Elements and Importance of Job Analysis

Job analysis is the process of gathering, analyzing, and processing job information to form the basis for a job description and to provide data for recruitment, training, job evaluation, and performance management (Armstrong & Taylor 2020).

Each job consists of a number of outcomes, responsibilities, tasks, and functions, and are considered building blocks of an organization (Nankervis 2020). Further, Nankervis (2020) has described, that these responsibilities and outcomes, along with the authority and responsibilities and skills requirements assigned to the job to achieve those outcomes, can include not only the definition of a particular job, but also a range, team, or cluster of jobs. These are then linked to other jobs within the team, division, business unit, department, or division. As a complete unit, all jobs in the organization, if properly planned, must achieve organizational or strategic objectives. To ensure that this happens, jobs need to be accurately analyzed, planned, and executed. This process is called job analysis according to Nankervis.

The information which should be available in a good job analysis (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014), 

1. Overall Purpose – the reason for the existence of the job and, in summary, the expectation of the organization from the job holder
2. Organization – Job holder reports to whom and who is reporting to the job holder
3. Content - Nature, and scope of work in terms of tasks and operations to be performed and duties to be performed

Also, Armstrong and Taylor (2014) have mentioned, If the results of the job analysis are to be used for job evaluation purposes, the job is also analyzed according to the factors or criteria used in the job evaluation scheme.

• Job redesign - Job analysis and job design are intrinsically linked, through job redesign to make the same more effective (Brannick et al. 2020)
• Law - Job usage sometimes leads to lawsuits and court cases, so it is not surprising that job analysis is often a major resource in legal battles (Brannick et al. 2020).
• Training - Trainers can clearly recognize what work to do for those who were trained to ensure the effectiveness of training, and that training helped their work done efficiently.  (Brannick, et al. 2020)
• Evaluation of Performance - To get the status information for every employee, the purpose is to distinguish the good performance of employees, bonuses, and forfeit
• Career Planning - The individual’s skills and aspirations should match the emerging opportunities of the organization (Anderson et al., 2018). Further, they have pointed out as an example, that some corporate employees leave the company for other companies to have more important jobs to attract, in fact, this enterprise has a similar vacancy, but when the company knew it was too late, which reflects the management lack of career planning, and communication channel is not smooth, and result in the brain to drain.

 Figure 1.0 : Use of Job Analysis Information

Source:  Dessler, 2017

According to Armstrong & Taylor, (2014), there are techniques / Methods of Job Analysis and are given below.

1. Questionnaire - Under this method, a job analyst prepares a questionnaire and distributes it among the workers to get the desired information.
2. Personal observation - Under this method, the job analyst observes the activities of the workers on the job and asks questions wherever necessary from the workers.
3. Personal interviews - Under this method interviews with workers and supervisors are arranged to get the necessary information.

The ultimate purpose of job analysis is to improve organizational performance and productivity (Cardy et al.., 2012). Further job analysis is segmented into job descriptions and job specifications (Dessler, 2017). Job description includes the job title, duties that one has to perform during the period of employment, some distinguishing characteristics of the job, and the powers and responsibilities of the job holder. (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

Job specifications indicate the minimum acceptable qualifications that a potential candidate must have to perform a job. (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). The information which is acquired from job analysis, and job specifications identify the skills, knowledge, and abilities required to do a job (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Furthermore, Job evaluation is an important part of compensation administration that distinguishes and gives information to make a comparison between two or more same kinds of task/jobs.  

References

Anderson, N et al, 2018, The SAGE Handbook of Industrial, Work and Organization Psychology, 2^nd edn, SAGE, London

 Armstrong, M, and Taylor, S 2014, Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 13th edn, Kogan Page, UK.

 

Armstrong, M, and Taylor, S 2020, Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 15th edn., Kogan Page, UK.

 

Brannick, MT, et al., 2020, Job and Work Analysis Methods Research and Applications for Human Resource Management, 3^rd edn., Sage Publications, USA.

 

Cardy, RL, et al 2012,  Managing Human Resources, 7^th edn, Prentice Hall, USA.

 

Dessler, G 2017, Human Resource Management, 15^th edn., PEARSON, New York, p 98.

 

Nankervis, A, 2020, Human Resource Management: Strategy and Practice, 10^th edn, Cengage, Australia.