Week 3: Job Description and Job Evaluations

Question 1

A relatively short summary of a job; should be about 2-5 pages in length

Answer 1

Writing a Good Job Description

Question 2

For a job description to be of value, it must __________ _ ___ __ ________ _________ that decisions about activities such as selection and training can be made.

Answer 2

Describe a job in enough detail

Question 3

IDENTIFICATION | SECTIONS OF A JOB DESCRIPTION:

• If accurate, describes the nature of the job
• Aids in employee selection and recruitment
• Provides workers with some form of identity
• Can also affect perceptions of the status and worth of a job

Answer 3

Job Title

Question 4

IDENTIFICATION | JOB TITLE:

When industrial psychologist David Faloona started a new job at Washington National Insurance in Chicago, his official title was psychometric technician.

Unfortunately, none of the other workers knew what he did. To correct that problem, his title was changed to personnel assistant, and supervisors then began consulting with him on human resources-related problems.

Answer 4

Accurate Title

Question 5

IDENTIFICATION | JOB TITLE:

• Instead of simply saying that she is a “clinic worker”, a woman can say that she is a “psychometrician” or a “mental health support specialist”.
• Rather than calling herself an office staff, she can identify as a psychological services assistant or an intake coordinator.
• If he’s doing volunteer work in a mental health organization, he can refer to himself as a crisis line responder or a peer support worker.

Answer 5

Identity

Question 6

IDENTIFICATION | SECTIONS OF A JOB DESCRIPTION:

• Needs to be only a paragraph long but should briefly describe the nature and purpose of the job
• Can be used in help-wanted advertisements, internal job postings, and company brochures

Answer 6

Brief Summary

Question 7

IDENTIFICATION | SECTIONS OF A JOB DESCRIPTION:

• Lists the tasks in which the worker is involved
• These should be organized into meaningful categories to make the job description easy to read and understand

Answer 7

Work Activities

Question 8

IDENTIFICATION | SECTIONS OF A JOB DESCRIPTION:

• Lists everything used to perform the work activities in the previous section
• Information in this section is used primarily for employee section and training

Answer 8

Tools & Equipment Used

Question 9

IDENTIFICATION | SECTIONS OF A JOB DESCRIPTION:

• Describes the environment in which the employee works and should mention stress level, work schedule, physical demands, levels of responsibility, temperature, number of coworkers, degree of danger, and any other relevant information

Answer 9

Job Context

Question 10

IDENTIFICATION | SECTIONS OF A JOB DESCRIPTION:

• Should outline standards of performance
• Brief description of how an employee is evaluated and what standards are expected of the employee

Answer 10

Work Performance

Question 11

IDENTIFICATION | SECTIONS OF A JOB DESCRIPTION:

• Salary grade and compensable factors
• The employee’s salary or salary range should not be listed in the job description

Answer 11

Compensation Information

Question 12

IDENTIFICATION | SECTIONS OF A JOB DESCRIPTION:

• Commonly called “job specifications”
• These are knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that are necessary to be successful on the job
• Can be divided into two subsections: (1) KSAOs that an employee must have at the time of hiring, and (2) KSAOs that are an important part of the job but can be obtained after being hired

Answer 12

Job Competencies

Question 13

IDENTIFICATION | Which competency type (KSAOs) is this?:

• In-depth understanding of psychological testing and assessment principles

Answer 13

Knowledge

Question 14

IDENTIFICATION | Which competency type (KSAOs) is this?:

• Excellent written and verbal communication for report writing and client interaction

Answer 14

Skills

Question 15

IDENTIFICATION | Which competency type (KSAOs) is this?:

• Strong organizational skills to manage multiple assessments simultaneously

Answer 15

Abilities

Question 16

IDENTIFICATION | Which competency type (KSAOs) is this?:

• High attention to detail and accuracy in scoring and reporting

Answer 16

Other characteristics

Question 17

IDENTIFICATION |KSAOs:

Factual or procedural information (e.g., understanding of Excel)

Answer 17

Knowledge

Question 18

IDENTIFICATION |KSAOs:

Enduring capabilities (e.g., problem-solving skills)

Answer 18

Ability

Question 19

IDENTIFICATION |KSAOs:

Learned capacities to perform tasks (e.g., typing speed)

Answer 19

Skills

Question 20

IDENTIFICATION |KSAOs:

Traits or conditions (e.g., personality, work ethic)

Answer 20

Other characteristics

Question 21

Once a job analysis has been completed and a thorough job description written, it is important to determine how much employees in a position should be paid. This process of determining a job’s worth is called ___ _____________.

