Job Analysis and Descriptions

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Job Analysis and Descriptions

Conducting Job Analysis

Introduction Job analysis determines which skills are needed for for a firm's vacant position

Does the candidate need to be good with numbers? Should the candidate have customer service skills? Is there a particular degree or training necessary to do this job?

It also tells you the training requirements and compensation levels

All of this information is vital to ensuring that you accurately represent the job, your company, and what potential employees can expect

Putting together this job description tells you what personal and professional qualities the candidate needs

Steps in Job Analysis

Decide how you will use the information

Review relevant background information

Select representative positions

Analyze the job

Verify the job analysis information

Cindy decides to perform a job analysis to group jobs and classifications, as well as, look at job requirements and competencies. Cindy reviews all the job titles and key job groupings, such as IT and Sales. Next, she groups the IT jobs by titles and discovers three basic categories: IT programmer, IT software developer, and IT security/specialist. Some IT personnel also had supervisory or management duties as part of their jobs and some were full-time managers or supervisors. Cindy selects representative job descriptions from each of the categories, along with certain supervisory positions from these areas. Using the U.S. Department of Labor job analysis procedure, Cindy analyzes the job descriptions for the three categories, in addition to a managerial/supervisor job description. Cindy meets with a group of supervisors and managers to verify that the job descriptions are accurate and complete. The final step is important to ensure that the right candidates are hired.

Use of Job Analysis Recruitment Selection

Job analysis provides information about what a job entails and the human characteristics required to perform the job activities. This information helps the management decide the kind of people to recruit.

Compensation

Job analysis information helps estimate the value of each job and its compensation. Job analysis reveals factors such as required skills and education level, safety hazards, and degree of responsibility. These factors decide compensation such as salary and bonus.

Performance Appraisal

A performance appraisal compares each employee’s actual performance with the performance standards set for a job. Managers use job analysis to determine a job’s specific activities and performance standards.

Training

The job description shows the activities and skills—as well as the training—that a job requires.

Discovering Unassigned Duties

Job analysis also helps reveal unassigned duties.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Compliance

Job analysis plays a big role in EEO compliance. U.S. Federal Agencies Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection stipulate that job analysis is a crucial step to validate major personnel activities. For example, employers must be able to show that the selection criteria and job performance are actually related.

Writing Job Descriptions

Introduction Job seekers have access to a wide range of job postings, each with its own job description. Many of these job descriptions are not written effectively. What is the difference between a good and bad job description?

HR professionals should be able to leverage their knowledge of the job and the company to create an accurate and thorough description.

Components of a Job Description Job Identification

This component classifies jobs into an occupation or group of jobs for pay and recruitment purposes.

Responsibilities and Duties

This is a list of the essential functions of a job and defines limits of the jobholder’s decision-making authority and direct supervision, as well as, budgetary limitations.

Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)

This is a system that classifies workers into one of the 23 major groups of jobs that are subdivided into 96 minor groups of jobs and detailed occupations.

Relationships (Chain of Command)

This component conveys the jobholder’s relationship with others inside and outside the organization. For example:

“Reports to” refers to the employee’s immediate supervisor

“Supervises” refers to those employees who the job incumbent directly supervises

"Works with” refers to others with whom the jobholder is expected to work and come into contact internally

“Outside the company” refers to others with whom the jobholder is expected to work and come into contact externally

Job Summary

This component describes the general nature of the job and lists the major functions or activities.

Guidelines in Writing a Job Description What three or four main activities actually constitute the job? Is each activity really necessary?

What is the relationship between each task? Is there a special sequence that the tasks must follow?

Do the tasks necessitate actions such as sitting, standing, crawling, walking, climbing, running, stooping, kneeling, lifting, carrying, digging, writing, operating, pushing, pulling, fingering, talking, listening, interpreting, analyzing, seeing, or coordinating?

How many employees are available to perform the job function? Can the job function be distributed among other employees?

How much time is spent on the job, performing each function? Are infrequent tasks less important for success at the job?

Would removing a function fundamentally alter the job?

More Writing Guidelines Let’s look at the job description developed for the IT position of a network security technician at VXYZ Corp. It is envisioned that the individual would also be part of a sales team—note the added competencies and sales.

Essential guidelines of IT position of network security technician at VXYZ Corp.

