NEW METHODS OF JOB ANALYSIS:

1)
2)
3)
4)

Electronic Performance Monitoring

Cognitive Task analysis- Think Aloud Protocol
Realistic Job Preview
PC Based Job Analysis Method- Work Profiling System
(WPS)
5) Dictionary of Occupation Titles (DOT)
6) O*NET- Occupational Information Networking

ELECTRONIC PERFORMANCE MONITORING

INTRODUCTION
With the increased use of technology in all areas of human resource management, many
organizations are using electronic and computerized means for monitoring and assessing
employee performance.
During the past several years, there has been a growing trend among employers to
monitor the actions and performance of their workers. Concerns about employee
productivity, quality of work, employee theft or misuse of company property, unlawful
drug use, and other factors potentially affecting employee productivity, combined with
technological developments, have increasingly led employers to use new ways to monitor
employee performance.
Electronic performance monitoring refers to the use of technology to monitor the
employees performance. Electronic performance monitoring (EPM) systems use
electronic technologies to collect, store, analyze, or report the actions or performance of
individuals on the job. EPM has become standard practice in many organizations.
Organizations across the world are incorporating the use of various advanced
technologies for all functions at all levels. Many organizations have incorporated
technologies in the performance appraisal and management processes. The electronic and
computerized systems are being used to monitor and evaluate the performance of the
employees.
The concept of electronic performance management has been the latest trend in
performance surveillance in the foreign countries where almost every job has the
potentials of being monitored electronically. But with the increasing number of MNCs,
the trend is catching up fast in India.
With the organizations using the latest technologies and softwares, electronic
performance monitoring supports comprehensive, qualitative, and subjective assessment
of the individuals performance.
The main reasons for practicing electronic performance monitoring are:

It improves productivity and the quality of work

Subjective work evaluation
Compliance with the organizational policies and the local laws
Helps in cost-control in the company
Helps in the security of the company information

Despite all its advantages, the arguments given against the use of electronic performance
monitoring is that such systems interfere in the privacy of the employees and some
employees may take it against their dignity.
Using such system can have both positive and negative effects on the organizational
health.
It is argued that, to ensure the positive effects of electronic performance monitoring:
The employees should be explained and communicated clearly about the system
The employees suggestions should be taken in designing the system
The employees should be involved in the implementation of the system
The organization should not solely rely on the system for the data on employees
performance.
The system should be supported by effective two-way communication and feedback.
The monitoring should be restricted to the performance-related activities only.
Methods of EPM include:
Telephone call accounting
Keystroke or computer time accounting
Cards and beepers to monitor locations
Computer file monitoring, screen sharing capabilities on networks
Telephone call observation
Video camera observation
Monitoring and surveillance includes:
Video and audio surveillance and monitoring;
Monitoring of employees computer use and content (such as email usage, internet
connection, computer files and keystroke speed); and
Biometric monitoring and surveillance.
As a form of performance monitoring, electronic performance monitoring (EPM) offers
the opportunity for unobtrusive and continuous performance data gathering. These
strengths can also make EPM stressful and threatening. Many features of performance
evaluation systems, including the organizational purposes for which they are used, can
affect employee attitudes.

A research has also been done on the relationships among the perceived purpose of EPM
and an array of job attitudes, including fairness, job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, and felt obligation to reciprocate. Results indicate that when monitoring is
viewed as developmental, it is judged as fairer than when it is perceived as a deterrent to
future behavior and is also associated with higher levels of job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, and felt obligation.
These findings suggest that employees will respond more positively to EPM when
managers and human resource development professionals carefully frame the reasons for
monitoring and feedback in constructive, developmental terms.

The Prime example of the Industry using EPM is Call centre, i.e. BPO industry.
Within call centers, the performance management process is aided by electronic
performance monitoring (EPM) systems that assist team leaders in measuring, observing,
evaluating and recording employee activities. Whilst recent research has positioned EPM
as being largely beneficial to managers and team leaders, customers and clients, the
debate continues over its effects on employees (i.e. the target of EPM).
In this example, the utility of EPM systems may be affected by factors such as team
leaders individual and work characteristics. Team leaders attitudes concerning the
usefulness of EPM or their perceived level of workload, for example, may influence how
often they use monitoring systems and how they provide feedback and this may
ultimately affect the performance and wellbeing of their team members. Team leaders too
may be affected by the positive and negative outcomes of EPM.

