Module 2- Job Analysis & Design

Question 1

Job Analysis & Design

Question 2

Job Analysis (JA)

Answer 2

JA is the process of collecting (a lot) of information about specific jobs

JA provides the underlying information for job descriptions

Question 3

Analysis vs Descriptions

Answer 3

JOB ANALYSIS
The systematic process of collecting information about the nature of specific jobs

JOB DESCRIPTIONS
Summary reports that identify, define and describe the job as it is actually performed

Question 4

JA is also used for:

Answer 4

1) Job Specifications – indicating knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics to do a job

2)Performance Standards – define acceptable performance criteria and serve as basis for performance assessments

In which HR disciplines do we need JA? Can you think of at least 3 examples?

Question 5

JA

Answer 5

Collect info then forms the basis for job descriptions
-job descriptions are the end result of job analysis

Job analysis - important in HR  e.g. training/development, recruitment, performance management

Question 6

JA Terminology

Answer 6

Job Family:
Broadly similar jobs make up one job family, e.g. HR, Legal, Procurement, Marketing,

Job:
Entirety of tasks performed by one employee that make up all work assignments, e.g. Compensation Specialist, HR Manager, Global Mobility Representative

Task:
Smallest unit of JA outlining what an employee does, e.g. prepare an annual report on external market developments

Question 7

Terminology cont

Answer 7

Perform job analysis at the level of the job (still consider individual tasks)

Job family- joins different jobs that are similar (e.g. lawyers- have different sectors “legal” individual jobs slightly different – litigation vs job matters

Question 8

What is the difference between a job and a position?

Answer 8

Difference between job and position **important to know

-job; is a group of related activities and duties

-A position: is still a collection of tasks and duties but it is performed by one single individual

-e.g. if there is a department with 10 people in it, they all do exactly the same work, then we have 10 positions but only one job

Question 9

Typical Data Collected in JA – related to the Job

Answer 9

JOB IDENTIFICATION:
-Title
-Department in which job is located
-Number of people who hold job

JOB CONTENT:
-Tasks and activities
-Effort (physical, mental, emotional)
-Constraints on actions
-Performance criteria
-Critical incidents
-Conflicting demands
-Working conditions
-Roles (e.g. negotiator, monitor, leader)
-Responsibility

Question 10

To get started on job analysis

Answer 10

-have to identify data, that you have to collect

-start with job data –identify job (title, etc.)

-Once identify job move to core of job analysis = job content

-e.g. responsibility- is responsible of money, or people
-working conditions ? Warm cozy office downtown vs someone outside building houses (very different)
-effort put in = mental/emotional effort- suicide help line? Physical?
-conflict/demand – management sandwiched between employee who want higher salary/bonus (might deserve it) but manager faces constraints from higher ups (nope no budget for it) – so stuck in middle of conflicting demand

Question 11

Typical Data Collected in JA – related to the Employee

Answer 11

EMPLOYEE CHARACTERISTICS:
-Professional & technical knowledge
-Manual skills
-Verbal skills
-Written skills
-Quantitative skills
-Mechanical skills
-Conceptual skills
-Managerial skills
-Leadership skills
-Interpersonal skills

INTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS:
-Boss and other superiors
-Peers
-Subordinates

EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS:
-Suppliers
-Customers
-Regulatory bodies
-Professional & industry
-Community
-Union/employee groups

Question 12

After look at job – shift to employee related info

Answer 12

1.The skills needed to perform the job (characteristics)
-not every job requites each of these skills – dependent on job

2.Internal relations (these are easy)
-where in heirarchery job is positioned (people reporting to and you reporting)- who is boss

3.External relations
-customers important – but some roles have no interaction
-community members – where employee Is located
-e.g. interact regularly with regulatory bodies of a pension plan

Question 13

Data Collection Process

Answer 13

How to collect JA Data:
-By conventional questionnaire to employee/manager
-Observation
-Interview
-Focus groups (rarer)
-Employee log (rare)
-By using quantitative methods based on specifically designed proprietary questionnaires that allow arithmetical analysis
-Combination of the above

Question 14

Typical issues in Data Collection

Answer 14

Who collects the data and who provides it?

