Job Analysis and Design

 Features of Job Analysis

From the definitions in the preceding section, we can list out the features of job analysis as
follows:
 It approaches the task of defining the role, context, conditions, human behaviour,
performance standards, and responsibilities of a job systematically.
 It helps in establishing the job’s worth to an organization. In other words, it measures
the value and contribution of a job to the growth of the organization.
 It establishes job relatedness, which is a crucial input for HR decisions involving
recruitment, selection, compensations, training, health and safety.
 It assists in the resource management and strategy formulation process of the
organization to help it achieve its business goals and objectives effectively.
 It helps in developing a job profile for each job and acts as the basis for developing job
description and specification statements.
 It facilitates the process of understanding the impact of environmental changes on
individual jobs.
 It enables the organization to attempt job improvements through job reengineering.

 Goals of Job Analysis

Job Evaluation
Job Evaluation is indeed a ranking system in a business based on its respective properties, duties
and responsibilities. The primary goal of the job assessment is to measure an organization's
relative importance. The organisation would understandably like to determine the wage scale of a
job based on the organization's comparative value and competitive value in the labour. Job
assessment provides critical inputs for a systematic job assessment which allows an organisation
to offer its employees a fair pay. Job analysis therefore helps to motivate existing workers and to
attract the very best to the company.
Job Design and Redesign
Job design is the process of combining various tasks in order to create a work. The work design
process is often influenced by employment requirements, employee satisfaction and business
objectives. A job is designed when it is first introduced and when new jobs are replaced. The
task is renamed industrial engineering when it is designed to improve the efficiency and
economy of efficiency. On the contrary, it is known as human engineering if it is redesigned to
fit the jobs and the efficiency of the staff.
Classification of Job
Classification of jobs means grouping working types based on their identity. The foundation of
such a grouping could be the level of difficulty, responsibility and responsibility for a job and the
compartmental requirements of the work holder. The purpose of the job classification is to allow
the company to assess the skill levels needed for each job group. The job classification enables
the organisation to identify a consistent selection, training and compensation procedure for
similar types of jobs. This is where job analytics provide the organisation with the information
needed to properly classify and group the job.
Job Description and Job Specification
The last stage in the job analysis process is the preparation of two essential documents—job
description and job specification. The written statement of the findings of job analysis is called a
job description. It provides information about job title and alternate titles, duties, authorities,
responsibilities, accountabilities, reporting authority, relationship with other jobs, working
conditions, and job summary.
HR Planning
HR planning is the process of forecasting the human resource requirements of a firm and their
availability, both within and outside the organization, to execute future corporate strategies. The
purpose of HR planning is to choose the right person for the right job at the right cost. It aims at
linking human resource management with the goals, mission and visions of the organization.
Recruitment and Selection
Once a job vacancy occurs, an organisation can analyse whether or not that job vacancy has to be
filled. If the findings of the job analysis do not support continuing this job in the organisation,
the vacancy in question does not have to be filled. On the other hand, the organisation can
continue the process of recruitment and selection if the work remains necessary. The job
description and job specification typically form the basis for the recruitment strategy and the
process of selection. For example, the choice of internal and external recruitment sources for a
job depends usually on the job description statement.
Likewise, the job specification provides the basis in the selection procedure for an objective
assessment of candidates. It helps HR managers differentiate the essential requirements from the
desirable ones for a job. It also makes it easier to define criteria in the selection process to
determine the success or failure of a candidate. When a choice is made without a job analysis or
based on a poorly-written job description, the company may be faced with grave problems later.
Training and Development
Job analysis provides crucial input to an organization while determining the training needs of its
employees. Job description and specification can provide exact information about the levels of
skills and knowledge required for a job.
Evaluation of performance
The evaluation of performance is the process for assessing the effectiveness of an organisation's
employees. It requires the determination, before comparing them with actual performance, of
standards and evaluation criteria. The Job Analysis provides the necessary information on the
tasks, responsibilities and job standards. The accuracy of the evaluation results appears to be
essential for various HR decisions concerning fixation of pay, advocacy, disciplinary measures,
identification of grievances and employee feedback.
Administration of Wages and salary
The package of compensation should exactly reflect the value of a job for the company. Job
analysis helps the organisation to measure each job's relative value. The information on an
employee's tasks and responsibilities, difficulty levels, requirements for skills, work environment
and position within the organisational structure available in the job description helps the firm to
determine an adequate compensation schedule for each job. The perception of fair pay by
employees will, in their turn, help the company to achieve the desired degree of motivation.
Safety and Health
Job analysis can provide accurate information on the nature and type of working conditions
essential to a work environment that is free of accidents. The safety standards for the work can
also be suggested. It can also identify the physical risks involved, as well as the behaviour and
conditions that could lead to injuries and accidents. Information on the need for safety training
and safety equipment can also be determined by job analyses. This means that the job analysis
report is a worthwhile source for an organization's health and safety management.
Industrial Relations
Industrial relations between employers and employees based on work can be defined as any form
of dealing. It explains the relationship between the management and employees in the company.
The findings of the job analysis in a job description improve the objectivity of decision-making
with respect to promotion, transfer, discipline, compensation and complaint handling. This helps
to reduce the chances of friction in the organisation and to ensure harmonious industrial
relations. The job analysis helps the organisation. The information of the employment analysis
can also be useful in the decision-making process for management as well as for unions.
Legal Requirements
The job description declaration is an essential document to justify legal and moral employment,
promotion policies, disciplinary actions, and grievance redress procedures for an organisation. In
fact it is a legal requirement for an organisation, for each position in the organisation, to maintain
a job description statement.
  Job analysis Process
Determination of the purpose of employment analysis
The initial step is to determine how the job analysis is finally used. Indeed, employment analysis
is relevant to nearly all of the organization's HR activities. However, for a specific purpose, an
organisation can perform a job analysis, such as recruiting or determining their remuneration.
The organisation may concentrate in particular on certain important aspects of the job, depending
on the purpose of the analysis.
Gathering Background Information about the Job
It is essential for an organization to review the background information about the job to know its
relative importance in the organization. While doing so, the job analysis should focus on
identifying information relating to all the important elements of the job. This information can be
gathered with the help of organizational charts, process charts, and job classification.
Selecting Analytical Representative Jobs
Instead of analysing all, organisations often only choose a few jobs. This is because many works
have similar characteristics and have similar features. Furthermore, it may be time consuming
and expensive for organisations to analyse all their jobs. As a result, it is important for an
organisation to identify representative jobs from an identical group of jobs.
Collecting relevant job information
This step collects information on different aspects of the job. The information is collected,
specifically, on the duties, levels of responsibility, authority, responsibilities, the content and
context of the job, the employee's desired behaviour, critical knowledge, skills and skills and
training requirements . Through contacts with present and previous staff, supervisors and
managers, these information pieces can be obtained. Data collection uses methods such as
structured or open-ended questionnaires, interviews, task inventories, checklists and
observations.
Checking the collected information
The collected data are analysed carefully at this stage and a job analysis report is prepared to
examine the job. In general, the individual employees and their immediate supervisors are part of
such an analysis. The employee's opinion shall be verified to verify that the job analysis report is
correct and complete. If the employee or supervisor notes that the report is incomplete or
incomplete, additional information can be collected.
Developing a Job Description and Job Specification
This is the last step in the job analysis process. On the basis of the job analysis report, the two
key company documents, namely the job description and job specifications, are produced. A job
description is a written statement with information on the duties, responsibilities, accountability,
conditions of work and risks of the job. In short, the different features of a job are a summary.
 Techniques of Data Collection in Job Analysis