COGNITIVE TASK ANALYSIS THINK ALOUD PROTOCOL

In order to understand how people act upon the world around them, it is necessary to
understand what goes on inside their heads. Particularly when the tasks they are doing are
complex, it is not enough to simply observe their behaviors. It is also important to find
out how they think and what they know, how they organize and structure information,
and what they seek to understand better. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is a family of
methods and tools for gaining access to the mental processes that organize and give
meaning to observable behavior. CTA methods describe the cognitive processes that
underlie performance of tasks and the cognitive skills needed to respond adeptly to
complex situations.
CTA can boost human performance by guiding the development of tools and programs
that support the cognitive processes required for a task. The results of CTA studies have
been successfully applied to areas such as instruction and training, system development,
human-computer interface design, organizational design, product design, and marketing.
CTA typically consists of distinct phases of knowledge elicitation, analysis, and
knowledge representation.
Knowledge Elicitation is the process of extracting information, through in- depth
interviews and observations, about cognitive events, structures, or models. Often the
people who provide this information are subject matter experts (SMEs)people who
have demonstrated high levels of skill and knowledge in the domain of interest.
Analysis is a process of structuring datainspecting, selecting, simplifying, abstracting,
and transforming information, developing explanations, and extracting meaning. CTA
practitioners use a range of quantitative and qualitative analyses in handling data.
Knowledge Representation is the process of displaying data and depicting relationships,
explanations, and the meaning derived from data analysis. This step is integral for
enabling other peoplesponsors, customers, system designersto understand the results
of the CTA.

A cognitive task analysis elicits information from individuals about the thought
processes they use in the course of completing specific tasks. It involves both observing
individuals as they go about their work, and asking directed questions about the way in
which they approach the problems, how they decide what step to take next, and the
challenging tasks of their work. Because the focus is on the cognitive processes, rather
than the mechanics of how tasks are completed in the current environment, the results
tend to be less affected by tool bias. The output of a CTA is a detailed description of the
tasks that an individual or team performs, the data on which they operate, the decisions
they make, and the processes and activitiCognitive Task Analysis: Methods to analyze
and represent the knowledge and cognitive activities workers utilize to perform complex
tasks in the work domain. These methods focus primarily on how workers function in
cognitively-demanding domains. They are most useful in developing training programs,
developing means to assess performance, and developing criteria to select people for
certain jobs. They may also provide insights into creating effective decision support
systems and other software systems.
Cognitive Tasks Analysis is time consuming and requires a good deal of expertise to do
well. As a result, it may be luxury at lower level job as or jobs in which the cost is of
minimum mistake. But for critical positions where the consequence is high for error,
cognitive task analysis may be useful.

THINK-ALOUD PROTOCOL
Protocol analysis or, more literally, the think-aloud protocol approach, aims to elicit the
inner thoughts or cognitive processes that illuminates whats going on in the persons
head during the performance of a task, for example, painting or solving a problem. The
point is to undertake interviewing as close to the action as possible. While someone
engages in an activity, the interviewer probes to get the person talk about what the
person is thinking as he or she does the task.
The basic strategy of think-aloud interviewing involves getting people who are doing
something to verbalize their thoughts and feelings as they do whatever they are doing."
(Patton, 2002)
According to Ericsson & Simon (1993), three assumptions are made while adopting the
methodology of protocol analysis.
i) Only the output of the cognitive processes are available to the consciousness and are
verbalizable,
ii) Performance on any given task can be conceptualized as a set of sequential processes
with intermediate products that are available to working memory. The intermediate
products are conceptualized as being directly associated with observable indicators, in
this
case,
verbal
protocols.

