Job Analysis: Uses of Job Analysis

Workforce planning

Essentially the flip side of worker mobility. Orgs will want to plan for jobs that will need to be filled and to be confident that qualified applicants will be available to fill them. Critical in the context of management and leadership succession planning, and such planning requires the identification of present and future competencies via job analysis. Job analysis indicates the KSAOs needed for success in that job, orgs can then design selection and training and developmental programs to ensure that applications will possess the needed KSAOs

Series

Groups can be divided into a set of these. For the group of sworn law enforcement, this set would include police officer, detective, police sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and major.

Efficiency

Improving this at work includes things such as shortening the work process or making it easier to do - for example, reducing the number of physical movements in a repetitive task, developing work aids (perhaps a checklist giving all the needed steps for completing a job), or designing better tools (such as a shovel of a certain size). Among teams, this is promoted by the allocation of tasks to individuals to minimize task redundancy but also to avoid requiring too many KSAOs for any given job.

Safety and Health

Job analysis can identify specific behaviors and working conditions that increase the chances of accidents and injury. Improving safety can involve changes in the work process, the development of work aids and tools, or changes in the work context (work environment). Likewise, job analysis can identify work aspects that might contribute to reduced stress and burnout at work.

System design

Overlaps with team design but also attends to assigning tasks to equipment and people in the system.

Training

The process by which such learning (what workers need to know, think, or do to perform successfully on the job, typically learned after the worker is hired) takes place. Job analysis informs the development of this by identifying the key KSAOs job incumbents need to perform the tasks of the job. Once it is clear what KSAOs incumbents still need to develop, this can be designed. In the team context, which is increasingly relied upon in modern workplaces, must include development of team competencies such as conflict resolution skills in addition to task and functional competencies

Team Design

The process of bundling tasks or clusters of tasks for a team of workers as opposed to individuals.

Job Design

The process of bundling tasks or clusters of tasks into a collective called a job. Necessary whenever a new job is created or changed.

Job Evaluation

The process of establishing the worth of jobs to an employer. Employers want the pay for various jobs to match their value in relation to one another within the company and to stack up well against pay rates offered by other companies. By maintaining fair pay, this helps attract and retain people.

Performance appraisal

The process of evaluating the job performance of individuals (and now teams) who have been working for some period of time. Usually completed by management and used to help make decisions about raises and promotions and to give workers feedback about their performance. Sometimes used as motivational tools. Because of equal employment laws, has become increasingly important to tie these into important tasks and work behaviors required by the job.

Job Classification

The process of placing one or more jobs into a cluster or family of similar jobs (ex. based on its requirements, job is labeled Programmer Analyst III). The family may be based on lines of authority, duties, and responsibilities of the work or behavioral requirements of the job. Can be important for setting pay rates and selecting employees.

Element

The smallest unit of work that can be defined as having a clear beginning, middle, and end. Ex, for a police officer, one of these might be 'dialing the telephone.' Any smaller unit of work content would require descriptions of physical motions or sensory processes, like 'reaching for the phone, (firmly) grasping it' etc

Job redesign

The sorting of tasks to replace old jobs and functions with new ones. Often part of an effort to increase work efficiency and productivity. May also be conducted to increase employee satisfaction, motivation, safety, or product quality. In today's dynamic business climate, many jobs are having this done almost on a daily basis, sometimes by the workers themselves.

Job Analysis

The systematic process of discovering the nature of a job by dividing it into smaller units where the process results in one or more written products with the goal of describing what is done in the job or or what capabilities are needed to effectively perform the job.

What are the 12 uses of job analysis?

1. Job description, 2. Job classification, 3 Job evaluation, 4, job/team/system design and redesign, 5 human resource requirements and specifications, 6 performance appraisal and management, 7 training, 8 worker mobility, 9 workforce planning, 10 efficiency, 11 safety and health, 12 legal and quasi legal requirements

Job

Each individual part of a series. In the series of sworn law enforcement, police officer would be one of these. Refers to the work content performed by a group of people with similar work, such as the work described by the title 'police officer.'

Job Description

A brief written description of work - a snapshot intended to communicate the essence of the job. Usually contains identifiers (job title + other classifying info), a summary (mission or objective statement), and duties and tasks (what gets done). May contain other info such as reporting relations, accountability, and minimum qualifications (the minimum human attributes needed to perform the job adequately). Important for communicating the nature of the job to someone who doesn't already know what the job is. (Fred says they're bullshit but you should read them anyway)

Job (Units of work)

A collection of related positions that are all similar enough in terms of the work performed or in the goals that they serve for the organization that everyone in the org agrees to call the positions by the same title.

Position

A set of duties, tasks, activities, and elements able to be performed by a single worker. In our terminology, each employed person has one of these, rather than a job

The World of Work

Broadest level, includes all jobs and thus isn't useful in practical work

Activity

Clusters or groups of elements directed at fulfilling a work requirement. A police officer uses a phone on many occasions as part of 'answering calls related to landlord-tenant disputes. One step larger than element in units of work. May expect to find more than one hundred of these in a typical job, and several hundred in a complex job.

Tasks

Collections of activities that are directed toward the achievement of specific job objectives. An example of this for police officers might be 'talks to conflicting parties to settle disturbances." A thorough job analysis for a typical job will usually produce from 30 to 100 tasks. Tasks have a clear beginning, middle, and end. It's useful to think of this as starting with an action verb. The end is directly linked to the goals of the job. In the previous example, one goal is to settle conflicts.

Groups

Each branch can be divided into about a dozen of these. Ex) within the branch of public safety, law enforcement jobs would be one of these

Worker mobility

People move in and out of jobs via initial appointments, transfers, promotions, and even demotions. Generally in everyone's best interest that people and jobs fit together well. Information about this is provided to workers by career counseling, and some orgs provide formal career ladders or paths that are intended to foster skill development and occupational success for individuals. Related issue: use of job analysis data to focus on other work people may be able to perform if they have a permanent disability.

Human resource requirements

Refer to human attributes necessary or desirable for performing the job. Often thought of as KSAOs. Ex, an accounting job might require skill in using current tax software.

Job specifications

Refer to minimum qualifications that employers require for the job. Ex, a college degree for engineering, 6mo experience as a cashier. Can be used to inform job applicants and staff charged with screening applicants about standards the applicants must meet

Branch

Second broadest level, ex, public safety - encompasses all jobs whose content deals with. The world of work can be divided into about a dozen of these.

Legal and quasi legal requirements

Several different laws apply to conditions of employment, including safety and health, hiring, training, paying, promoting, and firing employees. Several governmental agencies are charged with enforcing such laws. These include the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Each agency has sets of guidelines intended to help employers comply with employment laws. Job analysis is used to describe jobs and worker qualities so that interested parties can determine whether employment practices serve to improve productivity and efficiency and do not unlawfully discriminate against people.

Performance management

The broader process of managing the performance of individuals and teams. Encompasses appraisals but incorporates aspects such as coaching as needed in addition to periodic formal reviews.