Disagreement between any stakeholders in the process

Biases and subjectivity

Costs and administrative efforts associated with data collection

Question 15

Different methods for collecting data

Answer 15

-reguardless of method- always involve the employee (never rely on managers assessment)

-questionnaire most common – if info not clear- want to do an interview

-rare- focus group (group all do same job and interview them together about job)

-rare- employee log- ask them to write down what they are doing

-most sophisticated but not cheap - quantitative methods arithmetical analysis

Question 16

Who should collect data?

Answer 16

-often given to very new people (junior)- help them learn about the company/jobs (is the idea) BUT should never be given to a newcomer, they should be familiar with organization- can be time consuming and boring –if done by single person- there can be biases

Question 17

if any disagreement:

Answer 17

Have to go back and resolve that- needs to be as accurate as possible (if employee disagrees- go back and check)

-never every should job analysis be done on the input of a manager only
–managers may not know every little detail
-may do if need for layoffs- see the impact – manager would have to measure impact (might not have complete knowledge of it)– employee might have specific technical skills /customer needs- job analysis –ALWAYS involve employees who are doing the job

Question 18

What can go wrong in JA?

Answer 18

A LOT!

The result may turn out to be:
-Unreliable (i.e. not consistent)
-Invalid (i.e. not accurate)
-Not accepted by the employee, his/her manager or other stakeholders in the process
-Out of date
-Not useful

Question 19

Highlight;

Answer 19

-unreliability ; e.g. 2 analyst’s analyze joes job and come up with 2 different results , means not consistent , not very useful

-invalid; e.g. amy does analysist of joe’s job but at end its not even his jobs description but is of franks or one that doesn’t exist
– just b/c employee and manager sign off on description doesn’t mean its valid – could just mean they are frustrated with process just want you to go away (might not understand negative consequences)
-if key stakeholders disagree- go back to drawing board b/c any lack of support undermine you in other HR fields based on job descriptions (compensation, etc.)

Question 20

Out of date

Answer 20

Very common
1.cumbersome, expensive, long, boring- only do when have to (if problem e.g. attrition is high in department want to get to bottom in HR)
2.environment changes so quickly (maybe every 6 months to keep up)- changes to external environment

Question 21

The Outcome of Data Collection: Job Descriptions (JD)

Answer 21

Job Specification:
-Lists the qualifications required to do a job, often part of the JD

Job Description:
-Comprehensive summary of job responsibilities, qualifications and relationships

National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2021 Update:
-Excellent source by Employment and Social Development and Statistics Canada of JD for over 30.000 occupations.

Question 22

The Outcome

Answer 22

The outcome of every job analysis is a job description

Separate document called job specification –usually part of job description

-where do you need to find a general job description ?
-NOC- 1992 og , reviews every 10 yrs
-2021 brought some big changes – mindful descriptions very generic not tailored to needs of orgs.

Question 23

Competency Model

Answer 23

Broadly applicable knowledge, skills and behaviours essential for being successful in a given job

Can be defined at individual, group or organisational level
Competency sets translate core competencies into more specific action

Behavioural descriptors are observable behaviour indicating a given level of a competency

BUT, there are major challenges with competency models:
-lack of clear definition of competencies
-harder to objectively assess (unlike skills)
-potential legal exposure (e.g. if pay is based on competency)

Question 24

Examples of Competencies

Answer 24

-Team leadership
-Interpersonal understanding
-Influence and Impact
-Self-control
-Analytical thinking
-Flexibility
-Business orientation
-Networking
-Organizational awareness

Question 25

Part of JA

Answer 25

Part of job analysis what skills are required from each employee to successfully do job

Question 26

Competency Model

Answer 26

broad knowledge
-are quite fussy- no good definition of what is a competency (skill is usually much more specific and measurable /can test it – a competency not so much)

Examples- not an exhaustive list

Competency might include things like; critical thinking, problem solving, global perspective, team management, quality focus
-compare to a skill; e.g. language skill- ability to translate a medical text from Russian to Spanish (can test this type of skill)
-how do you test a compentancy skills like influence and impact