iii) The total time to generate a response is equal to the sum of the individual cognitive
processes.
Hence, concurrent verbal reports do not change cognitive processes although concurrent
verbalization does increase the total time to perform tasks.
Advantages
"Think-Aloud" protocol has an advantage over simple observation as evaluator may
gain valuable insights into what the participant is thinking on the spot.
There would be less discrepancy in the verbal response of the participant and what he or
she actually thinks, as the participant does not need to recall from long-term memory
events that have taken place earlier.
Limitations
Verbal protocol methods including "Think-Aloud Protocol" are designed to tap into
certain types of thinking but not all.
Pure "Think-Aloud Protocol" may not help evaluator gather sufficient information to
diagnose a problem without the use of probing.
"Think-Aloud" may modify the way participants perform their task as participants may
feel uneasy hearing their own voices throughout the whole process.
In view of the limitations, "Think-Aloud Protocol" has evolved over the years and
probing is now commonly used to gather more information form participants although
probing may influence the reliability of the verbal protocol. Ericsson and Simon (1984)
recommend that additional information should be collected in the form of retrospective
reports after the task to avoid any interruptions of task flow. "Think-Aloud Protocol" is
often used with other methodologies to gather more in depth response from participants.
Guidelines in implementation
There are specific guidelines to follow for the evaluator to be successful.
1) First, a "Think-Aloud Protocol" can only be useful if you begin by determining a
purpose. Specifies the task (this can be more than one) the participant need to
accomplish during the session. Make sure participant understand what is to be done
before proceeding.
2) Make it clear to the participant that it is not the participant but the learning system,
which is being evaluated.

3) Ask the participant to "think aloud" while attempting the task so that you can
understand what he or she is thinking about. Often it is useful to give an example of
what you mean by this.
4) Then proceed with the task.
5) While the task is being attempted, it is important to let the participant talk and to
listen very attentively to what is being said.
Intervene only in cases of extreme duress (e.g. if the participant is completely stuck and
has given up) or if you need to remind the participant to think aloud.
6) After the participant has accomplished the specified task (or has given up), you
should take a few moments to ask the participant to summarize his or her difficulties
with the task and to give you any additional comments.

THE CONTEXT OF WORK (REALISTIC JOB PREVIEW-RJP)

It is becoming more and more common for human resource professionals to recognize
that job interviews are a two-way street. In other words, while the hiring organization is
assessing the candidates, the candidates are assessing the hiring organization and the job.
One sign of this shift in understanding is the development of the Realistic Job Preview
(RJP).It is a part of recruitment procedure in which organizations provide both favorable
and unfavorable work information to their candidates
What is a Realistic Job Preview?
Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) are devices used in early stages of personnel selection to
provide potential applicants with information on both positive and negative aspects of the
job. This includes not only what the duties of the job are (such as walking a patrol or
checking ID badges) but also what the job is like (tedious, tiring, or action-packed) and
what the working conditions may be (nocturnal, outdoors, or exposed to heat or cold).
. The preview typically happens early in the selection process. It gives candidates a
realistic picture of your working environment and covers:

Cultures and values of the organization

The work environment in which candidates will find themselves

The typical tasks that candidates may face

The purpose of the RJP is to give the candidate as much information about the job as
possible so that they can make an informed decision about their suitability for the job. In
order for the RJP to be successful, it must objectively outline not only the positive aspects
of the job, but also the potentially negative or unique aspects of the job as well. It is a part
of the selection process that gives the applicant a clear idea of what it will be like to work
at the job if they are hired. Some organizational scientists believe that information gained
by applicants during an RJP allows them to decide if the job is right for them. Workers
who think they won't like it generally don't pursue the process. RJPs lower the
expectations that individuals have when they accept a job, which makes it easier for the
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organization to meet those hoped-for standards, thus avoiding employee disappointment

and discouragement.

Why use an RJP?

With an RJP, the employee enters into the contract with their eyes open, aware of what
the organization will provide to them (pay, hours, schedule flexibility, culture, etc.) and
also with their eyes open to what will be expected from them (late hours, stress, customer
interaction, high urgency, degree of physical risk, etc.).Better informed candidates who
continue the application process are more likely to be a good for fit with the position, and
the ones who choose not to continue save themselves time pursuing a job or company
that wasnt right for them. The hiring organization saves time on testing and
interviewing candidates with a poor chance of success.
High turnover of new hires can occur when they are unpleasantly surprised by an aspect
of their job, especially if that aspect is especially important to them. For example, if they
take the job with an understanding that they won't have to work weekends, and then get
immediately schedule for Saturday night, it undermines trust and the psychological
contract is breached. It is considered as one of the strategies used to reduce the turn
over. Apart from this it also increases the job satisfaction among the employees. The
RJP is causing candidates who are a poor match for the job to remove themselves from
the hiring process.
For best effect, there should be a pause in the selection process after the RJP - to give the
candidate an opportunity to think about those requirements he or she might not like or be
able to fulfill. The idea is to allow the candidate an opportunity to quit before he or she is
hired.
There are a number of different Realistic Job Preview types - what works best for an
organization depends on the nature of the job and the flexibility, resources, and goals of
your selection process
Anyone who does take the job has a clear understanding of what it will entail and is,
therefore, less likely to be surprised by aspects of the job that might have otherwise
caused that person to quit. Still others believe that RJPs convince individuals that an
organization is being honest with them and has their best interests in mind, and that
approach makes them feel more committed. Research indicates that applicants who have
been given a realistic job preview hold lower and more realistic job expectations for the
jobs they will be performing and are better able to cope with the frustrating elements of
the job than are applications who have been given only inflated information

