JOB ANALYSIS

JOB
A division of total work into packages/positions.

Dale Yoder “A job is a collection or aggregation of tasks, duties

and responsibilities which as a whole, is regarded as regular
assignment to individual employees and which is different
from other assignments.”

A job may be defined as a group of positions involving some

duties, responsibilities, knowledge and skills. A job may
include many positions.
Position: is a particular set of duties and
responsibilities regularly assigned to an
individual.
 Job Analysis

It is the process of collecting information about a job.

 Edwin B. Flippo “ has defined JA as the process of studying and
collecting information relating to the operations and responsibilities
of a specific job. The immediate product of this analysis are job
description and job specifications.”

Herbert G. Hereman “ A job is a collection of tasks that can be

performed by a single employee to contribute to the production of
some product or service provided by the organization. Each job has
certain ability requirement (as well as certain rewards) associate with
it. Job analysis is the process used to identify these requirements”.
 Job analysis can be defined as an
assessment that describes jobs and the
behavior necessary to perform them.
There are two major aspects of job analysis:

1. Job Description
2. Job Specification
 Job Description

• Job Description is prepared on the basis of data collected through job

analysis. It is a functional description of the contents what the job
entails.

• It differentiates one job from the other. It is a written statement of

what a job holder does, how it is done, and why it is done.
 Job Description

It is a description of the activities and duties to be performed in a job,

the relationship of the job with other jobs, the equipment and tools
involved, the nature of supervision, working conditions and hazards
of the job and so on.
 Purpose of Job Description
• Grading & classification of jobs
• Placement & orientation of new employees
• Promotions & transfers
• Outlining for career path
• Deveolping work standards
• Counseling of employeees
• Delimitation of authority
 Job specification

job specification is a statement of the minimum

levels of qualifications, skills physical ability,
experience , judgment & attributes required
for performing job effectively.
 Usage of Job Specification

• Personnel planning
• Performance appraisal
• Hiring
• T&D
• Job evaluations & compensations
• health & safety
• Employee discipline
• Career planning
 Contents of Job Description & Specification
Job description Job specification

A statement containing items such as A statement of human qualification

1) Job title necessary to do the job. Usually contains
2) Location such items as 
3) Job summary 1) Education
4) Duties 2) Experience
5) Machines, tools & equipment 3) Training
6) Materials & forms used 4) Judgment
7) Supervision given or received 5) Initiative
8) Working condition 6) Physical effort
9) Hazards 7) Physical skills
8) Responsibilities
9) Communication skills
10) Emotional characteristics
11) Unusual sensory demands such as
sight, smell, hearing
 Job evaluation

Job evaluation is a comparative process of establishing the value of

different jobs in a hierarchical order. It allows one to compare jobs by
using common criteria to define the relationship of one job to
another.

This serves as for grading different jobs & developing a suitable pay
structure for them. It is important to mention that job evaluation
cannot be sole determining factor for deciding pay structures.
 Why job analysis? / (uses)

Recruitment and
Selection

Legal Compliance Compensation

Information
Collected Via
Job Analysis
Discovering Performance
Unassigned Duties Appraisal

Training
 Why job analysis? / (uses)
Job analysis is useful for overall management of all personnel activities. The same is
specified as follows

• Human resource planning: it estimates the quantities & quality of people will be
required in future. How many & what type of people will be required depends on
the jobs to be staffed. Job-related information available through job analysis is,”
therefore, necessary for HRP.

• Recruitment & selection: recruitment succeeds job analysis. Basically, the goal of
the HRP is to match the right person with the right job. This is possible only after
having adequate information about the jobs that need to be staffed. It is job
analysis that provides job information, thus, serves as basis for recruitment &
selection of employees in the org.
• Training & development: job analysis by providing information about what a job
entails i.e. knowledge & skills required to perform a job, enables the management to design
the t & D programmes to acquire these job requirements. Employees development
programmes like job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, etc, discussed under job
design later in these slides, are also job analysis based.

• Placement & orientation: as job analysis provides information about what skills &
qualities are required to do a job, the management can gear orientation programmes
towards helping the employees learn the required skills & qualities, it thus, helps
management place an employees the job suited to him/her.

• Performance appraisal: performance appraisal involves comparing the actual

performance of an employee with the standard one, i.e. , what is expected of him/her. Such
appraisal or assessment serves as basis for awarding promotions, effecting transfers, or
assessing training needs. Job analysis helps in establishing job standards which may be
compared with the actual performance/ contribution of each employee.
• Job evaluation: job evaluation refers to determination of relative worth of
different jobs. It thus, helps in developing appropriate wage & salary structures.
relative worth is determined mainly on the basis of information provided by job
analysis.