 Questionnaire Method
In this method, the job analyst distributes a questionnaire to the employees who are part
of the job analysis process. Once the questionnaire has been answered and returned by
them, the job analyst analyses it thoroughly to gather job-related details like duties and
responsibilities. Many organizations use structured questionnaires with identical and
predetermined questions. Others adopt a structured checklist method. This method
records the responses of the employees in a predetermined statement form.
 Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) Model
It identifies the job and human characteristics individually and then inter-relates them for
the purposes of analysis. It is basically a structured questionnaire designed to gather
quantifiable information about the different dimensions of the job like duties,
responsibilities and accountabilities.
 Functional Job Analysis (FJA) Model
This is a worker-centred job analysis. It analyses the whole personality of the person on
the job. It involves analysing job-related mathematical competency, verbal ability, and
analytical and judgement skills. It evaluates how the employee relates himself with other
employees, tasks and information.
 Management Position Description Questionnaire (MPDQ) Model
This method is ideal for the job analysis of managerial positions. In this method,
managerial people identify the items that explain their responsibilities in the job. This
method has a wide application in deciding the training requirements of the new entrants
to the managerial cadre.
 Work Profiling System (WPS) Model
This is a system-based technique for gathering the necessary information relating to job
analysis. This is a structured questionnaire method for collecting data about the personal
qualities of the employees who usually perform technical and managerial jobs.
 Multipurpose Occupational Systems Analysis Inventory-Closed Ended
Questionnaire (MOSAIC)
Model This instrument is useful for many jobs in the firm and gathers data from
employees on a wide range of HR activities like recruitment, selection,
compensation and performance evaluation. This questionnaire contains 151 items
relating to job tasks and 22 items relating to competencies for analysis.
 Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ) Model
This model is appropriate for exempt and non-exempt jobs. This instrument contains five
sections under the following captions: “Background” with 41 general questions
  Job Performance Method
In this method, the job is performed by the job analyst himself to understand the different
requirements for its execution. For instance, information like the nature of the job, the
level of difficulties, the extent of concentration required, and the stress levels can be
better understood by the job analyst through his own experience in the job.

 Observation Method
In this method, the job analyst closely observes the performance of the employee in the
job. He records the various tasks performed by the employee as part of his job. In fact,
this method is ideal for gathering first-hand information relating to working conditions,
the physical activities involved in the job, the normal time required to complete the job,
and so on. It is ideal for manual jobs completed within a short period.