As a form of communication, RJP transmits an underlying meta-message of care and

concern. The endeavor of portraying a fully accurate, two-sided picture is likely to be
interpreted by recruits as expressing concern.
Case Study
An analysis of the new employee selection process at a large office products company
revealed two problems. The first was that many new hires left the job within 90 days
because they couldn't or didn't want to meet certain job requirements. The second
problem was that the flow of job applicants was so low at some locations it was difficult
to be selective with new hires.
This company has distribution sites nationwide and needed an RJP that could be accessed
by every site and minimize the demand on "thin" HR resources early in the selection
process. Their solution for an RJP: a Job Information Line.
The 1-888 number interactive message was designed to "sell" the company and "tell"
about the job. Not only did the message tell the potential applicant about the company
and the benefits of working there, it clearly outlined the specific requirements of the job,
including many of the requirements that were the reasons for some people turning over
quickly.
For example, most of the warehouse jobs were only available on night shifts, which often
lasted until 3:00 in the morning, and warehouse personnel were required to lift boxes
weighting up to 50 lbs.
Applicants who were not interested in this kind of work hung up before ever coming in
contact with the company. Others completed the job line but never scheduled the next
step.
A second benefit of the RJP was an increase in the number of qualified applicants
applying for the job. (A follow-up study revealed that applicants were more likely to use
the telephone to listen to a message about the job than to take the time to come by the
sites to hear in person. Once they heard the phone message, may were interested enough
to take more active steps to pursue the job.)
In addition, if the potential applicant completed the job information line (which included
gathering name and number of caller), his/her information was faxed to the closest
distribution site. This allowed each distribution site to maintain a constant flow of
prescreened
applicants.

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PC BASED JOB ANALYSIS METHOD (WORK PROFILING

SYSTEM-WPS)
Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and
requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. Job Analysis is a
process where judgements are made about data collected on a job.
Purpose of Job Analysis
The purpose of Job Analysis is to establish and document the 'job relatedness' of
employment procedures such as training, selection, compensation, and performance
appraisal.
US Standard Occupational Classification Systems:
The Occupational Classification System manual was created for Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) field economists to help ensure correct occupational matches when
collecting compensation data.
This manual allows the user to lookup job descriptions for occupations found in the NCS
bulletins and is used by field economists in the classification of thousands of occupations.

Incumbent interviews
supervisor interviews
expert panels
structured questionnaires
task inventories
check lists
open-ended questionnaires
observation
incumbent work logs

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A typical method of Job Analysis would be to give the incumbent a simple

questionnaire to identify job duties, responsibilities, equipment used, work
relationships, and work environment. The completed questionnaire would then be used
to assist the Job Analyst who would then conduct an interview of the incumbent(s). A
draft of the identified job duties, responsibilities, equipment, relationships, and work
environment would be reviewed with the supervisor for accuracy. The Job Analyst
would then prepare a job description and/or job specifications.

METHODS
- Interview
Unstructured Interviews Here the interview is a conversation with no prepared
questions or predetermined line of investigation. However, the interviewer should
explain:
the purpose of the study is and
the particular focus of this interview
Structured Interviews A structured interview may assume a definite format involving:

charting a job-holder's sequence of activities in performance

an inventory or questionnaire may be used

- Observation
Direct Observation of incumbents performing their jobs enables the trained job analyst
to obtain first-hand knowledge and information about the job being analyzed.
The Observation method of Job Analysis is suited for jobs in which the work behaviors
are
1) observable involving some degree of movement on the part of the incumbent, or
2) job tasks are short in duration allowing for many observations to be made in a short
period of time or a significant part of the job can be observed in a short period of time,
or 3) jobs in which the job analyst can learn information about the job through
observation.
-Questionnaire

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Classification Systems used as basis for or resulting from job analyses.