Question 27

Other challenge with competency based models

Answer 27

where do you draw the line between a competency on the one hand and personality trait/characteristic
-eg. Competency teamwork- compare to employee being an introvert rather than extrovert

No accepted way to measure competency- so hard to collect reliable data (don’t know what to measure)

-should not base pay compensation of competency (legal)
-but can use it for training/shadowing – so can learn from senior partners (if show potential for manager but not quite get them to shadow a good one to learn team leadership)

Question 28

Simplified Example of Competency Model

Answer 28

Know yourself:
-Take responsibility
-Eager to learn
-Recognize my emotions

Care Together:
-Show kindness
-Communicate effectively
-Work with others

Contribute daily:
-Stand up for safety
-Commit to quality service
-Act with purpose

Question 29

Simplified version

Answer 29

HS (Health Services) –largest org in AB – ranges from doctors to nurses, other health care, those who run IT, etc.
-how to define competency to entire org when its so complex (roles/jobs are so different) – hard to find competency that apply to everyone

How are these applied to daily info/knowledge - ”act with purpose”- how difference from other employee- you would expect this regardless of role

Question 30

What impacts Job Design?

Answer 30

Job Design:
-Org. considerations
-External factors
-Ergonomics
-Employee considerations
-Technological change
-Job considerations

Question 31

Impacts Cont

Answer 31

Org. considerations
-Increase efficiency
-Cut cost
-Optimize workflow

External factors
-Availability of employees
-Social values
-Legislative changes

Ergonomics
-Aging workforce
-“Sitting is the new smoking”?

Employee considerations

Technological change
-Elimination of jobs due to automation
-Digitalisation of jobs
-Align with employee training and upskilling

Job considerations

Question 32

Job design:

Answer 32

to identify the duties of a given job based on organizational, technical, environmental and other factors as they relate to employee

Question 33

Highlight:

Answer 33

-tech change; plays big role in practice (e.g. new software program- must train employee so they can continue to do their job, job may look slightly different)or may be completely different
-e.g operate forklift, but now operate it remotely- very different – train to learn new skills – jobs that are now automated (how ships are unloaded)- some jobs change with technology or completely go away

Question 34

External factors

Answer 34

legislative changes ; occupational health and safety - exposure (e.g. scientist being exposed to certain things in job like X-rays, radiation – occupational health would have limits to exposure per day, week, month – if limits change with new research then job needs to be rearranged so they can do jobs but be exposed less)
-availability of employees – boom –hard to retain – may have to change job to keep employees (e.g. offer work from home options, more flexibility)

Question 35

What impacts Job Design II?

Answer 35

Employee Considerations:
-Likely to increase due to diverse workforce
-Improve autonomy, variety of work as well as task identity and task significance
-BUT: individual preferences of employees vary, do not (over)generalise

Job Considerations:
-Job rotation (may add costs & complexity if done across borders)
-Job enlargement (horizontal)
-Job enrichment (vertical

Question 36

2 other aspects to job design

Answer 36

employee consideration and job consideration (specific to job)

Question 37

General assumption:

Answer 37

General assumption that employees like to have autonomy and control over work (research the more have the better), some fear it but most like it

-task identity; means employee can take pride in completing entire piece of work (work outcomes) eg. Prof developing course (vs only midterm- less task identity)

-task significance; means know that your work is important to org. or others – want to know its useful (e.g. bossy boss- work seems useful) – vs heart surgeon- know you have really changed/saved someones life

Question 38

Job:

Answer 38

-change job in what it becomes more interesting/challenging for employee

Rotation; have employee rotate through different jobs/roles ideally for different counties on certain basis (6 months, annually) – tasked to do different jobs – give promising talent a lot of different exposure

Enrichment – give job more responsibilities/more tasks (e.g. in Europe ran div of HR, every year have to do boss job for 4-6 week when away– make more challenges/interesting, exposure

Enlargement; give additional tasks and responsibilities (e.g. sent of assignment to Australia –allow teammate to look at immigration perspective and tax perspective – give more challenging to think about