• Personnel information: increasing number of organizations maintain

computerized information about their employees. This is popularly known as
‘Human Resource Information System’. HRIS is useful as it helps improve
administrative efficiency & provides decision support. Information relating to
human resources working in the organisation are provided by job analysis only.

• Health Safety: job analysis helps in identifying & uncovering hazardous

condition & unhealthy environmental factors such as heat , noise, fumes, dust, etc.
& , thus, facilitating management to take corrective measures to minimize & avoid
the possibility of accidents causing human injury.
 Process Of Job Analysis

Organisation job analysis

job analysis begins with obtaining pertinent information about a job. This according to
terry, is required to know the make up of a job, its relation to other jobs, & its
contribution to performance of the org. such information in various forms such as
organisation charts i.e., how the particular job is related to other jobs; class
specifications i.e., the general requirement of the job family; job description i.e.
starting point to build the revised job description, & flow charts i.e., flow activities
involves particular job.
 Selecting Representative jobs for analysis
Analyzing all jobs of an organisation is both costly & time consuming.
Therefore, only a representative sample of jobs is selected for the
purpose of detailed analysis.

Collection of data for job analysis

job data, features of the job & required qualifications of the employee
are collected. Data can be collected either through questionnaire ,
observation or interviews.
 Preparing Job Description
Job information collected in the above ways is now used to prepare a job
description. Job description is a written statement that describes the tasks, duties
& responsibilities that need to be discharged for effective job performance.

Preparing Job Specification

the last step involved in job analysis is to prepare job specification on the basis of
collected information. This is a written statement that specifies the personal
qualities, traits, skills, qualification, aptitude, etc. required to effectively perform
a job.
 Methods of data collection

• Observation
• Interview
• Questionnaire
• Checklists
• Critical incidents
• Diaries or log records
• Technical conference method
 Job Design

Job analysis provides job related data as well as the skills and knowledge
required for the incumbent to perform the job.
A better job performance also requires deciding on sequence of job
contents. This is called job design.
job design is a logical sequence to job analysis. It involves specifying the
contents of a job, the work methods used in its performance and how
the job relates to other jobs in the organization.
 Job Design
According to Mathis & Jackson, “ job design is a process that
integrated work content(tasks, knowledge, relationships),
the rewards(extrinsic & intrinsic), & the qualifications
requires(skills, knowledge, abilities)for each job in a way
that meets the needs of employees & organizations.”
 Factors affecting job design
Job design is not an exclusive one. It affects & is also affected by various
factors. All the factors that affect job design are broadly classified into
three categories:
1) Organizational factors
2) Environmental factors:
- Social & cultural expectations
- Employee ability & availability
3) Behavioral factors:
- Autonomy
- Use of ability
- Feedback
- Variety
 Organizational factors

 Task feature: a job design involves a number of tasks performed by a

group of workers. Further, each task consists of three internal
features: (i) planning, (ii) executing (iii) controlling. An ideal job
design needs to integrate all these three features of tasks to be
performed.

 Work flow: the very nature of a product influences the sequences of

jobs, i.e., work flow. In order to perform work in an effective &
efficient manner, the tasks involved in a job needs to be sequenced &
balanced.
 Organizational factors:

 Ergonomics : refers to designing & shaping job in

such a manner so as to strike to fit between the job
& the job holder.

 Work practices: practice means a set way of doing

work based on tradition or collective wishes of
workers.
Methods/Techniques of Job Design

• Job Simplification
• Job Enlargement
• Job Rotation
• Job Enrichment
 Job Simplification

Job Simplification – Often used by fast food joints

The job is simplified by breaking it down into small
sub part.
Jobs are divide into simpler components & assigned
to workers as complete jobs.
 Job Simplification
Merits - Work cycles are short , employees
learn tasks rapidly & little mental effort is
required. Low skilled & low paid employees
can be hired easily.

Demerits – Boredom , frustration, lack of

motivation, low job satisfaction, low
productivity & increased cost .
 Job Enlargement

Also known as horizontal loading , it increases scope

of a job i.e. it increases the number of different
operations required in a job & the frequency with
which job cycle is repeated. It tries to put variety in
a job. Does not increase challenge but may reduce
boredom.
 Job Rotation

• Moves employees from one task to another

• Keep them engaged & reduce boredom

• Helps in developing extra skills

• Make them versatile

 Job Enrichment
Also known as vertical loading. It is based on the assumption that a
job must provide opportunities for growth, achievement,
recognition, responsibility & advancement. Efforts are made to put
a sense of challenge through job-loading. Increases depth of a job.

Benefits

• Motivation & satisfaction

• Improved quality of work
• Sense of personal responsibility
• Autonomy & Control