JOB ANALYSYS

Basics of Job Analysis:
Job analysis is a systematic gathering and organization of information concerning jobs. Job analysis puts a job under the microscope to reveal important details about it. Specifically, it identifies the task, duties, and responsibilities of a particular job. * A task is a basic element of work that is a logical and necessary step in performing a job duty. * A duty consist of one or more tasks that constitute a significant activity performed in a job. * A responsibility is one or several duties that identify and describe the major purpose or reason for the job’s existence.
Job Description:
A job description is a summary statement of the information collected in the job analysis process. It is a written document that identifies, defines and describes a job in term of its duties, responsibilities, working conditions and specifications.
Example:
Job Description of an Assistant Officer are shown in bellow: * Checking all payments of the Organization * Assist in monthly Internal Audit on various Department * Preparation of report on regular work. * Assist in auditing on VAT & Tax Computation * Assist in auditing Bank reconciliation statements * Perform any other task given by the management relating to Audit / Investigation on time to time.

Key Learning Point: * Concept of job description.
Specific Job Description:
A specific job description is a detailed summary of a job’s task, duties and responsibilities. This type of job description is associated with work flow strategies that emphasize, efficiency, control and detailed work planning. It fits best with a bureaucratic organizational structure with well detailed work defined boundaries that separate functions and the different levels of management.
General Job Description:
The general job description is fairly new on the scene, is associated with work flow strategies that emphasize innovation, flexibility and loose work planning. This type of job description fits best with a flat or boundaryless organizational structure where there are few boundaries between functions and levels of management
Job Specification:
Job specification is a list of job’s human requirement that is the requisite education, skills, personally and so on another product of a job analysis. The minimum qualifications are the basic standards a job applicant must have achieved to be considered for the job. These can be used to screen job applicants during the recruiting and selection process. Minimum requirements must be carefully specified to avoid discriminating against job applicants.

Importance of Job analysis:
Job analysis measures job content and the relative importance of different job duties and responsibilities. Having this information helps companies comply with government regulations and defend their actions from legal challenges that allege unfairness or discrimination. Job analysis provides the documentation for such a defense. For example:

* A company may be able to defend its policy of recruiting sales representatives to have a valid driver’s license if it can show via job analysis that driving is an essential activity in the sales representative’s job. Otherwise under the Americans with Disabilities Act the employee may be asked to make a reasonable accommodation for a blind job applicant who asserts his rights to be considered for the job.

In addition to establishing job relatedness for legal purposes, job analysis is also useful for the following HR activities:

Training & Carrier Development
Recruitment
Selection
Compensation
Performance Appraisal
Job Analysis
Job Description and Job Specification
Training & Carrier Development
Recruitment
Selection
Compensation
Performance Appraisal
Job Analysis
Job Description and Job Specification

Figure: Use of Job Analysis Information.
Recruitment:
Job analysis can help the HR department generate a higher quality pool of job applicants by making it easy to describe a job in newspaper ads that can be targeted to qualified job applicants. Job analysis also helps college recruiters screen job applicants because it tells them what tasks, duties and responsibilities the job entails.
Selection:
Job analysis can be used to determine whether an applicant for a specific job should be required to take a personality test or some other kind of test. For example, a personality test that measures extroversion (the degree to which someone is talkative, sociable, activity, aggressive or excitable) may be justified for selecting a life insurance sales representative. (Such a job is likely to emphasize customer contact, which includes making “cold calls” on potential new accounts). Performance Appraisal:
The performance standards used to judge employee performance for purposes of promotion, reward, discipline or layoff should be job related. Under federal law, a company is required to defined its appraisal system against lawsuits and prove the job relatedness of the performance criteria used in the appraisal. Doing so requires knowledge of the job’s duties and standards. Manger use job analysis to find out what these duties and performance standards are: * Discovering Unassigned Duties:
Job analysis can also help reveal unassigned duties. For example, your company’s production manager says she’s responsible for a dozen or so duties, such as production scheduling and raw material purchasing. * EEO Compliance:
Job analysis also plays a big role in EEO compliance. For example, to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. employers should know each job’s essential job functions- which in turn requires a job analysis.