Common Metric Questionaire (CMQ):
The Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ) is targeted toward both exempt and
nonexempt jobs.
It has five sections:
(1)Background
(2) Contacts with People,
(3) Decision Making,
(4) Physical and Mechanical Activities, and
(5) Work Setting.
The Background section asks 41 general questions about work requirements such as
travel, seasonality, and licensure requirements.
The Contacts with People section asks 62 questions targeting level of supervision, degree
of internal and external contacts, and meeting requirements.
The 80 Decision Making items in the CMQ focus on relevant occupational knowledge
and skill, language and sensory requirements, and managerial and business decision
making.
The Physical and Mechanical Activities section contains 53 items about physical
activities and equipment, machinery, and tools.
Work Setting contains 47 items that focus on environmental conditions and other job
characteristics. The CMQ is a relatively new instrument. It has been field tested on 4,552
positions representing over 900 occupations in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles
(DOT), and yielded reasonably high reliabilities.
Fleishman Job Analysis Survey:
o The Fleishman Job Analysis Survey (F-JAS), formerly the Manual for Ability
Requirements Scalescontains a taxonomy of abilities that is buttressed by
decades of research (Fleishman & Mumford, 1991).
o The taxonomy includes 52 cognitive, physical, psychomotor, and sensory
abilities that have strong research support, and the FJAS uses level of ability
rating scales that specify level of functioning requirements for jobs.
o FJAS is a job analysis method; it has not been applied to a large number of
jobs in the U.S. economy to produce an occupational database.
Functional Job Analysis Scales:

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o Beginning in the 1940s, Functional Job Analysis (FJA) was used by U.S.
Employment Service job analysts to classify jobs for the DOT (Fine & Wiley,
1971).
o The most recent version of FJA uses seven scales to describe what workers do
in jobs: (1) Things, (2) Data, (3) People, (4) Worker Instructions, (5)
Reasoning, (6) Math, and (7) Language. Each scale has several levels that are
anchored with specific behavioral statements and illustrative tasks.
o Like other job analysis instruments, FJA is a methodology for collecting job
information. While it was used for many years as a part of the DOT, the
Department of Labor is replacing the DOT with O*NET and will not be using
FJA in O*NET. There is no current database of jobs (other than the DOT)
containing FJA data for jobs in the national economy.
MOSAIC
o The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is in the process of developing a
database of information on federal jobs using Multipurpose Occupational
Systems Analysis Inventory-Closed Ended (MOSAIC).
o Toward that end, OPM has been conducting a series of occupational analysis
projects, each project handling a different set of occupations (e.g., clerical,
managerial, etc.).
o Each job analysis inventory used to collect data for OPM's system includes a
variety of descriptors. The two primary types of descriptors in each
questionnaire are tasks and competencies. Tasks are rated on importance and
competencies are rated on several scales including importance and
requirement for entry.
o The MOSAIC database is intended to include all government occupations.
Clerical, technical, and managerial job sections are complete. Information on
the reliability of MOSAIC questionnaires has not been reported.
Occupational Analysis Inventory (OAI):
o The Occupational Analysis Inventory (OAI) contains 617 "work elements." It
was designed to yield more specific job information than other multi-job
questionnaires such as the PAQ while still capturing work requirements for
virtually all occupations.
o The major categories of items are five-fold: (1) Information Received, (2)
Mental Activities, (3) Work Behavior, (4) Work Goals, and (5) Work Context.
OAI respondents rate each job element on one of four rating scales: part-ofjob, extent, applicability, or a special scale designed for the element.
o The OAI has been used to gather information on 1,400 jobs selected to
represent five major occupational categories. Reliabilities obtained with the
OAI have been moderate, somewhat lower than those achieved with the PAQ.
Position Analysis Questionaire (PAQ):
14

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

o The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) developed by McCormick,

