Job analysis and design

Job Analysis and Strategic HRM The fundamental nature of work may be changing:  Functional areas are not as important as they once were for defining a job  After reengineering of proc

Job Analysis and Design

Lecturer: Cao To Linh

ITP - 2010

 What is job?

 Why organization needs job analysis?

 Job analysis process

 Job design and its challenges

 Job: group of positions that are similar in their duties, such

 Job specification: a written explanation of the knowledge, skills, abilities, traits, and other characteristics necessary for effective performance on a given job

Why organization needs job analysis?

Job Analysis

Job Description Job Specification

is a systematic way to gather and analyze information about the content and human requirement of jobs, and the context in which jobs are performed.

Job Design

HR planning Recruitment Selection Training Performance evaluation Compensation

Job design and redesign

Why organization needs job analysis?

 Job analysis is vital to any HRM program and answers such questions as:

 How long does it take to complete important tasks?

 Which tasks are grouped together as a job?

 How can a job be designed or structured so that employee performance can be enhanced?

 What behaviors are needed to perform the job?

 What kind of person, in terms of traits and experience, is best suited for the job?

 How can the information acquired by a job analysis be used in the development of HRM programs?

Job Analysis and Strategic HRM

 The fundamental nature of work may be changing:

 Functional areas are not as important as they once were for defining a job

 After reengineering of processes, new job responsibilities may be poorly defined

 Organizations must continually adapt to changing business environments

 Thus, reengineering is likely in most organizations

 Job analysts traditionally create descriptions of jobs as they currently exist

• Now they must also describe future jobs

Job Analysis and Strategic HRM

 There is a growing need to match human resource activities to an organization’s strategic planning

 Job specifications must accurately detail the knowledge and skills that will complement future strategic initiatives

 Job descriptions will no longer be snapshots of a static job

 Strategic job analysis will have to capture both the present and the future

Job Analysis and Strategic HRM

 Compounding the problems of reengineering, many work environments offer employees:

 Compressed work schedules

 Telecommuting

 Job sharing

 Flexible hours

Job Analysis & Employee Competencies

 Competencies are general attributes employees need across multiple jobs or within the organization

 Includes anything from “teamwork” to “leadership potential”

 Many organizations identify, communicate, and reward competencies they believe employees should have

 Competency modeling reflects an organization’s desire to:

 Communicate job requirements in ways that extend beyond the job itself

 Describe and measure the organization’s workforce in more general, competency-based terms

 Design and implement staffing programs focused around competencies, rather than specific jobs, as a way to increase staffing flexibility

Job analysis process

 Regardless of who collects the information, the individuals should:

 Thoroughly understand people, jobs, and the total organizational system

 Understand how work should flow within the organization

 Sources of personnel in charge of job analysis:

 Outside temporary analyst

 Full-time job analyst

 Before beginning analysis, an overview of the organization and its jobs is required

 This provides a better understanding of work flow

 An organization chart presents the relationships

among departments and units of the firm, as well as:

 Line and staff functions

 Number of vertical levels in the organization

 Number of functional departments

 Formal reporting relationships

The use of charts

 A process chart shows how a specific set of jobs

relate to each other

 This chart does not show structural relationships among

Methods of gathering information

 When collecting job data, these basic methods can

be used separately or in some combination:

 Applicable to the jobs that require manual, standardized, and short-job-cycle activities

 Job analysts must be trained to:

 Observe relevant job behaviors

 Be as unobtrusive as possible

Methods of gathering information

 Interviewing job incumbents is often done in combination with observation

 This is the most widely used technique

 It allows the job analyst to talk with job incumbent

 Interviews can be conducted with a:

 Single incumbent

 Group of incumbents

 Supervisor who is familiar with the job

 A structured set of questions is used so answers can be compared

 Interviews are difficult to standardize

 Different interviewers may ask different questions

 The same interviewer might ask different questions of different respondents

 Information may be unintentionally distorted by the interviewer

 Interviewing costs can be high, especially if group interviews aren’t practical

Methods of gathering information

 Questionnaires are the least costly data collection method

 They can collect large amounts of data in a short time

 A structured questionnaire includes specific questions about the job,

working conditions, and equipment

 An open-ended format permits job incumbents to use their own words and

ideas to describe the job

 The format and structure of a questionnaire are debatable issues

 To make a questionnaire easier to use:

 Keep it as short as possible

 Explain what the questionnaire is being used for

 Keep it simple

 Test the questionnaire before using it

Methods of gathering information

Job Incumbent Diary or Log

 The diary or log is a recording by incumbents of:

 Job duties

 Frequency of the duties

 When the duties are accomplished

 Most people are not disciplined enough to keep a log

 Kept properly, the log permits an examination of routine duties and exceptions

 The diary or log is useful when analyzing jobs that are difficult to observe

Which Method to Use?

 There is no agreement about which methods of job analysis yield the best information

 Interviews should not be the sole data collection method

 Certain methods may be better for a given situation

 Most organizations base their choice on:

 The purpose of the analysis

 Time and budget constraints

Which Method to Use?

