Job Analysis
Job analysis is the procedure through which you determine the duties of these positions and the characteristics of the people to hire for them. Job analysis produces information used for writing job descriptions (a list of what the job entails) and job specifications (what kind of people to hire for the job).
The supervisor or HR specialist normally collects one or more of the following types of information via the job analysis:
• Work activities.
First, the supervisor collects information about the job’s actual work activities, such as cleaning, selling, teaching, or painting. This list may also include how, why, and when the worker performs each activity.
• Human behaviors.
The specialist may also collect information about human behaviors like sensing, communicating, deciding, and writing. Included here would be information regarding job demands such as lifting weights or walking long distances.
• Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids.
This category includes information regarding tools used, materials processed, knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or law), and services rendered (such as counseling or repairing).
• Performance standards.
The employer may also want information about the job’s performance standards (in terms of quantity or quality levels for each job duty, for instance). Management will use these standards to appraise employees.
• Job context.
Included here is information about such matters as physical working conditions, work schedule, and the organizational and social context—for instance, the number of people with whom the employee would normally interact. Information regarding incentives might also be included here.
• Human requirements.
This includes information regarding the job’s human requirements, such as job-related knowledge or skills (education, training, work experience) and required personal attributes (aptitudes, physical characteristics, personality, interests).
There are six steps in doing a job analysis.
Step 1: Decide 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.
Step 2: Review relevant background information such as organization charts, process charts, and job descriptions. Organization charts 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.
Step 3: Select representative positions. Because there maybe too many similar jobs to analyze. For example, it is usually unnecessary to analyze the jobs of 200 assembly workers when a sample of 10 jobs will do.
Step 4: Actually analyze the job—by collecting data on job activities, required employee behaviors, working conditions, and human traits and abilities needed to perform the job.
Step 5: Verify the job analysis information with the worker 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 6: Develop a job description and job specification. These are two tangible products of the job analysis. The job description is a written statement that describes the activities and responsibilities of the job, as well as its important features, such as working conditions and safety hazards. The job specification summarizes the personal qualities, traits, skills, and background required for getting the job done.
There are various ways to collect information on the duties, responsibilities, and activities of a job. Interviews, questionnaires, observations, and diary/logs are the most popular methods for gathering job analysis data. They all provide realistic information about what job incumbents actually do. Managers use them for developing job descriptions and job specifications. Here’s the brief explanation about each collecting job analysis methods:
1. Interview
The interview is probably the most widely used method for identifying a job’s duties and responsibilities, and its wide use reflects its advantages. It’s a relatively simple and quick way to collect information, including information that might never appear on a written form.
2. Questionnaires
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 workers, for instance. However, developing the questionnaire and testing it (perhaps by making sure the workers understand the questions) can be expensive and time consuming.
3. Observation
Direct observation is especially useful when jobs consist mainly of observable physical activities. On the other hand, observation is usually not appropriate when the job entails a lot of mental activity.
4. Participant Diary/Logs
Another approach is to ask workers to keep a diary/log of what they do during the day. This can produce a very complete picture of the job, especially when supplemented with subsequent interviews with the worker and the supervisor.
The job analysis should provide the information required for writing a job description. A job description is a written statement of what the worker actually does, how he or she does it, and what the job’s working conditions are. You use this information to write a job specification.
There is no standard format for writing a job description. However, most descriptions contain sections that cover:
1. Job identification
Contains the job title that specifies the name of the job.
2. Job summary
Describe the general nature of the job.
3. Responsibilities and duties
List each of the job’s major duties separately, and describe it in a few sentences.
4. Authority of Incumbent
Defines limits of jobholder's decision-making authority, direct supervision, and budgetary limitations.
5. Standards of Performance
Some job descriptions contain standards of performance section. This lists the standards the employee is expected to achieve under each of the job description’s main duties and responsibilities.
6. Working Conditions
The conditions in which an individual or staff works, including but not limited to such things as amenities, physical environment, stress and noise levels, degree of safety or danger, and the like.
7. Job Specification
A statement of employee characteristics and qualifications required for satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job or function. Job specification is derived from job analysis.
Specifications for Trained Versus Untrained Personnel
Writing job specifications for trained employees is relatively straightforward. For example, suppose you want to fill a position for a bookkeeper (or counselor or programmer). In cases like these, your job specifications might focus mostly on traits like length of previous service, quality of relevant training, and previous job performance. Thus, it’s usually not too difficult to determine the human requirements for placing already trained people on a job. The problems are more complex when you’re filling jobs with untrained people (with the intention of training them on the job). Here you must specify qualities such as physical traits, personality, interests, or sensory skills that imply some potential for performing or for being trained to do the job.
