Compensation - Chapter 4
What does job analysis have to do with internal alignment?
An internal structure based on job-related information provides both managers and employees a work-related rationale for pay differences. Employees who understand this rationale can see where their work fits into the bigger picture and can direct their behavior toward organization objectives. Job analysis data also help managers defend their decisions when challenged.
Job
Group of tasks performed by one person that make up the the total work assignment of that person; e.g., customer support representative
Job family
Grouping of related with broadly similar content;e.g., marketing, engineering, office support, technical
Who collects the information for job analysis?
HR or Supervisors
Job Analysis (Acceptability)
If job holders and managers are dissatisfied with the initial data collected and the process, they are not likely to buy into the resulting job structure or the pay rates attached to that structure.
Job Analysis
the system process of collecting information that identifies similarities and differences in the work
Why perform job analysis?
- Establishes similarities and diferences in the work contents of the jobs -Establish an internally fair and aligned job struture. If jobs have equal content then in all likelihood the pay established for them will be equal and vice versa.
How would you decide whether to use job-based or person-based structures?
A job-based structure relies on the work content—tasks, behaviors, responsibilities. A person-based structure shifts the focus to the employee: the skills, knowledge, or competencies the employee possesses, whether or not they are used in the employee's particular job.
Job specification
A list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform a particular job. The specifcation focuses on the person
How can the information be collected?
Conventional methods: Ask people who are doing the jobs to fill out a questionnaire or interview jobholders/supervisors. Advantage: Increases their understanding of the process Disadvantage: Only as good as the people involved. If parts are accidentally committed or not stressed enough they may be faulty. Quantitative Methods Quantitative job analysis (QJA): Complete a questionnaire online. Uses statistical analysis of the results.
Job Analysis Summary
Encouraging employee behaviors that help achieve an organization's objectives, and fostering a sense of fairness among employees, are two hallmarks of a useful internal pay structure. One of the first strategic pay decisions is how much to align a pay structure internally compared to aligning it to external market forces. Do not be misled. The issue is not achieving internal alignment versus alignment with external market forces. Rather, the strategic decision focuses on sustaining the optimal balance of internally aligned and externally responsive pay structures that helps the organization achieve its mission. Both are required. This part of the book focuses on one of the first decisions managers face in designing pay systems: how much to emphasize pay structures that are internally aligned with the work performed, the organization's structure, and its strategies. Whatever the choice, the decision needs to support (and be supported by) the organization's overall human resource strategy. Next, managers must decide whether job and/or individual employee characteristics will be the basic unit of analysis supporting the pay structure. This is followed by deciding what data will be collected, what method(s) will be used to collect the information, and who should be involved in the process. A key test of an effective and fair pay structure is acceptance of results by managers and employees. The best way to ensure acceptance of job analysis results is to involve employees as well as supervisors in the process. At the minimum, all employees should be informed of the purpose and progress of the activity. If almost everyone agrees about the importance of job analysis, does that mean everyone does it? Of course not. Unfortunately, job analysis can be tedious and time-consuming. Often the job is given to newly hired compensation analysts, ostensibly to help them learn the organization, but perhaps there's also a hint of "rites of passage" in such assignments. Alternatives to job-based structures such as skill-based or competency-based systems are being experimented with in many firms. The premise is that basing structures on these other criteria will encourage employees to become more flexible, and thus fewer workers will be required for the same level of output. This may be the argument, but as experience increases with the alternatives, managers are discovering that they can be as time consuming and bureaucratic as job analysis. Bear in mind, job content remains the conventional criterion for structures.
Verify the description
Final step in the job analysis. Sit with jobholders and supervisors and discuss line by line.
Judgement Call
In the face of all the difficulties, time, expense, and dissatisfaction, why on earth would you as a manager bother with job analysis? Because work-related information is needed to determine pay, and differences in work determine pay differences. There is no satisfactory substitute that can ensure the resulting pay structure will be work-related or will provide reliable, accurate data for making and explaining pay decisions. If work information is required, then the real issue should be, How much detail is needed to make these pay decisions? The answer is, Enough to help set individual employees' pay, encourage continuous learning, increase the experience and skill of the work force, and minimize the risk of pay-related grievances. Omitting this detail and contributing to an incorrect and costly decision by uninformed managers can lead to unhappy employees who drive away customers with their poor service, file lawsuits, or complain about management's inability to justify their decisions. The response to inadequate analysis ought not to be to dump the analysis; rather, the response should be to obtain a more useful analysis.