 Critical Incident Method (CIT)

A critical incident is a significant event that takes place in the job environment and forces
the employee to respond in the form of performance or behaviour. Critical incidents are
considered as snapshots in the regular course of the job. The aim of the critical incident method
is to gather relevant and behaviour-centred description of the job. On the basis of the past
experience, the employee would analyse the incident given to him and subsequently present a
report to the job analyst. The incident and the response are assessed on the basis of the actions,
consequences, processes and results that emerged from the incident.
 Interview Method
In this method, the job analyst asks the employee questions about various dimensions of the job.
He then contacts the employee’s supervisors to get further information and also to verify the
correctness of the information collected from the employee. For data collection, the analyst can
use either a structured interview with a definite format and questions or an unstructured
interview with no predetermined questions. However, a structured interview format will facilitate
a better comparison of information gathered from different sources.
 Diary Maintenance Method
In this method, the employee is asked to keep a record of all the activities performed by him as
part of the job analysis process. He should record the information in a chronological order. The
information may include the actual work undertaken and the time devoted to its completion.
Diary maintenance will enable the employee to keep track of all the activities, including the
insignificant ones. These insignificant activities may later become critical for job performance at
the time of job analysis.
 Technical Conference Method
The essence of this method is that it relies on the technical soundness and experience of the
supervisors for gathering relevant information about the job. Difficult task is organized among
the supervisors to collect data about the various tasks associated with the job. In addition to the
supervisors, the job holder and the representatives from the HR department could also participate
in the discussion. In technical conferences, the participants discuss about the consequences of the
inclusion or exclusion of each task in the job. The main advantage of this method is the
availability of expert views in the job analysis process. The weaknesses of this method are: (i) it
is a time consuming process; and (ii) it may elude consensus while making decisions.
 Task Inventory Analysis
This method focuses on identifying the list of tasks that form a part of the job. It also helps in
preparing a brief description of each of these tasks. The basic aim of this method is to ascertain
the KSA required for an effective performance of a job. The three steps in the task inventory
analysis are interview, survey, and application of KSA matrix for creation of a task inventory.

 Job Description
These are job description and job specification. Job description is a written statement that
describes all the aspects of a job. It aims at simplifying and standardizing the HR activities of an
organization. It also enables the employees to understand clearly what is expected of them in
their jobs. A job description should be comprehensive in every aspect. It should provide
information about job title, alternate title (if any), job position in the organizational structure,
relationship with other jobs, and the tasks, duties, responsibilities and accountabilities associated
with the job. In addition, it should offer information on working conditions, physical hazard, and
special equipments required for task accomplishment.
Important components of a job description statement.
Job Identification
This section of the job description provides information about the job title, alternative title (if
any), the code number of the job, the department, division and plant. An appropriate job title
easily identifies the nature of the job and its position in the organization.
Job Summary
This section provides a brief review of the content of the job. It mentions only the major
functions of the job. It could also include information on the employer’s views on the role and
importance of the job and its holders in an overall context. It contains a brief description of the
objectives of the position, the results expected from the employee, and information on the degree
of freedom available to each job holder.
Job Relationships
This section indicates the employee’s relationship with other jobs located immediately above and
below his job in the organizational structure. It also indicates the relationship of the job with the
outsiders and higher authorities.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
This section provides a comprehensive record of the duties and responsibilities associated with
the job. Job description usually describes the major duties to be performed in a job. Usually, it
also mentions the rate of recurrence of each duty and responsibility and the average time
required for performing each duty.

 Job Specification

A job specification can either be part of the job description or an independent statement. It is
actually a document that specifies the minimum acceptable qualities required for a person to
complete the job satisfactorily. It usually contains the details of the employee’s characteristics
and the qualifications essential for the job.
The important components of a job specification are listed as follows:
Education and Training
A job specification states whether the job requires school- or college-level education. It mentions
the technical or professional qualification requirements of the job holder. Finally, it specifies the
minimum training requirements the job holder must have completed.
Work Experience
A job specification prescribes the work experience requirements for the job holder and
sometimes also the minimum experience for effective performance.
Skills and Competencies
Under this component head, a job specification states the types of skills necessary for the
satisfactory performance of the job. It indicates the nature of skills required like computer skills,
communication skills, technical skills, and statistical skills.
Physical Strength and Stamina
If the job involves physical activities like lifting or moving heavy objects, the job specification
also mentions the physical requirements of the job holder.
Stress-Coping Ability
When the nature of the job requires a lot of stress endurance and involves constant work pressure
in the form of deadlines or night shifts, the stress management ability of the candidate should be
mentioned.
Special Needs
If the job requires any special skills, knowledge and ability like extensive travelling, working at
odd hours, and good memory power, it should be clearly mentioned. Quite understandably, a job
specification has lots of application in HR activities like recruitment, selection, training, and
compensation fixation.