Job Analysis in a “Jobless” World
A. From Specialized to Enlarged Jobs
1. A “job” as we know it today is largely an outgrowth of the industrial revolution’s emphasis on efficiency.
2. Job enlargement involves assigning workers additional same-level activities, thus increasing the number of activities they perform.
3. Job rotation is systematically moving workers from one job to another.
4. Job enrichment involves redesigning jobs in a way that increases the opportunities for the worker to experience feelings of responsibility, achievement, growth, and recognition.
B. Why Managers are De-jobbing Their Companies – De-jobbing refers to broadening the responsibilities of the company’s jobs, and encouraging employees not to limit themselves to what’s on their job descriptions.
1. Flatter organizations with three or four levels of management are becoming more prevalent than the traditional pyramid-shaped organizations with seven or more layers of management.
2. Self-managed work teams, where tasks are organized around teams and processes rather than around specialized functions, are being used increasingly more by organizations.
3. Reengineering refers to fundamentally rethinking and radically redesigning business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance measures.
C. Competency-Based Job Analysis
Employers are shifting towards newer approaches for describing
jobs, such as competency-based analysis to support the flexibility needed in high performance work environments where employers need workers to seamlessly move from job to job and exercise self-control,
1. What are Competencies? – Competencies are defined as demonstrable characteristics of the person that enable him/her to do the job. They are observable and measurable.
2. Three Reasons to Use Competency Analysis – First, traditional job descriptions may actually backfire if a high performance work system is the goal. Second, describing the job in terms of skills, knowledge and competencies needed is more strategic. Third, measurable skills, knowledge, and competencies are the heart of any company’s performance management system.
3. Examples of competencies – These can include general competencies (such as reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning), leadership competencies (leadership, strategic thinking, teaching others) and technical competencies (specific technical competencies required for specific types of jobs).
4. Comparing traditional versus competency-based job analysis – competency based analysis is more measurable where some of the job’s essential duties and responsibilities are expressed as competencies.
5. How to write job competencies – the process is similar in most respects to traditional job analysis, interviewing incumbents and their supervisors, identifying job responsibilities and activities.
The Recruitment and Selection Process
1. Decide what positions to fill through personnel planning and forecasting.
2. Build a candidate pool by recruiting internal or external candidates.
3. Have candidates complete application forms and undergo initial screening interviews.
4. Use selection tools to identify viable candidates.
5. Decide who to make an offer to, by having the supervisor and others interview the candidates. Employment.
Workforce Planning & Forecasting
Employment Planning and Forecasting: is the process of deciding what positions the firm will have to fill, and how to fill them. It embraces all future positions, from maintenance clerk to CEO. Like all good plans, personnel plans require some forecasts or estimates, in this case, of three things: personnel needs, the supply of inside candidates, and the likely supply of outside candidates.
A. Forecasting Personnel Needs: Forecast revenues, and then estimate the size of the staff required to achieve this sales volume.
Forecasting Tools:
1. Trend Analysis can provide an initial estimate of future staffing needs, but employment levels rarely depend just on the passage of time. Other factors (like changes in sales volume and productivity) also affect staffing needs.
2. Ratio Analysis provides forecasts based on the historical ratio between (1) some causal factor (like sales volume) and (2) the number of employees required (such as number of salespeople).
3. The Scatter Plot shows graphically how two variables—such as sales and your firm’s staffing levels—are related. If they are, and then if you can forecast the business activity (like sales), you should also be able to estimate your personnel needs.
B. Forecasting the Supply of Inside Candidates:
1. Manual Systems and Replacement Charts – Simple manual devices can be used to keep inventories and development records to compile qualifications information on each employee. Personnel replacement charts performance and promo ability for each position’s potential replacement can also be created for each position to show possible replacements as well as their present performance, promotion potential, and training.
2. Computerized Information Systems are used to track the qualifications of hundreds or thousands of employees. The system can provide managers with a listing of candidates with specified qualifications after scanning the database. Inventory data typically include items like experience employee’s level of familiarity product lines or services, the person’s experience, and show the present Position replacement cards Computerized skills work codes, product knowledge, the with the employer’s industry, formal education.
3. Succession Planning -- Planning ensures a suitable supply of successors for senior or key jobs.
C. Forecasting the Supply of Outside Candidates:
This may involve considering general economic conditions and the expected rate of unemployment. To understand the supply of outside candidates the organization shouldknowabout the general Business environment and unemployment rate in the country. It should also know the supply conditions in different occupational categories.