Answer 21

Job Evaluation

Question 22

IDENTIFICATION | JOB EVALUATION:

A job evaluation is typically done in two stages:

Answer 22

• Determining internal pay equity
• Determining external pay equity

Question 23

IDENTIFICATION | JOB EVALUATION:

• Involves comparing jobs within an organization to ensure that the people in jobs worth the most money are paid accordingly
• The difficulty in this process, of course, is determining the worth of each job

Answer 23

Internal Pay Equity

Question 24

IDENTIFICATION | INTERNAL PAY EQUITY:

The first step in evaluating a job is to decide what factors differentiate the relative worth of jobs. These factors may include level of responsibility, physical demands, mental demands, education requirements, training and experience requirements, and working conditions. (STEP 1)

Answer 24

Determining Compensable Job Factors

Question 25

**IDENTIFICATION | INTERNAL PAY EQUITY:** Once the compensable factors have been selected, the next step is _____________ ___ _____ ___ _____ ______________ __________. For a factor such as education, the levels are easy to determine (e.g., high school diploma, associate's degree, bachelor's degree). For factors such as responsibility, a considerable amount of time and discussion may be required to determine the levels. (STEP 2)

Answer 25

Determining the Levels for Each Compensable Factor

Question 26

**IDENTIFICATION | INTERNAL PAY EQUITY:** Because some factors are more important than others, weights must be assigned to each factor and to each level within a factor. (STEP 3)

Answer 26

Determining the Factor Weights

Question 27

**IDENTIFICATION | EXTERNAL PAY EQUITY:** With external equity, the worth of a job is determined by comparing the job to the __________ __________ (other organizations).

Answer 27

External Market

Question 28

**TRUE OR FALSE | EXTERNAL PAY EQUITY:** External equity is important if an organization is to attract and retain employees. In other words, it must be competitive with the compensation plans of other organizations.

Answer 28

TRUE

Question 29

**IDENTIFICATION | EXTERNAL PAY EQUITY:** To determine external equity, organizations use _________ ____________. Sent to other organizations, these ask how much an organization pays its employees in various positions.

Answer 29

Salary Surveys

Question 30

**TRUE OR FALSE | EXTERNAL PAY EQUITY:** Keep in mind that job evaluation concerns *the worth of a person in the job*, not the *worth of the job itself*.

Answer 30

FALSE - It's the other way around

Question 31

**IDENTIFICATION | EXTERNAL PAY EQUITY:** The amount of money a job is worth is called ________ ______________________.

Answer 31

Direct Compensation

Question 32

**TRUE OR FALSE | EXTERNAL PAY EQUITY:** Employees are also compensated in other ways, such as pay for time not worked (e.g., holidays, vacation, sick days), deferred income (e.g., Social Security and pension plans), health protection such as medical and dental insurance, and perquisites ("perks") such as a company car.

Answer 32

Yuh

Question 33

**TRUE OR FALSE | DETERMINING A SEX AND RACE EQUITY:** In addition to analyses of internal and external equity, pay audits should also be conducted to ensure that employees are **not** paid differently on the basis of gender or race.

Answer 33

Yuh

Question 34

**IDENTIFICATION | DETERMINING A SEX AND RACE EQUITY:** A type of audit that looks at pay rates of employees within positions with *identical duties*.

Answer 34

Equal pay for equal work

Question 35

**IDENTIFICATION | DETERMINING A SEX AND RACE EQUITY:** A type of audit that looks at pay rates of employees in jobs of *similar worth and responsibility*.

Answer 35

Comparable worth