Compensation:
Job analysis information ca be used to compare the relative worth of each job’s contributions to the company’s overall performance. The value of each job’s contribution is an important determinate of the job’s pay level. In a typical pay structure, jobs that require mastery of more complex skills or that have greater levels of responsibility pay me than jobs that require only basic skills or have low amount of responsibility.

Training and Career Development:
Job analysis is an important input for determining training needs. By comparing the knowledge, skills and abilities that employees bring to the job with those that are identified by job analysis, managers can identify their employees’ skill gaps. Training programs can then be put in place to improve job performance.

Steps and process of Job Analysis:
There are six steps in doing a job analysis. Let’s look at each of them:

Step-01:
Deciding how you’ll use the information, since this will determine the data you collect and how you collect them. Some data collection techniques; like interviewing the employee and asking what the job entails are good for writing job descriptions and selecting employees for the job. Other techniques, like the position analysis questionnaires we describe later, do not provide, numerical rating for each job.

Step-02:
Review relevant background information such as organizational charts, process charts and job descriptions. Let’s describe in brief in bellow about these three relevant background information:
Organizational Charts:
A chart that show the organization wide division of work, how the job in question relates to other jobs and where the job fits in the overall organization. The chart should show the title of each position and by means of interconnecting lines, who reports to whom and with whom the job incumbent communities.

SAMPLE
Process Charts:
A process chart provides a more detailed picture of the work flow. In its simplest form a process chart shows the flow of inputs to and output from the job you’re analysing. Let’s show it by a chart:

Information Output to Plant Manager Regarding Component Quality
Information Input from Plant Manager
Component Input from Suppliers
Job Under Study- Quality Control Clerk
Product Quality Output to Plant Manager
Information Output to Plant Manager Regarding Component Quality
Information Input from Plant Manager
Component Input from Suppliers
Job Under Study- Quality Control Clerk
Product Quality Output to Plant Manager

Figure: Process Chart for Job’s Analuzing a Job’s Workflow. In the figure the quality control clerk is expected to review components from suppliers, check components going to the plant manager and give information regarding components quality to these managers.
Step-03:
Select representative positions. There may be too many similar jobs to analyse them all. For example, it is usually unnecessary to analyse the jobs of 200 assembly employees when a sample of 10 jobs will do.
Step-04:
Actually analyse the job by collecting data on job activities, required employee behaviours, working conditions and human traits and abilities needed to perform the job.
Step-05:
Verify the job analysis information with employee performing the job and with his or her immediate supervisor. This will help confirm that the information is factually correct and complete. This review can also help gain the employee’s acceptance of the job analysis data and conclusions, by giving that person a chance to review and modify your description of the job activities.
Step-06:
Develop a job description and job specification. These are two tangible product of job analysis. The job description is a written statement that describe the activities and responsibilities of the job, as well as its important features, such as working conditions and safety hazard. The job specification summarizes the personal qualities, traits, skills and background required for getting the job done. In some firms, job analysis is still a time consuming process. It might take several days. Increasingly, however the same process might take just three or four hours. The steps might include: * Greet participants and conduct very brief introductions. * Briefly explain the job analysis process and the participants’ roles in this process. * Spend about 15 minutes determining the scope of the you’re about to analyse, by getting agreement on the job’s basic summary. * Identify the job’s broad functional or duty areas, such as “administrative” and “supervisory”. * Identity tasks within each duty area, using a flip chart or collaboration software. * Print the tasks list and get the group to sign off on it.
From the above discussion we can get clear knowledge about the steps of job analysis. It can be two type of job analysis procedure (steps) that is clear to us.