Sources of Information:
1. Periodic forecasts in business publications
2. Online economic projections
Talent Management
Talent Management is the end to end process of planning, recruiting, developing, managing, and compensating employees throughout the organization or often times referred to as Human Capital Management, is the process of recruiting, managing, assessing, developing and maintaining an organization’s most important resource- people. It’s pretty clear that people are a business’s most important asset and in this regard, organizations are seeking ways to build data-driven decision making platforms. It has 4 characteristics:
1. Taking a talent management approach recognizes than in a competitive world, acquiring, developing, and retaining talent are critical tasks.
2. An effective talent management process should integrate the underlying talent management activities such as succession planning, recruiting, developing and compensating employee.
3. Talent Management is goal directed. The aim is to align the employee’s effort and the firm’s talent management activities with the company’s strategic goals.
4. Integrating the talent management functions means that effective talent management systems are almost always information technology-based.
Recruiting Job Candidates
Once authorized to fill a position, the next step is to develop an applicant pool, either from internal or external sources.
Recruiting is important because the more applicants you have, the more selective you can be in your hiring. With baby boomers now retiring and fewer teenagers entering the labor pool, recruitment will be a challenge in the years ahead.
THE COMPLEX JOB OF RECRUITING EMPLOYEES
Effective recruiting is more complex than just placing ads and calling agencies. For one thing, recruitment should make sense in terms of your company’s strategic plans. For example, BASF Group found that successfully executing a new plant-expansion strategy required thinking trough what employees they’d need and how they’d do the recruiting.
Second, some recruiting methods are superior to others, depending on who you’re recruiting. Overall, employees most often used employee referrals and large job boards.
Third, recruiting result reflect various no recruitment issues. As another example, Cummins Engine Company’s “Dream it, Do it”, program goes to U.S school to show local state school seniors the challenging nature of Cummins’s work. The program prompted more local state school graduates to apply for jobs at Cummins.
Finally, there are legal constraints. For example, the U.S EEOC’s compliance manual says that with a no diverse workforce, relying on word-of-mouth referrals may be a barrier to equal employment opportunity. The HR in practice feature explains another issue to be aware of.
Effective Recruiting:
• External Factors Affecting Recruiting
_ Supply of workers
_ Outsourcing of white-collar jobs
_ Fewer “qualified” candidates
• Other Factors Affecting Recruiting Success
_ Types of jobs recruited and recruiting methods
_ Non-recruitment HR issues and policies (pay levels)
_ Successful prescreening of applicants
_ Public image of the firm
_ Employment laws Outside Sources of Candidates
A. Recruiting Via the Internet – Most employers find that the Internet is their best choice for recruitment efforts. Social networking also provides recruiting assistance.
1. Advantages – The Web is cost efficient, generating more responses more quickly and providing exposure for a longer time at less cost.
2. Disadvantages – Gathering applications online may exclude higher numbers of older applicants and certain minorities. An employer may also get too many applications because of the Web’s broad reach and speed.
B. Advertising
1. The Media choice – Selection of the best medium depends on the positions for which the firm is recruiting.
_ Newspapers: local and specific labor markets
_ Trade and professional journals: specialized employees
_ Internet job sites: global labor markets
2. Constructing (Writing) Effective Ads.
_ Create attention, interest, desire, and action (AIDA).
_ Create a positive impression (image) of the firm.
C. Employment Agencies: There are three main types of employment agencies:
(1) Public agencies operated by federal, state, or local governments;
(2) Agencies associated with nonprofit organizations; and
(3) Privately owned agencies.
• Why Use an Employment Agency?
_ Firm lacks recruiting and screening capabilities to attract a pool of qualified applicants.
_ To fill a particular opening quickly.
_ To reduce internal time devoted to recruiting.
• Temp Agencies and Alternative Staffing
• Benefits of Temps
_ Increased productivity—paid only when working
_ Allows “trial run” for prospective employees
_ No recruitment, screening, and payroll administration costs
• Costs of Temps
_ Increased labor costs due to fees paid to temp agencies
_ Temp employees’ lack of commitment to the firm
D. Executive Recruiters.
Known as headhunters, are special employment agencies retained by employers to seek out top-management talent for their clients.
1. Pros and Cons – Recruiters can be useful and can save a manager’s time, but they can be more interested in persuading you to hire a candidate than in finding the one who will really do the job.