Jeanneret, and Mecham (1972) is a structured job analysis instrument to
measure job characteristics and relate them to human characteristics. It
consists of 195 job elements that represent in a comprehensive manner the
domain of human behavior involved in work activities. The items that fall into
five categories:
Information input (where and how the worker gets information),
Mental processes (reasoning and other processes that workers use),
Work output (physical activities and tools used on the job),
Relationships with other persons, and
Job context (the physical and social contexts of work).
o Over the course of many studies, PAQ researchers have aggregated PAQ data
for hundreds of jobs; that database is maintained by Purdue University. A
wealth of research exists on the PAQ; it has yielded reasonably good
reliability estimates and has been linked to several assessment tools.

Work Profiling System (WPS):

o Saville & Holdsworth's Work Profiling System (WPS) is designed to help
employers accomplish human resource functions. The job analysis is designed
to yield reports targeted toward various human resource functions such as
individual development planning, employee selection, and job description.
There are three versions of the WPS tied to types of occupations: managerial,
service, and technical occupations.
o The WPS is computer-administered on-site at a company. It contains a
structured questionaire which measures ability and personality attributes in
areas such as Hearing Skills, Sight, Taste, Smell, Touch, Body Coordination,
Verbal Skills, Number Skills, Complex Management Skills, Personality, and
Team Role. Saville & Holdsworth aggregates information provided by users
into a database when users make those data available. Saville & Holdsworth
does not require WPS users to submit their data.
Before hiring or developing staff, it is critical to have a good understanding of the jobs
they do. Then you can match candidates or staff against those job requirements. The
SHL Work Profiling System (WPS) provides world-class decision support in a
comprehensive software tool. Data that used to take weeks to gather and analyze can
now be collected in hours and reported back immediately at the touch of a button.
WPS allows you to:
-Ask job-related interview questions
- Define and design job roles
- Generate competency models
- Identify strategies for selection and development
- Build performance management systems

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Features of the WPS Job Analysis Tool

-Structured, menu driven process ensures that information is collected in a
consistent fashion throughout the organization, allowing easy comparison of
results for every job. This increases objectivity and buy-in from participants
-User-friendly navigation and basic system requirements
-Flexible administration options (paper and pencil, diskette or PC) allow the
questionnaires to be administered one-on-one or in groups
-Reports are quickly generated in MS Word for easy editing and customization
-WPS Meets a Range of Organizational Needs. WPS is an efficient way for capturing
information about jobs and applying it to a variety of HR challenges.
Use WPS to:
-Identify and define competencies for hiring purposes, career development and
succession planning
- Document existing jobs in the form of job descriptions and person specifications
- Structure and define new jobs
- Identify performance review measures
- Create job families
- Choose defensible assessment procedures and methods
- Identify jobs for rotation and cross-training
- Match candidates against job profiles
- Improve interviewing
- Identify specific areas of training & development
- Audit skill requirements
- Develop performance management systems
- Re-define and merge jobs
- Manage changes in roles and culture
- Build teams
- "Transport" validation research
- Create an equitable pay structure
WPS System Requirements
- Pentium PC minimum 75 megahertz (MHz), P200 recommended
- Microsoft Windows 95 or later operating system, or Microsoft Windows NT
Workstation operating system version 4.0 Service Pack 3 or later
- For Windows 95 or Windows 98
32 megabytes (MB) of RAM
- For Windows NT Workstation:
64 megabytes (MB) of RAM
- 250MB of free space
- VGA or higher-resolution monitor
- Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
- Microsoft Word for Windows 8 (Office 97)

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- 3.5" 1.44 MB high density disk drive

- CD-ROM drive
What Aspects of a Job Are Analyzed?
Job Analysis should collect information on the following areas:
Duties and Tasks The basic unit of a job is the performance of specific tasks and
duties. Information to be collected about these items may include: frequency,
duration, effort, skill, complexity, equipment, standards, etc.
Environment This may have a significant impact on the physical requirements to
be able to perform a job. The work environment may include unpleasant
conditions such as offensive odors and temperature extremes. There may also be
definite risks to the incumbent such as noxious fumes, radioactive substances,
hostile and aggressive people, and dangerous explosives.
Tools and Equipment Some duties and tasks are performed using specific
equipment and tools. Equipment may include protective clothing. These items
need to be specified in a Job Analysis.
Relationships Supervision given and received. Relationships with internal or
external people.
Requirements The knowledges, skills, and abilities (KSA's) required to perform
the job. While an incumbent may have higher KSA's than those required for the
job, a Job Analysis typically only states the minimum requirements to perform the
job.