Methods of collecting job analysis information:
There are various ways to collect information on the duties, responsibilities and activities of a job. The basic rule is to use those that best fit your purpose. Let’s mention some job analysis guideline in bellow: * First, conducting the job analysis usually involves a joint effort by a human resources specialist, the employee and the employee’s supervisor. The human resources specialist might observe and analyse the job and then develop a job description and specification. * Second, job analysis almost always requires collecting job analysis information from several people familiar with the job such as job incumbent and their supervisor using questionnaires and interview. * Third, if there are several employees doing the same job, it is typical to collect job analysis information from several of them from different departments, and then average up your results, to determine how much time a typical employee on that job spends on each job duty. * Fourth, make sure the questions and surveys are clear and understandable to the respondent. * Fifth, if possible observe and question respondents early enough in the job analysis process to catch any problem while there’s still time to correct the job analysis procedure you’re using.
Interviews, questionnaires, observation and diary/logs are the most popular methods for gathering job analysis information. Manager use these techniques for developing job description and job specification. Let’s discuss all the techniques of collecting job analysis information in detail in bellow:

Interview:
Interview are the popular methods for obtaining job related information. They may range from completely unstructured to highly structured ones in which job analysis follow detailed questionnaires in asking their questions. Basically, interview can be two types such as Structured and Unstructured. Structured Interview follow structure of checklist formats. It includes a series detailed questions regarding matters like the general purpose of the job, supervisory responsibilities; job duties and education, experience and skill required. The interviewer must follow the checklist.

Example:
Suppose an interview of the employee of Banglalink Call centre is conducted. The typical questions includes are as follows: * What are the job’s major duties and responsibilities? * "Are you (interviewee) able to maintain accuracy while handling a large number of calls?" * "Describe how you would handle a problem you were having with a co-worker." * "Do you multi-task well, or do you prefer to tackle one problem at a time?" * "What do you enjoy about working in a call canter?" * "How do you handle pressure?" * "How are your talk and type skills?" * In what activities do you participate
Example of some structured question for the job of call canter:
1. Location: check location of job * Outdoor * Underground * Indoor * Other

2. Experience: Check the amount of experience needed to perform the job. * None * Three months * Six months * One years
3. Education: check the box that indicates the educational requirements for the job * No formal education required * 4 year college degree (or equivalent) * Professional license (specify) * Graduated work or advanced degree
4. Health and safety: check any undesirable health and safety conditions under which the incumbent must perform * Fire hazards * Mechanical hazards * Elec trical hazards
Others

Key Learning Point: * Concept of structured interview. * There is a structure system of interview. * There can be a questionnaire.

Unstructured Interview is an informal interview. There is no specific checklist that how the interview program is going to run. It depends on the nature & mental setup of the interviewer. Normally this type of interview is oriented in verbal.
Beside this manager may conduct individual interviews with each employee, group interviews with groups of employees who have the same job, and/or supervisor interviews with one or more supervisors who know the job. They performing group interview when a huge number of employee performing same type of job. The interview is probably the most widely used method for identifying a job’s duties and responsibilities and its wide use reflect its advantage. It’s a simple & quick way to collect information. The interview also provides an opportunity to explain the need for and functions of the job analysis.
Example:
In a social enterprise an interview program is arranged for appointing a field coordinator. Some of selected candidates are called for the interview. Interview board calls one by one candidates and informally they asked some questions to the interviewer verbally. There is no structured questionnaire. It depends on the mind-set of the interviewee.
Key Learning Point: * Concept of unstructured interview. * There is no structured or formal roles. * It’s a verbal conversation between interviewer & interviewee.

There are some Interview Guidelines that keep several things in mind when conducting a job analysis interview: * First, the job analysis and supervisor should work together to identify the employees who know the job best. * Second, quickly establish rapport with the interviewee. Know the person’s name, speak in easily understood language, briefly review the interview’s purpose and explain how the person was chosen for the interview. * Third, follow a structured guide or checklist one that lists questions and provides space for answer. * Fourth, when the duties are not performed in a regular manner for instance, when the employee doesn’t perform the same duties over and over again many times a day ask the employee to list his or her duties in order of importance and frequency of occurrence. * Fifth, after completing the interview, review and verify the data. Specifically review the information with the employee’s immediate supervisor and with the interviewee.
Questionnaires:
Having employees fill out questionnaires to describe their job- related duties and responsibilities in another popular way to obtain job analysis information. Here, you have to decide how structure the questionnaire should be and what questions to include. Some questionnaires are very structured checklist. Each employee gets an inventory of perhaps hundreds of specific duties or tasks. He or she is asked to indicate whether or not he or she performs each task. A typical job analysis questionnaire might have several open ended questions as well as structured questions. Whether structured or unstructured, questionnaires have both pros and cons. A questionnaire is a quick and efficient way to obtain information from a large number of employees; it’s less costly than interviewing hundreds of employees for instance. Let’s see a sample of questionnaire: Observation:
Direct observation is especially useful when jobs consist mainly of observable physical activities. On the other hand observation is usually not appropriate when job entails a lot if mental activity. Nor it is useful if the employee only occasionally engaged in important activities. Managers often use direct observation and interviewing together. One approach is to observe the work on the job during a complete work cycle. Then after accumulating as much information as possible you interview the employee. You can observe and interview simultaneously asking questions while the employee perform his or her job.
Example:
In UIU (United International University) my HRM lecturer arrange a viva program for the students. One group is taking the viva and another group is candidate. My lecturer is only an audience. He is watching how we conduct an viva board.