2. Guidelines – Make sure the recruiting firm is capable, meet the individual who will handle your assignment, and ask how much the firm charge. Never rely on the recruiter to do all the reference checking.
E. College Recruiting
It involves sending employers’ representatives to college campuses to prescreen applicants and create an applicant pool of management trainees, promotable candidates, and professional and technical employees.
Recruiting Goals
_ To determine if the candidate is worthy of further consideration
_ To attract good candidates
H. Referrals and Walk-Ins
• Employee Referrals
_ Referral is a cost-effective recruitment program.
_ Referral can speed up diversifying the workforce.
_ Relying on referrals may be discriminatory.
• Walk-ins
_ Seek employment through a personal direct approach to the employer.
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RECRUITMENT PRACTICES
An SHRM survey provide a useful overview of current recruitment practices
More employees are using newer recruiting tools such as niche (specialist) job boards, social networking sites, and the new jobs domain.
Many employers use so-called passive job candidate recruiting methods-in other words, seeking out candidates who aren’t actively seeking jobs. Popular methods here include reviewing associations and trade groups’ membership directories, scanning social networking sites, and mining industry-specific sites such as discussion forums, newsgroups and blogs.
Employers most frequently use “the time to fill outstanding job vacancies”, “cost per hire”, “number of outstanding job vacancies”, and “first-year turnover” to measure their recruiting efforts’ effectiveness.
For most employers, the Internet was their primary recruiting method.
Between 50% and 60% of employers surveyed use applicant tracking systems, and about 22% more intend to implement one shortly.
For most employers, national online job boards produced the most applicant, followed by employee referrals, nd the employer’s own Web site. Employee referrals, followed by ntional online job board and internal job potings, generated by far the highest quality of job candidates. Employee referrals, national online job boards, and internal job postings produced the best return to these employers’ recruiting dollar.
Recruiting a More Diverse Workforce
Many factors contribute to successful minority/female recruiting. For example, flexible hours make it easier to attract and keep single parents. However, the important point is to take the steps that “say” this is a good place for diverse employees to work. Doing so might include using minority-targeted media outlets; higly diverse ads; emphasing enclusiveness in policy statements; and using minority, female, and/or older recruiters.
• OLDER WORKERS AS A SOURCE OF CANDIDATES.
Employers increasingly turn to older workers as a source of recruits, for several reason. Because of buyouts and downsizing related early retirements, many workers retired early and want to reenter the workforce.
Recruiting and attracting older workers involves any or all the sources we described earlier (advertising, employment agencies, and so forth), but with one big difference. Recruiting and attracting older workers generally requires a comprehensive effort before the recruiting begins, in part because older workers my have some special preferences. The effort’s aim is to make the company an attractive place in which the older worker can work. A sampling of what sets these employers apart for older workers follows :
Baptist Health System South Florida, Stanley Group, and Hartford Financial Services Group offer flexible work arrangement including phased retirement. Hartford actually offers eight flexible work arrangements.
• RECRUITING SINGLE PARENTS
Formulating an intelligent program for attracting (and keeping) single parents start with understandingthe problems they encounter balancing work and family life. In one early survey, working single parents (the majority single mothers) stated that their work responsibilities interfered significantly with their family life. They describe as a no-win situation the challenge of having to do a good job at work and being a good parent, and many expressed disappointment at feeling like failures in both endeavors.
In attracting and keeping single parents is to make the workplace as user-friendly for single parents as practical.
• RECRUITING MINORITIES AND WOMEN
The same prescriptions that apply to recruiting single parents apply to recruiting minorities and women. In other words, employers have to formulate comprehensive plans for attracting minorities and women. This plans may include reevaluating personnel policies, developing flexible work options, redesigning jobs, and offering flexible benefit plans.
• THE DISABLED
Doing so involes several initiatives. For some managers it may require a new mindset, one that welcomes disabled employees as an excellent and largerly untapped source of competent, efficient labor for jobs ranging from information technology to creative advertising receptionist.Complying with a country’s disability laws is another sensible strategy, but it’s also important to go beyond this.
Developing & Using Application Forms
A. Purpose of Applications Forms – Application forms are good ways to quickly collect verifiable and fairly accurate historical data from the candidate.
Box – Know Your Employment Law: Equal Opportunity and Application Forms – Employers should carefully review their application forms to ensure they comply with equal employment laws.
B. Using Application Forms to Predict Job Performance – Some firms use application forms to predict which candidates will be successful and which will not by conducting statistical studies to find the relationship between (1) responses on the application form and (2) measures of success on the job.