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DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES

In the early 1930s, the federal government introduced a program to match the applicants
with job openings. It was up to each local office to develop its own occupational
informational base; since these bases were local there could be little collaboration among
the network of offices. Accordingly, in 1934 efforts were begun to standardize these
services and develop a national database. The cornerstone of this effort was a program of
job analysis and by 1939, 54,000 job analyses had been completed and the first
Dictionary of Occupational Titles (D.O.T) was published.
It is a document that includes job analysis and occupational information used to match
applicants with job openings. One of the major purposes of D.O.T was, and still is,
occupational counseling.
In 1991, the last year of its publication, the D.O.Ts fifth edition contained information
on, more than 13,000 occupations. By this time it was apparent that D.O.T, at least in the
form of its fifth edition had become less useful. The primary reason for this was its heavy
dependence on task based information relevant to a particular job title, to no direct link to
human abilities or attributes. Also, task based descriptions of occupations provide limited
value in work environments due to shifting job boundaries. Further each revision of
D.O.T was expensive and time consuming. Hence a decision was made to change both
the format and content of the D.O.T.
The Dictionary of Occupational Titles, commonly known as the DOT Pronounced DeeOh-Tee) was the creation of the U.S. Employment Service, which used its thousands of
occupational definitions to match job seekers to jobs from 1939 to the late 1990s.
Before 1939, nationwide occupational information was not conveniently reported by the
Employment Service. By 1939, it had become clear to the Employment service that a
standardized volume of job definitions was needed for employment-related purposes. The
Employment Service published revisions of the DOT periodically with the final
publication in 1991.
In a 1980 study, the National Research Council reviewed the DOT and the job analysis
methodology used to create it. The NRC concluded that the worker functions, including
the strength demands, SVP, and GED variables were not based in then-current vocational
theory. This problem was not corrected in the last edition (1991) of the DOT.

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The NRC wrote of these worker functions:

"Rather, they are frozen in a now outmoded mold. Scales that more or less adequately
reflected the state of the art of vocational trait measurement at mid century are now
outdated. This condition serves to underscore the urgency of adopting a new strategy in
producing the DOT that includes as an intrinsic aspect continuous research and technical
improvement of the document as a whole and of each of its components (NRC, 1980, p.
168).
In the introduction to the 1991 revised fourth edition of the Dictionary of Occupational
Titles, the Secretary of Labor, Lynn Martin, noted that "Since its inception, the Dictionary
of Occupational Titles (DOT) has provided basic occupational information to many and
varied users in both public and private sectors of the United States economy. This revised
Fourth Edition of the DOT appears at a time when there is growing recognition of the
need for lifetime learning, when rapid technological change is making the jobs of current
workers more complex than they were even a few years ago, and when timely and
accurate labor market information is an increasingly important component of
personal and corporate decision-making."
In recognition of the NRC recommendations, the DOT approach was dropped by the U.S.
Employment Service. The taxonomy of job classification that had evolved since the
1930s was abandoned and the Employment Service has adopted a modern empiricallybased framework and methodology for obtaining and delivering occupational information
known as O*Net. O*Net classifies jobs in job families, so it is less useful for determining
disability eligibility or job-specific benefits analysis.
Although the DOT has been deemed obsolete and then abandoned by the Employment
Service and the Department of Labor, the data from the 1991 revised fourth edition of the
Dictionary of Occupational Titles is used extensively at the Social Security
Administration in litigation related to applications for Social Security disability benefits
and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for adult claimants. The DOT is still used
extensively for performing Transferable Skills Analysis with SSA claimants. Vocational
Evaluators also use DOT data when working with injured workers who seek insurance
settlements and/or vocational rehabilitation services. It is also relied upon in immigration
adjudication within the United States. An updated version, called eDOT, provides the
basis of the product Occupational Assessor from ERI.
The Dictionary is noted for its work in providing job titles that avoid gender stereotyping.
For example, a meter maid could be:
Meter Attendant 375.587-010, or
Parking-Meter-Coin Collector 292.687-010

