reasons:

Task Variety Meaningful work modules Adding more meaning to repetitive tasks & helping employee understand the work more holistically. Ability Utilisation Greater satisfaction of workers by utilising their physical, & mental abilities better. Worker paced control J.E. schemes often move a worker from a machienpaced production line to a job in which the worker paces himself/ herself. Workers feel less fatigued & enjoy their work more if they can vary the rhythm and work at their own pace.

Job Design Approaches Contd

Job Enrichment Adding a few more motivators to a job to make it more rewarding. According to Herzberg, an enriched job has 8 characteristics:

Personal Accountability Direct Feedback Client Relationship Direct communication authority Control over resources Unique experience Scheduling of own work New learning

Socio-technical systems The social & technical systems need to be designed with respect to one another & to the demands of customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in external environment Ergonomics Focuses on minimising the physical demands and risks of work. This approach helps ensure that job demands are consistent with peoples physical capabilities to perform them with least risk. Involves design of aids to perform tasks.