The Process of Job Analysis - Example

Name: Institution: Job Analysis PART ONE The Process of Job Analysis This part of the report will revolve around the discourse of job analysis and its inherent competency drivers that should be adopted by firms to bolster performance improvement. As suggested, the job analysis discourse is a processes and not a single activity. The process ubiquitously anchors on the manager’s decisions as regards where to effectively situate human resources in order to optimize skills and talents, and how to determine the time when the company requires additional employees. Bohlander &Snell (2009) adds that the job analysis process underscores the utility of managerial tools that maintain only necessary job functions in the organization, and installation of leadership instruments that aid in development of realistic performance assessment standards. Additionally, job analysis process helps in identification of core jobs and in preparation of a strategy to have them filled with appropriate skill. It cannot be overemphasized that efficacy in the management’s job analysis process is a great relief and a core driver of performance. As to why companies should adopt proper job analysis processes, it is important to note the inherent tools that help firms in maintaining the right quality and quantity of human resources. Moreover, proper job analysis aids the firm in assessment of performance on realistic standards, and the process is merged useful in measuring existing or upcoming training and development needs that enhance productivity. This implies that a proper job analysis that includes all crucial features is warranted. Sequence of Job Analysis As aforementioned, the primary purpose of job analysis is to identify the worth of a particular job within an organization, which highlights the mechanisms of optimizing human talent, rooting out dummy employees, and creating performance measurement standards that are reasonable and reliable. These premises underscore the clear sequence of steps that necessitates logical job analysis. The initial step in the job analysis processes involves the identification of a clear purpose that must be defined based on the stated job context. The manager in charge must discern the need and expected results before deploying an analysis process in order to define the type and nature of data to be collected. In any information dependent human resource management processes, the outputs are as good as the person conducting the analysis. This premise points at the appointment of a competent lead analyst that understands the full scope of the purpose of the process and the desired outcomes. The lead job analyzer must not only be competent but also unbiased in the provision of impartial advice, guidelines and the deployment of prerequisite methods. Although the other strategic steps may appear negligible, the process requires definitive approach on how the analysis is conducted and a strategic decisions making. According to Bohlander and Snell (2009), the lead job analyzer should lay down a clear and objective plan that indicates every step of the analysis including expected output. Moreover, there should be an explicit statement of the extent of employee involvement in the process, the amount and quality of target data and how such would be recorded. The job analysis processes requires clarity about the sources of data, collection methods, and finally the data procession and storage. Before indulging into the empirical data collection, the analysis process requires that the analyst acquaint themselves with the employ all designated tools and instruments of the process, and make adequate preparations on how to go about the process. At the preparation stage, the analyst should ensure adequate communication of the whole process within the company, which bolsters acceptability and benefit of support in preparation of important documentations. Upon preparing a workable environment through effective communication, the job analyst enters the data collection process that involves issuance of questionnaires, interviews, and feedback forms that harness all necessary information. Sims (2002) argues that before capping the activities of job analysis, the officers involved have to ensure appropriate documentation in order to audit the integrity of the data collected that forms the informational bedrock for describing the job at hand. In discussing the job analysis process, full statement of the hierarchical steps that have to be followed bolsters the understanding of the inherent advantages. The explicit highlights through the steps characterize the gains that organizations pursue by engaging the description of a particular job, which is crucial in the optimization of human capital and other corporate assets. In addition to the description of the stepwise approach in job analysis process, other activities of insurmountable value include the methods deployed in actualizing the process. PART TWO Methods for Conducting Job Analysis It is imperative that with its increasing importance in the contemporary human resource management, job analysis has acquired unique dynamism and complexity that have exacerbated the conventional methods deployed. In this context though, the report will acknowledge the existence of four core types: observation, interview techniques, questionnaires, and job appraisal methods that buttress the extensive discourse. The systematic and quantitative description of a job content inferred through a job analysis underscores the contemporary HR management practices. In ascertaining the job analysis methods, it is important to note the primary purpose that the description pursues of justifying the HR procedures. From the innumerable methods enlisted in the four broad categories aforementioned, this report will synthesize some four and the most popular approaches: competency job analysis, task inventory analysis, position analysis system, and the critical incidence methods. The position analysis questionnaire (PAQ) system: According to Sims (2002), the PAQ methodology covers 194 different employee-oriented tasks in its canonical quantification and data collection. Analysts favor the method because of its inherent simplicity in which a five-point scale system use deployed to report the degree if there is any, to which particular tasks are involved in the performance of a specified job. In the increasingly number-based business decision making processes, the quantitative character of PAQ system gives the analyst ground for statistically justifying decisions. Worthy noting is that the statistical synergy allows analysts to categorize jobs based on common factors. The critical incident method (CI): This method is often deployed during a job analysis process to aid in floating the most critical aspects of a particular task. Sims (2002) provides that the critical job tasks within a function include those that are discharged by a job holder to bolster job performance. Information about the most important task job aspects that