 Many organizations use a multi-methods job

 A statistical analysis of the responses is conducted

 Using a comprehensive process is relatively expensive and time-consuming

 The quality of information derived from a comprehensive approach is strongly endorsed by courts

Job Descriptions & Specifications

 The job description is one of the primary outputs of

a systematic job analysis

 It is a written description of what the job entails

 It is hard to over-emphasize how important thorough, accurate, and current job descriptions are to an organization

 Changes in recent years have increased the need for job descriptions:

 Massive organizational restructurings

 The need for new and creative ways to motivate and reward employees

 The accelerated rate at which technology is changing work environments

 New, more stringent regulation of employment practices

Job Descriptions & Specifications

 There is no standard format for a job description, but most well-written, useful descriptions include:

 A job specification evolves from the job description

 It is especially useful for recruitment and selection

Job Descriptions & Specifications

 R J Harvey’s guidelines for choosing the characteristics included on a job specification:

 All job tasks must be identified and rated in terms of importance, using sound job analysis techniques

 A panel of experts, incumbents, or supervisors should specify the skills needed to perform each job task

 The importance of each skill must be rated

 Any other characteristics necessary for performing the job should

be identified (physical requirements, professional certification)

 Each skill identified must be linked to a job task

Job Descriptions & Specifications

 Any trait or skill stated on the job specification should be required for performance of the job

 The Americans with Disabilities Act makes the job analyst’s responsibilities even greater in this area

 Job specifications must differentiate between essential and

Job Description & Specification

Job Description & Specification

Job Design

 Job descriptions and specifications can be used for designing or redesigning jobs

 There is no one best way to design a job

 Different situations call for different arrangements of job characteristics

 Different emphasis may be placed on performance and satisfaction as desired outcomes

 A single approach is unlikely to satisfy all a manager’s goals

 The choice of job design involves trade-offs based

on the critical needs of the organization

Scientific Mgmt & the Mechanistic Approach

 Job design was a central issue in F W Taylor’s model of scientific management

 The work of every workman is fully planned out by management at least one day in advance

 Each man receives complete written instructions

 The instructions specify what is to be done, how it is to

be done, and the time allowed for doing it

 The goal was to break jobs into simple, repetitive tasks that could be done quickly and efficiently

Scientific Mgmt & the Mechanistic Approach

 Recommendations from scientific management:

 Work should be studied scientifically

 It should be arranged so workers can be efficient

 Employees should be matched to the demands of the job

 They should be trained to perform the job

 Monetary compensation should be tied directly to performance

Scientific Mgmt & the Mechanistic Approach

 Managers like the scientific management approach because the goal is improving performance

 Repetitive, highly specialized work can lead to employee dissatisfaction

 Efficiency gains may be offset by lower job satisfaction, higher absenteeism, and turnover

 Job enlargement attempts to increase satisfaction

by giving employees a greater variety of things to

do

 They are not additional authority or responsibility

Job Enrichment: A Motivational Approach

 Job enrichment tries to design jobs in ways that help incumbents satisfy their need for:

 Growth

 Recognition

 Responsibility

 The job is expanded vertically

 Employees are given responsibility that might previously have been part of a supervisor’s job

 According to Herzberg, employees are motivated

by jobs that enhance their feelings of self-worth

Job Enrichment: A Motivational Approach

 A job must possess “core job dimensions” to lead

Job Enrichment: A Motivational Approach

 Having these core dimensions in a job produces three critical psychological states:

 Autonomy is related to feelings of responsibility

 Feedback is related to knowledge of results

Job Enrichment: A Motivational Approach

 The job characteristics model describes the relationships that exist among four sets of factors:

 Core job dimensions

Work-Family Balance and Job Design

 Work-family tension is driven by changing workforce demographics

 Women and single parents entering the workforce

 Dual-career couples

 The aging population

 Some organizations meet employees’ needs through flexible work arrangements:

 Job sharing

 Flextime

 Telecommuting

Work-Family Balance and Job Design

Work-Family Balance and Job Design

 The success of job sharing depends on:

 Identifying jobs that can be shared

 Understanding employees’ individual sharing style

 Matching “partners” who have complementary scheduling needs and skills

 With flextime, employees can choose when to be at the office

 5 days/8 hours

 4 days/10 hours

 Arrive later on Monday, leave earlier on Friday

Work-Family Balance and Job Design

 Telecommuting allows employees to work at home part- or full-time

 Communication is through phone, fax, computer

 Often resisted by managers who fear loss of control and subordinate accessibility

Work-Family Balance and Job Design

 Three issues to consider when developing and implementing flexible work options:

 The program should be open to all employees

 Train and reward managers for encouraging subordinates to use flextime

 Be mindful of laws that impact flexible work arrangement policies

Job Design: The Next Challenge

 In the 1980s and 1990s, European and Asian firms embraced the quality management movement

 Self-directed teams have become important in the success of manufacturers worldwide

 American firms are implementing self-directed work teams and reengineering work processes to regain a competitive advantage

 Reengineering cannot succeed unless attention is paid to how employees’ skills are affected

Job Design: The Next Challenge

 The appropriate response to these changes is reflected in Coopers & Lybrand’s competency alignment process (CAP)

 CAP determines the skill levels of employees in order

to identify skill gaps

 When a gap is identified, it is eliminated through a variety of programs (training, redeployment, and outsourcing)

 Without these or similar efforts, reengineering will probably not succeed