Introduction
Job Analysis is a procedure by which pertinent information is obtained about a job, i.e., it is a detailed and systematic study of information relating to the operation and responsibilities of a specific job. An authority has defined job analysis as 'the process of determining, by observation and study, and reporting pertinent information relating to the nature of a specific job... 'It is the determination of the tasks which comprise the job and of the skills, knowledge, abilities and responsibilities required of the worker for a successful performance and which differentiate one job from all others'.
Information provided by Job Analysis
Job analysis provides the following information :
1. Job Identification : Its title, including its code number;
2. Significant Characteristics of a Job : It location, physical setting, supervision, union jurisdiction, hazards and discomforts;
3. What the Typical Worker Does : Specific operation and tasks that make up an assignment, their relative timing and importance, their simplicity, routine or complexity, the responsibility or safety of others for property, funds, confidence and trust;
4. Which Materials and Equipment a Worker Uses : Metals, plastics, grains, yarns, milling machines, punch presses and micrometers;
5. How a Job is Performed : Nature of operation - lifting, handling, cleaning, washing, feeding, removing, drilling, driving, setting-up and many others;
6. Required Personal Attributes : Experience, training, apprenticeship, physical strength, co-ordination or dexterity, physical demands, mental capabilities, aptitudes, social skills;
7. Job Relationship : Experience required, opportunities for advancement, patterns of promotions, essential co-operation, direction, or leadership from and for a job.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR JOB ANALYSIS
According to George R. Terry, ―the make-up of a job, its relation to other jobs, and its requirements for competent performance are essential information needed for a job analysis‖. Information on a job may be obtained from three principal sources :
(a) From the employees who actually perform a job;
(b) From other employees such as supervisors and foremen who watch the workers doing a job and thereby acquire knowledge about it; and
(c) From outside observers specially appointed to watch employees performing a job. Such outside persons are called the trade job analysts. Sometimes, special job reviewing committees are also established.
Methods of Job Analysis
Four methods or approaches are utilised in analysing jobs. These are :
1. Personal Observation : The materials and equipment used, the working conditions and probable hazards, and an understanding of what the work involves are the facts which should be known by an analyst.
2. Sending out of Questionnaires : This method is usually employed by engineering consultants. Properly drafted questionnaires are sent out to job-holders for completion and are returned to supervisors. However, the information received is often unorganised and incoherent. The idea in issuing questionnaire is to elicit the necessary information from job-holders so that any error may first be discussed with the employee and, after due corrections, may be submitted to the job analyst.
3. Maintenance of Long Records : The employee maintains a daily record of duties he performs, marking the time at which each task is started and finished. But this system is incomplete, for it does not give us any desirable data on supervisor relationship, the equipment used, and working conditions. Moreover, it is timeconsuming.
4. Personal Interviews may be held by the analyst with the employees, and answers to relevant questions may be recorded. But the method is time-consuming and costly.
Purposes and Uses of Job Analysis
A comprehensive job analysis programme is an essential ingredient of sound personnel management. It is fundamental to manpower management programmes because the results of job analysis are widely used throughout the programmes. The information provided by job analysis is useful, if not essential, in almost every phase of employee relations.
1. Organisation and Manpower Planning : It is helpful in organisational planning for it defines labour needs in concrete terms and coordinates the activities of the work force, and clearly divides duties and responsibilities.
2. Recruitment and Selection : By indicating the specific requirements of each job (i.e., the skills and knowledge), it provides a realistic basis for hiring, training, placement, transfer and promotion of personnel.
3. Wage and Salary Administration : By indicating the qualifications required for doing specified jobs and the risks and hazards involved in its performance, it helps in salary and wage administration. Job analysis is used as a foundation for job evaluation.
4. Job Re-engineering : Job analysis provides information which enables us to change jobs in order to permit their being manned by personnel with specific characteristics and qualifications. This takes two forms :
(a) Industrial Engineering Activity, which is concerned with operational analysis, motion study, work simplification methods and improvements in the place of work and its measurement, and aims at improving efficiency, reducing unit labour costs, and establishing the production standard which the employee is expected to meet; and
(b) Human Engineering Activity, which takes into consideration human capabilities, both physical and psychological, and prepares the ground for complex operations of industrial administration, increased efficiency and better productivity.
5. Employee Training and Management Development : Job analysis provides the necessary information to the management of training and development programmes. It helps it to determine the content and subject-matter of in-training courses. It also helps in checking application information, interviewing, weighing test results, and in checking references.
6. Performance Appraisal : It helps in establishing clear-cut standards which may be compared with the actual contribution of each individual.
7. Health and Safety : It provides an opportunity for indentifying hazardous conditions and unhealthy environmental factors so that corrective measures may be taken to minimise and avoid the possibility of accidents.
Job Description
Job description is a written record of the duties, responsibilities and requirements of a particular job. It is concerned with the job itself and not with the work. It is a statement describing the job in such terms as its title, location, duties, working conditions and hazards. In other words, it tells us what is to be done and how it is to be done and why. It is a standard of function, in that it defines the appropriate and authorised contents of a job.
Job description helps top executives, especially when they jointly discuss one another‘s responsibilities. Overlapping or confusion can then be pointed out questions can be raised about the major thrust of each position, and problems of structure can be identified. A job description becomes a vehicle for organisational change and‘ improvement.
A job description contains the following:
1. Job identification, which includes the job title, alternative title, department, division, plant and code number of the job. The job title identifies and designates the job properly. The department division, etc. indicate the name of the department where it is situated-whether it is the maintenance department, mechanical shop etc. The location gives the name of the place.
2. Job Summary serves two important purposes. First it provides a short definition which is useful as an additional identification information when a job title is not adequate. Second, it serves as a summary to orient the reader toward an understanding 'of detailed information which follows. It gives the reader a ―quick capsule explanation‖ of the content of a job usually in one or two sentences.
3. Job duties give us a comprehensive listing or the duties together with some indication of the frequency of occurrence or percentage of time devoted to each major duty. It is regarded as the heart of a job.
4. Relation to other jobs : This helps us to locate the job in the organisation by indicating the job immediately below or above it in the job hierarchy. It also gives us an idea of the vertical relationships of work flow and procedures.
5. Supervision : Under it is given the number of persons to be supervised along with their job titles, and the extent of supervision involved – general, intermediate or close supervision.
6. Working conditions usually give us information about the environment in which a job holder must work. These include cold, heat, dust, wetness, moisture, fumes, odour, oily conditions, etc. obtaining inside the organisation.
Information about jobs can be had from :
(i) Observation of employees while on work;
(ii) Study of specially maintained diaries;
(iii) A review of Critical incidents; and,
(iv) Discussions with departmental heads and outside experts or consultants.
A job description enables us to frame suitable questions to be asked during an interview. It is particularly helpful when the application from is, used as a tool for eliminating the unfit personnel. A job description helps us in :
(i) Job grading and classification;
(ii) Transfers and promotions;
(iii) Adjustments of grievances;
(iv) Defining and outlining promotional steps;
(v) Establishing a common understanding of a job between employers and employees;
(vi) Investigating accidents;
(vii) Indicating faulty work procedures or duplication of papers;
(viii) Maintaining, operating and adjusting machinery;
(ix) Time and motion studies;
(x) Defining the limits of authority;
(xi) Indicating case of personal merit;
(xii) Facilitating job placement;
(xiii) Studies of health and fatigue;
(xiv) Scientific guidance;
(xv) Determining jobs suitable for occupational therapy;
(xvi) Providing hiring specifications; and
(xvii) Providing performance indicators.