What information should be collected during a job analysis?
Job Data Identification: Job titles, departments, number of people who hold the job, whether is exempt or not Content: the heart of the job analysis. Content involves the elemental tasks or units of work. Task data reveal the actual work performed and its purpose or outcome Employee Data Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): groups work information into seven basic factors: information input, mental processes, work output, relationships with other persons, job context, other job characteristics, and general dimensions. Essential Elements: ADA requires that the essential elements of a job - those that cannot be reassigned to other workers - must be specified for the jobs covered by legislation. Reasonable accommodation must be made to enable an otherwise-qualified handicapped person to perform those elements. Essential functions refers to the fundamental job duties of the employment position the individual with a disability holds or desires.
Job analysis has been considered the cornerstone of human resource management. Precisely how does it support managers making pay decisions?
Job analysis helps in making pay decisions by providing accurate and reliable information about the various job positions in the organization. It highlights the similarities and differences in the content of the job and provide the rationale and basis of differences in pay structure of different positions. Thus, by highlighting the differences in terms of skill requirements, responsibility, authority and decision making authority associated with various jobs and other peculiar characteristic of each job position, Job analysis helps in the development of a fair pay structure, which is well accepted and understood the organizational employees. Job analysis determines the level of compensation which is needed to motivate and retain the employee to a particular job position. In other words, it makes it sure that the employee is being remunerated fairly as per the requirements of the position.
Why do many managers say that job analysis is a colossal waste of their time and the time of their employees? Are they right?
They don't understand the process and why it is important. It can also be tedious and time-consuming. No they are not right.
What is the critical advantage of quantitative approaches over conventional approaches to job analysis?
Potential subjectivity as well as the huge amount of time conventional approaches makes quantitative approaches have more of an advantage because it can reach more people and take less time
Judging job analysis
Reliability Validity Acceptability Currency Usefulness
Job Analysis (Reliability)
Reliability is a measure of consistency of results among various analysts, carious methods, various sources of data, or over time. Reliability is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for validity.
Tasks
Smallest unit of analysis, a specific statement of what a person does; e.g., answers the telephone. Similar tasks can be grouped into a task dimension; e.g. responsible for ensuring that accurate information is provided to the customer
Distinguish between task data and behavioral data.
Task data reveal the actual work performed and its purpose or outcome.
Who provides the information for job analysis?
The decision on the source of the data (jobholders, supervisors, and/or analysts) hinges on how to ensure consistent, accurate, useful, and acceptable data. Expertise about the work resides with the jobholders and the supervisors; hence, they are the principal sources. For key managerial/professional jobs, supervisors "two levels above" have also been suggested as valuable sources since they may have a more strategic view of how jobs fit in the overall organization. In other instances, subordinates and employees in other jobs that interface with the job under study are also involved. Milkovich, George. Compensation (p. 120). McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Kindle Edition.
Job Analysis (Currency)
To be valid, acceptable, and useful (see below), job information must be up to date.
Job Analysis (Usefulness)
Usefulness refers to the practicality of the information collected. For pay purposes, job analysis provides work-related information to help determine how much to pay for a job—it helps determine whether the job is similar to or different from other jobs. If job analysis does this in a reliable, valid, and acceptable way and can be used to make pay decisions, then it is useful
What discrepancies exists for job analysis?
What if the supervisor and employee present different views of the job? Best way to mitgate this: get more data by holding more meetings and talking to more people.
Major decisions in job analysis
Why perform job analysis what information is needed how to collect information who to involve how useful are the results
Job Description
list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that make up a job. The description focuses on the job
Supply chain analysis
looks at how an organization does it work: activities pursed to accomplish specific objectives for specific customers (both internal and external)
Offshoring
refers to the movement of jobs to locations beyond a country's borders. High susceptible jobs: not only those that require little education and training, such as data entry keyers and telemarketers, but also computer programmers and tax prepares.
Job Analysis (Validity)
validity examines the convergence of results among sources of data and methods. If several job incumbents, supervisors, and peers respond in similar ways to questionnaires, then it is more likely that the information is valid. However, a sign-off on the results does not guarantee the information's validity.33 It may mean only that all involved were sick to death of the process and wanted to get rid of the analyst so they could get back to work.
Describe the major decisions involved in job analysis.
• Why perform job analysis? • What information is needed? • How to collect information? • Who to involve? • How useful are the results?