Performs network troubleshooting to prevent, isolate, and diagnose network security problems

Upgrades network hardware and software for security and firewall updates

Installs security upgrades and configures network printing, directory structures, rights, security, and software on file servers

Installs security upgrades and configures network printing, directory structures, rights, security, and software on file servers

Responds to the needs and questions of users pertaining to security and access to resources on the network

Establishes network users, and the user environment, directories, and security for the networks being installed

Sources of Candidates

Recruiting may make use of employment agencies, classified advertisements or Internet job boards

Current employees can often be the best source of new job candidates. Sources such as current employees are called internal resources.

Recruiting from within depends on whether there is enough of the right talent for the job vacancies being filled

To be effective, promotions from within require using job postings, personnel records, and skill banks.

Using internal sources of candidates means that the organization is already aware of the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.

Internal candidates may also be more committed to the company.

The morale of employees may rise if they see others being promoted as part of rewards for loyalty and competence.

Internal candidates may also require less orientation and training compared with outsiders.

There is a negative side to hiring internal candidates—former employees may return with negative attitudes and also send a message to the current employees that the way to get ahead is to leave and come back.

Internal Sources Internal sourcing should be used if an organization is likely to face downsizing. If external candidates are added to the workforce at a time when a company is losing staff, it only adds to the already negative effect on the morale of the existing employees. When downsizing the internal staff, keep in mind the following points:Far too many companies are not well prepared for downsizing—they begin downsizing without first implementing retraining or redeployment policies and fail to anticipate the kinds of HR problems that develop subsequently.

Six months to a year after downsizing, key indicators such as expense ratios, profits, return-on-investment to shareholders, and stock prices often do not improve.

Survivors' syndrome is a common aftermath. Be prepared to manage it. Better yet, try to avoid it by involving employees in the planning phase of any downsizing effort.

Recognize that downsizing has exploded the myth of job security and accelerated employee mobility, especially among white-collar workers. It has fundamentally altered the terms of the psychological contract that binds workers to organizations

To bring about sustained improvements in productivity, qualities, and effectiveness, integrate reductions in head count with planned changes in the way work is designed.

Downsizing is not a one-time, quick-fix solution to enhance competitiveness. View downsizing as a part of a process of continuous improvement.

External Sources Organizations cannot always get all the employees they need from their current staff. An organization may also choose not to fill a vacancy with an internal candidate. Recruiting external candidates is healthy because they may generate new ideas and increase diversity. These recruitments also convey to the current employees that not all promotions will necessarily be given automatically to the existing staff. Employees may be less complacent if they realize that they may have to compete with outsiders for promotions. It might even be a motivator for employees to expand their development efforts and take additional training classes. When a company hires external candidates, there are several issues to consider, including how to reach the intended populations. When HR contemplates hiring external candidates, it needs to look at these factors:

How many persons it has to hire in a given timeframe.

Whether candidates are available in the market.

Whether special testing or background investigation procedures need to be conducted.

Whether the HR staff is experienced enough to handle the hiring and on-boarding activities for the new employees.

Avoiding Problems with Employment Agencies Provide the agency with an accurate and complete job description

Make sure that tests and interviews are a part of the agency’s selection process

Periodically review the data on candidates accepted or rejected by your firm and the agency. Check on the effectiveness and fairness of the agency’s screen process

Screen the agency. Check with other managers or HR staff members to determine which agencies are the most productive in filling the kind of vacancies that exist

Look at sources on the internet and review a few earlier issues of the Sunday classified advertisements to identify the agencies that handle the positions to be filled

Outsourcing Process in External Hiring 1. Making the Outsourcing Decision

Consider HR activities, except core competencies, as candidates for outsourcing

Determine whether the desire to outsource an activity is driven by its low contribution to core competencies, influenced from the external environment, or a result of poor management of the activity

Recognize that performance is more important than low HR department head counts or lower costs

Beware of vendors that supply off-the-shelf solutions that do not fit the company’s needs

Avoid excessive reliance on vendors

Decide how much control is needed for various HR activities and whether control can be retained with outsourcing

Identify critical benefits of outsourcing

2. Selecting and Negotiating with Outsourcing Vendors

Assign a high weight to vendors' knowledge of the industry

Perform reference checks of potential vendors

Understand the costs involved in switching vendors for outsourced services