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O*NET OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION NETWORK

O*NET, or the Occupational Information Network, is an electronic replacement for the
Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Like the DOT, which was last published in
1991, O*NET provides a comprehensive database of worker attributes and job
characteristics. By describing the tasks to be performed and the levels of education that
must be achieved, the O*NET database can be used as a tool for training and education,
career guidance, employment counseling, and for writing job descriptions.
The U.S. Department of Labor developed the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) in
the mid-1930s, soon after the federal-state employment service system was established.
O*NET was also developed by and is supported by the U.S. Department of Labor. The
main difference between the DOT and the O*NET database is the flexibility of the new
database and its depth of information. Rather than having information for 12,000
occupations, as the DOT did, the O*NET database has 974 occupations which are related
to a common framework describing job requirements and worker characteristics, the
content, and the context of work. A second difference between the DOT and the O*NET
database is that O*NET can be updated more frequently; the Department of Labor uses a
data collection program that provides for an update to the database twice annually. The
most recent update was in December 2004. Additionally, there is now a Spanish-language
version of the O*NET database available.
O*NET USES
O*Net can be used by many different people for a variety of reasons. Some of the uses
for managers are:
Writing and updating job descriptions and job specifications.
Develop criteria for recruitment and selection.
Develop criteria for performance appraisal systems.
Structuring training and development activities.
Structuring compensation systems.
Improve career counseling.
Design competitive compensation and promotion systems
O*NET DEVELOPMENT: COMMON LANGUAGE AND THE CONTENT
MODEL

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The Content Model is the conceptual foundation of O*NET. The Content Model
provides a framework that identifies the most important types of information about
work and integrates them into a theoretically and empirically sound system.

The O*NET database provides a common language that can be used to communicate in
different areas of the economy and in workforce development efforts. This common
language provides definitions and concepts for describing worker attributes and
workplace requirements that can be widely understood and accepted. Knowledge, skills,
and abilities (KSAs), interests, content, and context of work are described in
comprehensive terms, and there is a common frame of reference in O*NET for
understanding how these characteristics relate to successful job performance. O*Nets
common language is intended to aid those who communicate about jobs in understanding
one another, even when operating in different segments of the economy. The goal is for
job descriptions and worker requirements to have the same meaning for human resources
professionals, employees, educators, and students.
The conceptual foundation of the O*NET database is the Content Model; it provides a
framework that identifies the most important types of information about work, integrating
them into one system. Information in the model reflects both the character of occupations
and of people, and it allows for information to be applied across jobs, sectors, or
industries and within occupations. The Content Model was developed using research on
job and organizational analysis, and thus has a strong theoretical and empirical
foundation
O*NET Content Model, which defines the key features of an occupation as a
standardized, measurable set of variables called "descriptors". This hierarchical model
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starts with six domains, describing the day-to-day aspects of the job and the qualifications
and interests of the typical worker.
The Content Model has six domains:
1. Worker Characteristicsenduring characteristics that might influence job

2.

3.

4.
5.

6.

performance and the ability to acquire knowledge and skills used for effective work
performance; this includes abilities, interests, values, and work styles.
Worker Requirementswork-related attributes gained and/or developed through a
worker's education or experience; this includes knowledge, experience, and skills
(basic skills and cross-functional skills).
Experience Requirementsprevious activities, linked specifically to certain types
of work activities, that are required for effective job performance; this includes formal
education, certifications, licensures, and training.
Occupational Characteristicsglobal contextual characteristics that define and
describe occupations and that may influence requirements for that occupation.
Occupational Requirementsdetailed information regarding typical activities
required in various occupations; generalized work activities (GWAs), or dimensions
that summarize the kinds of tasks that may be performed within a single occupation
are identified; additionally, information about the context, such as physical and social
elements of the work, that may create specific demands on the worker are included.
Occupation-Specific Informationelements that apply only to a single occupation
or a narrowly defined job family; this domain provides related information available
in other areas of the Content Model, but is used when developing specific
applications of O*NET information, such as writing a job description.

O*NET provides a dynamic framework for exploring the world of work:

information about what skills are in demand
information to help workers with proven skills transfer to new careers
national labor market information on employment levels, occupational outlook,
and wages

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