underpin high performance is usually collected through interviews with relevant workers in self-report statements. For example, if the analysts targets the description of the beer packaging process, the interview will target a self-reported statement by the line manager or employees in the department that fully understand how the process is executed, and which tools and equipment are used. In the CI method, the trained analysts write their task statements that reflect what they view as the most important job activities based on data collected from the interviewees. Therefore, in this method, the analyst presents a final report of task statements that are clear, complete, and easy to be understood by the audience that may be unfamiliar with the particular job. The CI method is a crucial analysis tool in that it encourages the analyst to focus attention on employee behaviors that bolster job success. Task Inventory Analysis (TIA): This analytical tool is ubiquitously deployed as a job-oriented approach. This approach is favored among corporation whose functions involve highly standardized job tasks such as the armed forces. TIA is designed to require the input of both employees and managers in identifying job tasks and their inherent descriptions for various jobs. Worthy noting is that TIA aims at generating a comprehensive report of task statements that give descriptions for all jobs, which facilitates the creation of a task inventory form that is filled by the analyst undertaking the process in a survey. Competency-Based Analysis: This method is often referred to as the traditional analysis tool. This is because it assumed a static working environment in which jobs remain relatively unchanged apart from the employees that may hold the jobs. In such a context, the jobs can be meaningfully defined in terms of crucial job elements: tasks, duties, processes, and skills for job success (Bohlander &Snell, 2009). Notable about this process is that the challenges posed by the ever changing business environment mainly because of the technological advancements make much of the underlying assumptions obsolete. However, the analytical approach integrates practice tools that can adapt the environmental evolution. In the contemporary environment where organizations operate in fast moving work setups, the management cultivates a competency-based approach especially for purpose of job analysis. Competency-based job analysis anchors on building job profiles that underscore the responsibilities and activities that entail a particular job and the employee competencies necessary to achieve a defined end. Aswathappa (2005) argues that the method is concerned primarily with the identification of the critical competencies that underpin organizational success. This method relies on focus groups, surveys, and interviews that underscore the competency identification process. Additionally, the method scrutinizes an organization’s job description, attraction and recruitment requirements, and the performance appraisal procedures, all of which reflect the competency provisions for all employees. Summarily, the underlined job analyses methods bolster an organization’s job description protocol. The analysis methods bolster the understanding of jobs and their inherent duties, and are crucial aids for HR officers because there is no standard format for job description across industries. Job analyses underpin relevant descriptions for jobs in an organization, which are of inevitable importance to both the human resources and the employer. Job analyses help employees when outcomes bolster development of training programs that help them learn their duties and remind workers about their expected deliveries. Job analyses help organizations to improve relations with the employees while aiding managers to invoke corrective measures timely and accordingly. Issues of Job Analysis Although the advantages of job analyses often mask the invisible issues, like every other managerial activity relying on different sources of information, imperfections by the analysts can cause unprecedented problems. This premise stems from the fact that analysts cannot capture all aspects of a particular job. Aswathappa (2005) states that while job analysts can see the physical attributes of a job, their capacity to infer mental and emotional aspects is delimited. Job analysis normally prevails through conventionally laid steps, which curtails the participation of the analysts through insertion of innovative procedures without compromising their outcomes. Importantly, the over reliance on extant stereotypes by analysts deprives the process of the ability to report on real aspects of a job because the analysts’ minds are schemed towards stereotyped outcomes. Additionally, one cannot quote the issues of job analysis process without including the inevitable cost implication: the process is expensive especially for small firms especially when external professionals are contracted. There are innumerable advantages that put the job analysis process above the underlined challenges. Organizations should be encouraged to contract competent job analysts in that they can unveil innumerable observations about different functions under different line managers. The ability of an analyst to mine crucial human resource (HR) enhancing aspects from organizational records and technical data should be capitalized on through the job analysis process. In addition to engaging trained analysts in order to get more reliable ratings of a particular job performance, the organization should deploy the process to gain a foresight on inherent legal implications of routine job analysis (Sims, 2002). Conclusion This report revolved around the discourse of job analysis. Job analysis discourse is a processes and not a single activity. The process ubiquitously anchors on the manager’s decisions as regards where to effectively situate human resources in order to optimize skills and talents, and how to determine the time when the company requires additional employees. It is important to note the inherent tools that help firms in maintaining the right quality and quantity of human resources. The primary purpose of job analysis is to identify the worth of a particular job within an organization, which highlights the mechanisms of optimizing human talent, rooting out dummy employees, and creating performance measurement standards that are reasonable and reliable. In this context though, the report will acknowledge the existence of four core types: observation, interview techniques, questionnaires, and job appraisal methods that buttress the extensive discourse. References Aswathappa, K. (2005). Human resource and personnel management. (4th ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Bohlander, G.W., & Snell, S.A. (2009). Managing human resources with infotrac. (15th ed.). London, UK: Cengage Learning. Sims, R.R. (2002). Organizational success through effective human resources management. New York, NY: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More