Key Learning Point: * Concept of observation. * It is a physical activity test not mental. * It is needed for which work is basically done by physical work.

Dairy/Log:
Another approach is to ask employee to keep a dairy/ log of what they do during the day. For every activity he or she engages in, the employee records the activity along with the time in a log. This can produce a very complete picture of the job, especially when supplemented with subsequent interviews with the employee and the supervisor. Dairy/Log have gone high- tech. Some firms give employees pocket dictating machines and pagers. Then at random times during the day, they page the employee, who dictate what they are doing at that time.
Example:
In a manufacturing company every employee maintained a dairy or note book in which they note down the work they have done within working hour. It can be called time sheet also. There are a detail information of activities what the employee have done.
Key Learning Point: * Concept about dairy/Log. * It is a written documents of an employee activity.

Quantitative Job Analysis Technique:
Somewhere interview and questionnaires are not working. In that case the method is followed is called quantitative job analysis technique. It can be two types are as follows: Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): A questionnaire used to collect quantifiable data concerning the duties and responsibilities of various jobs. Department of Labor (DOL): A standardized method by which different jobs can be quantitatively rated, classified and compared based on data people and things scored.

Job description and job specification and their essential elements:

Job Description:
A job description is a summary statement of the information collected in the job analysis process. It is a written document that identifies, defines and describes a job in term of its duties, responsibilities, working conditions and specifications. There is no specific of standard format for writing a job description. However most descriptions contain sections that cover: 1. Job Identification:
The job identification section contains several types of information. The job title specify the name of the job. There may be a space to indicate who approved the description and perhaps a space that shows the location of the job in terms of its facility/division and department section. It also indicates the immediate supervisor, salary scale & grade or level of the job. 2. Job Summary:
The job summary should of course summarize the job and include only its major functions or activities. However to avoid any ambiguities in case the assignment does not work out, it’s advisable to make it clear in the job summary that the employee expects the job incumbent to carry out his or her duties efficiently, attentively and conscientiously. 3. Responsibilities and duties:
This is the heart of the job description. It should present a list of the job’s significance responsibilities and duties. This section may also defined the limits of the jobholder’s authority, including his or her decision making authority, direct supervision of other personnel and budgetary authority. 4. Standards of performance:
Some job description contain a standard of performance section. This lists the standard the employee is expected to achieve under each of the description’s main duties and responsibilities. 5. Working Conditions:
The job description may also list the working conditions involved on the job. These might include things like noise level, hazardous conditions or heart. 6. Job Specifications:
Job specification is a list of job’s human requirement that is the requisite education, skills, personally and so on another product of a job analysis. The minimum qualifications are the basic standards a job applicant must have achieved to be considered for the job. These can be used to screen job applicants during the recruiting and selection process. Minimum requirements must be carefully specified to avoid discriminating against job applicants.
Let’s draw an example of job description in the bellow:

Example:
Job Description Functional Position | : | Project Coordinator, Missing Child Alert (MCA) Project | Report to | : | Head of Program | The Missing Child Alert (MCA) Program is a regional public-private collaborative program, which includes three countries namely Bangladesh, India and Nepal for combating child trafficking. The MCA program is initiated by Plan International under the auspices of South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), a SAARC Apex Body.The MCA program elements include: * Protection and Prevention of trafficking in children in home country and during transit; * Establishment of a technologically enabled missing child alert system; * Repatriation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of victims of cross border child trafficking; and * Advocacy and lobbying for an effective legal framework. | Major Responsibilities | Job Description: Project Coordinator 1. Implementation and delivery of the MCA Project in Bangladesh, working with internal teams, partners 2. Work with team in building strategic partnerships and liaison with government representatives, partner agencies and networks of International bodies in alignment with program roles 3. Regular and timely reporting (internal and external) on ongoing project activities and deliverables, as well as the management, accounting and audits of related budgets 4. Prepare project organization and communication charts 5. Use project scheduling and control tools to monitor projects plans, work hours, budgets and expenditures 6. Review field inspection reports from teams and disseminate them timely and effectively 7. Issue Contracts, Letters of Intent, Purchase Orders, etc. 8. Keep the Project Manager (PM) and others informed about project status and issues that may impact schedules and cost 9. Working experience with Ministries like Home Affairs/Foreign Affairs/Women and Child Affairs/law enforcing agencies/local government institutions is a desirable requirement 10. Oversee and maintain communication and liaison with donor partners, GoB-NGO partners to ensure that the team is successful in meeting partners’ expectation and at the same time protect Dnet’s strategic interest 11. Preparing proposals/contracts/Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) for potential partners/stakeholders 12. Preparing and sending reports to relevant authorities and stakeholders at appropriate interval 13. Organizing regular meeting of working groups/advisory groups 14. Prepare discussion points/negotiation areas with relevant stakeholders in consultation with Program Lead 15. Lead negotiations with relevant partners, stakeholder and vendors 16. Track program work plan and dependencies, as needed 17. Monitor progress indicators and follow-up with teams and support them for successful implementation | Required Academic and other Qualifications | * Master’s Degree from any reputed national or international University. | Required Experience | * At least 6-8 years of experience in relevant field including at least 4 years of relevant experience in Sr. positions. | Required Traits/ Competencies | * Self-Starter, proactive, positive * Capability of working in challenging and demanding situations. * Strong leadership quality * Experience in formulating policy, and developing and implementing new strategies and procedures. * Team Player * Ability to develop project plans and manage resources. * Willingness to work in a flexible schedule and travel frequently * Drafting and reporting skills | Salary Range: Negotiable | Working Hour: 09.00 am to 06.00 pm (9 Hours) | Other Facilities: | | * Life Insurance Facilities. * Hospitalization Facilities. * Dining Facilities. | Job location: Dnet, 6/8, Block B, Humayun Road, Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. |

Job Specification:
Job specification is a list of job’s human requirement that is the requisite education, skills, personally and so on another product of a job analysis. The minimum qualifications are the basic standards a job applicant must have achieved to be considered for the job. These can be used to screen job applicants during the recruiting and selection process. Minimum requirements must be carefully specified to avoid discriminating against job applicants. For writing a job specification we have to take care of some points: 1. Specifications for Trained Versus Untrained Personnel:
Writing job specifications for trained employees is relatively straightforward. In case like these your job specifications might focus mostly on traits like length of previous service, quality of relevant training and previous job performance. The problem are more complex when you’re filling jobs with untrained people. Here you must specify qualities such as physical traits, personality, interests or sensory skills that imply some potential for performing of for being trained to do the job. 2. Specifications Based on Judgement:
Most job specifications come from the educated guesses of people like supervisors and human resource managers. There are several ways to get educated guesses of judgement. You cloud simply review the job’s duties and deduce from those what human traits and skills the job requires. 3. Use common Sense:
In any case use common sense when completing a list of the job’s human requirements. Certainly job specific human traits like those unearthed through job analysis manual dexterity say or educational level important. 4. Job Specification Based on Statistical Analysis:
Basing job specifications on statistical analysis is the more defensible approach but it’s also more difficult. The aim here is to determine statistically the relationship between: * Some predictor or human trait, such as height, intelligence or finger dexterity
Some indicator or criterion of job effectiveness such as performance as rated by the supervisor.