What is Job Analysis?

A job analysis is the process used to collect information about the duties, responsibilities,

necessary skills, outcomes, and work environment of a particular job. You need as much data as

possible to put together a job description, which is the frequent outcome of the job analysis.

Additional outcomes include recruiting plans, position postings and advertisements, and

performance development planning within your performance management system.

The job analysis may include these activities:

reviewing the job responsibilities of current employees,

doing Internet research and viewing sample job descriptions online or offline highlighting

similar jobs,

analyzing the work duties, tasks, and responsibilities that need to be accomplished by the

employee filling the position,

researching and sharing with other companies that have similar jobs, and

articulation of the most important outcomes or contributions needed from the position.

As discussed already, job analysis involves collecting and recording job-related data such as

knowledge and skills required to perform a job, duties and responsibilities involved, education

qualifications and experience required and physical and emotional characteristics required to

perform a job in a desired manner. The main purposes of conducting a job analysis process is to

use this particular information to create a right fit between job and employee, to assess the

performance of an employee, to determine the worth of a particular task and to analyze training

and development needs of an employee delivering that specific job.

Let’s understand the concept with the help of an example. If the job of an executive sales

manager is to be analyzed, the first and foremost thing would be to determine the worth of this

job. The next step is to analyze whether the person is able to deliver what is expected of him. It

also helps in knowing if he or she is perfect for this job. The process doesn’t finish here. It also

involves collection of other important facts and figures such as job location, department or

division, compensation grade, job duties, routine tasks, computer, educational, communicational

and physical skills, MIS activities, reporting structure, ability to adapt in a given environment,

leadership skills, licenses and certifications, ability to grow and close sales, ability to handle

clients, superiors and subordinates and of course, the presentation of an individual.

Purpose of Job Analysis

Job Analysis plays an important role in recruitment and selection, job evaluation, job

designing, deciding compensation and benefits packages, performance appraisal, analyzing

training and development needs, assessing the worth of a job and increasing personnel as well as

organizational productivity.

1. Recruitment and Selection: Job Analysis helps in determining what kind of person is

required to perform a particular job. It points out the educational qualifications, level of

experience and technical, physical, emotional and personal skills required to carry out a

job in desired fashion. The objective is to fit a right person at a right place.

2. Performance Analysis: Job analysis is done to check if goals and objectives of a

particular job are met or not. It helps in deciding the performance standards, evaluation

criteria and individual’s output. On this basis, the overall performance of an employee is

measured and he or she is appraised accordingly.

3. Training and Development: Job Analysis can be used to assess the training and

development needs of employees. The difference between the expected and actual output

determines the level of training that need to be imparted to employees. It also helps in

deciding the training content, tools and equipments to be used to conduct training and

methods of training.

4. Compensation Management: Of course, job analysis plays a vital role in deciding the

pay packages and extra perks and benefits and fixed and variable incentives of

employees. After all, the pay package depends on the position, job title and duties and

responsibilities involved in a job. The process guides HR managers in deciding the worth

of an employee for a particular job opening.

5. Job Designing and Redesigning: The main purpose of job analysis is to streamline the

human efforts and get the best possible output. It helps in designing, redesigning,

enriching, evaluating and also cutting back and adding the extra responsibilities in a

particular job. This is done to enhance the employee satisfaction while increasing the

human output.

Therefore, job analysis is one of the most important functions of an HR manager or department.

This helps in fitting the right kind of talent at the right place and at the right time.

Methods of Job Analysis

There are different methods used by organization to collect information and conduct the job

analysis. These methods are

1.       Personal observation: - In this method the observer actually observes the concerned

worker. He makes a list of all the duties performed by the worker and the qualities

required to perform those duties based on the information collected, job analysis is

prepared.

2.       Interview method: - In this method an interview of the employee is conducted. A

group of experts conduct the interview. They ask questions about the job, skilled levels,

and difficulty levels. They question and cross question and collect information and based

on this information job analysis is prepared.

3.       Critical incident method: - In this method the employee is asked to write one or more

critical incident that has taken place on the job. The incident will give an idea about the

problem, how it was handled, qualities required and difficulty levels etc. critical incident

method gives an idea about the job and its importance. (a critical means important and

incident means anything which takes place in the job)

4.       Questioner method: - In this method a questioner is provided to the employee and

they are asked to answer the questions in it. The questions may be multiple choice

questions or open ended questions. The questions decide how exactly the job analysis

will be done. The method is effective because people would think twice before putting

anything in writing.

5.       Log records/Daily Diary:-Companies can ask employees to maintain log records or

daily diary and job analysis can be done on the basis of information collected from the

record. A log record is a book in which employee records /writes all the activities

performed by him on the job. The records are extensive as well as exhausted in nature

and provide a fair idea about the duties and responsibilities in any job. In this method

worker actually does the work himself and idea of the skill required, the difficulty level

of the job, the efforts required can be known easily.

6.       HRD records: - Records of every employee are maintained by HR department. The

record contain details about educational qualification, name of the job, number of years

of experience, duties handled, any mistakes committed in the past and actions taken,

number of promotions received, area of work, core competency  area, etc. based on these

records job analysis can be done.