job analysis

(noun)

Job analysis is the formal process of identifying the content of a job in terms of activities involved and attributes needed to perform the work.

Related Terms

Examples of job analysis in the following topics:

  • Internal equity

    • Compensation specialists use two tools to help make these decisions: job analysis and job evaluation.
    • Job analysis is a systematic method to discover and describe the differences and similarities among jobs.
    • A job description summarizes the information collected in the job analysis.
    • See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_analysis for more information about job analysis.
    • Job evaluation is a process that takes the information gathered by the job analysis and places a value on the job.

  • Pay

    • Compensation specialists use two tools to help make these decisions: job analysis and job evaluation.
    • A job analysis is a systematic method to discover and describe the differences and similarities among jobs.
    • A good job analysis collects sufficient information to adequately identify, define, and describe the content of a job.
    • In general, a typical job analysis attempts to describe the following:
    • A job evaluation is a process that takes the information gathered by the job analysis and places a value on the job.

  • Finding Good Candidates

    • The proper start to a recruitment effort is to perform a job analysis, to document the actual or intended requirement of the job to be performed.
    • Often a company will have job descriptions that represent a historical collection of tasks performed in the past.
    • Each job description should be associated with a list of critical skills, behaviors, or attitudes that will make or break the job performance.
    • Starting a recruitment with an accurate job analysis and job description ensures the recruitment process effort starts off on a proper track for success.
    • After the job analysis, the process moves onto sourcing, which involves 1) advertising, a common part of the recruiting process, often encompassing multiple media, such as the Internet, general newspapers, job ad newspapers, professional publications, window advertisements, job centers, and campus graduate recruitment programs; and 2) recruitment research, which is the proactive identification of passive candidates who are happy in their current positions and are not actively looking to move companies.

  • Combining internal and external equity

    • The first is pay structure, the output from the job evaluation.
    • Alternatively, statistical techniques such as regression analysis are used to create a pay policy line.
    • In other words, the straight line generated by the regression analysis will be the line that best combines the internal value of a job (from job evaluation points) and the external value of a job (from the market survey).
    • First, they analyze the content of each job.
    • Third, they price each job in the market.

  • Why employees fear change

    • Job loss.
    • Mention ‘effi ciency' or ‘change' in a workplace and many employees immediately assume that jobs are on the line.
    • That's why many change initiatives should begin with a promise that job losses are a last resort.
    • This can lead to employees wanting excessive details and other procrastination techniques (i.e. paralysis by analysis).

  • Selecting the right People

    • The purpose of behavioral interviewing is to find links between the job's requirement and how the applicant's experience and past behaviors match those requirements.
    • Tests such as the Myers Briggs and D.I.S.C profile assessments are popular tools that provide an accurate analysis of an applicant's attitudes and interpersonal skills; however, it is critical that the tests are administered, scored, and interpreted by a licensed professional.
    • Employers must obtain written consent from the applicant before conducting a background check, and the information gathered in a background check should be relevant to the job.
    • Employers may choose to use just one or a combination of the screening methods to predict future job performance.
    • Research shows that the "degree of cultural fit and value congruence between job applicants and their organizations significantly predicts both subsequent turnover and job performance" (Pfeffer & Viega, Putting People First for Organizational Success, 1998).

  • Elements to job design

    • Job design is critical to the success of any organization.
    • For our purposes job design is defined as the allocation of specific work tasks to individuals and groups (Schermerhorn, Job Design Alternatives, 2006).
    • In order to better understand job design it is helpful to define some key elements and their relationship with job design processes.
    • In job design it is necessary to identify and structure jobs in a way so that the company's resources are being efficiently used.
    • Reward systems also play a role in job design.

  • Alternative Philosophies

    • Three alternatives to job specialization are job enlargement, job enrichment, and job rotation.
    • Three alternatives to job specialization are job enlargement, job enrichment, and job rotation.
    • As such, job enrichment has been described as vertical loading of a job, while job enlargement is horizontal loading.
    • Job rotation is a management technique that assigns trainees to various jobs and departments.
    • Evaluate job enlargement, job enrichment, and job rotation as solutions to the problems of specialization

  • Purpose of appraisals and creating an appropriate appraisal process

    • Establishing an appropriate process involves significant planning and analysis in order to provide quality feedback to the employee.
    • The most crucial task in the process is determining proper job dimensions that can be used to gauge the employee against accepted standards that affect the performance of the team, business unit, or company (Fukami, Performance Appraisal, 2007).
    • Peter Drucker developed a method termed ‘Management by Objectives' or MBO, in order to address the creation of such job dimensions.

  • Evaluating recruiting policies

    • Each job description should be associated with a list of critical skills, behaviors or attitudes that will make or break the job performance.
    • Therefore, the companies also need to ensure that the process is accurate, with a high level of validity, reliable and related to critical aspects of the job.
    • Tests such as the Myers Briggs and D.I.S.C Profile assessments are popular tools that provide an accurate analysis of an applicant's attitudes and interpersonal skills; however, it is critical that the tests are administered, scored and interpreted by a licensed professional.
    • Employers may choose to use just one or a combination of the screening methods to predict future job performance.
    • Research shows that the "degree of cultural fit and value congruence between job applicants and their organizations significantly predicts both subsequent turnover and job performance" (Pfeffer & Viega, Putting People First for Organizational Success, 1998).