JOB ANALYSIS & JOB EVALUATION

9.1 INTRODUCTION
In this lesson we will be discussing the nature and use of Job Analysis. Let us first
try to understand what is job analysis. You must understand that Job analysis provides
the basis for determining what types of information should be obtained from the applicant,
from previous employers, and from other sources.
Even though many companies are laying off substantial portions of their workforces,
employee selection is a vital part of HRM. Personnel selection is important in the building
of a productive workforce. Determining the qualifications of job candidates requires that as
much information as possible be obtained from the candidates and other sources. It is
important for you to understand that the information that is collected should be relevant
for to the job and sufficiently reliable and valid. HR practitioners should have an
understanding of job requirements to permit an analysis of application forms, employment
tests, interviews, and reference checks of individual candidates.
9.2 OBJECTIVES
After reading this lesson, you should be able to
 Define job analysis.
 Understand the basic steps in a job analysis.
 Identify the major methods of collecting Job analysis data.
9.3 CONTENTS
9.3.1 Meaning and Purpose of Job and Job Analysis
9.3.2 Uses of Job Analysis
9.3.3 Steps in Job Analysis
9.3.4 Techniques in Job Analysis
9.3.1 Meaning and Purpose of Job and Job Analysis
Manpower planning is concerned with determination of quantitative and qualitative
requirements of manpower for the organization. Determination of manpower requirements
is one of the most important problems in manpower planning. Job analysis and job design,
provide this knowledge. Before going through the mechanism of job analysis and job
design, it is relevant to understand the terms which are used in job analysis and job
design.
Job: A job may be defined as a “collection or aggregation of tasks, duties and
responsibilities which as a whole, are regarded as a regular assignment to individual
employees,” and which is different from other assignments, In other words, when the total
work to be done is divided and grouped into packages, we call it a “job.” Each job has a
definite title based upon standardized trade specifications within a job; two or more grades
may be identified, where the work assignment may be graded according to skill, the
difficulty of doing them, or the quality of workmanship. Thus, it may be noted that a
position is a “collection o tasks and responsibilities regularly assigned to one person;”
while a job is a “group of position, which involve essentially the same duties,
responsibilities, skill and knowledge.” A position consists of a particular set of duties
assigned to an individual.
Decenzo and P. Robbins define other terms as follows:
Task: It is a distinct work activity carried out for a distinct purpose.
Duty: It is a number of tasks.
Position: It refers to one or more duties performed by one person in an organization,
There are at least as many positions as there are workers in the organization;
vacancies may create more positions than employees.
Job: It is a type of position within the organization.
Job Family: It is group of two or more jobs that either call for similar worker
characteristics or contain parallel work tasks as determined by job analysis.
Occupation: It is a group of similar jobs found across organizations.
Career: It represents a sequence of positions, jobs, or occupations that a person has
over his working life.
Job Analysis Defined
Developing an organizational structure, results in jobs which have to be staffed. Job
analysis is the procedure through which you determine the duties and nature of the jobs
and the kinds of people (in terms of skills and experience) who should be hired for them.’ It
provides you with data on job requirements, which are then used for developing job
descriptions (what the job entails) and job specifications (what kind of people to hire for
the job). Some of the definitions of job analysis ate given as follows, to understand the
meaning of the term more clearly:
According to Michael L. Jucius, “Job analysis refers to the process of studying the
operations, duties and organizational aspects of jobs in order to derive specifications or as
they called by some, job descriptions.”
According to DeCenzo and P. Robbins, “A job analysis is a systematic exploration of
the activities within a job. It is a basic technical procedure, one that is used to define the
duties, responsibilities, and accountabilities of a job.”
According to Herbert G Herman “A job is a collection of tasks that can be performed
by a single employee to contribute to the production of some product or service provided
by the organization. Each job has certain ability requirements (as well as certain rewards)
associated with it. Job analysis process used to identify these requirements.”
Flippo has offered a more comprehensive definition of job analysis as, “Job
analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations
and responsibilities of a specific job. The immediate products of the analysis are job
descriptions and job specifications”.
Thus, job analysis involves the process of identifying the nature of a job (job
description) and the qualities of the likely job holder (job specification).
9.3.2 Uses of Job Analysis
 1. Achievement of Goals: Weather and Davis have stated, “Jobs are at the core of
every organization’s productivity, if they are designed well and done right, the organization
makes progress towards its objectives. Otherwise, productivity suffers, profits fall, and the
organization is less able to meet the demands of society, customer, employees, and other
with a stake in its success.”
2. Organizational Design: Job analysis will be useful in classifying the jobs and the
interrelationships among the jobs. On the basis of information obtained through job
analysis, sound decisions regarding hierarchical positions and functional differentiation
can be taken and this will improve operational efficiency.
3. Organization and Manpower Planning: It is helpful in organization planning, for
it defines labour in concrete terms and co-ordinates the activities of the work force, and
clearly divides duties and responsibilities.
4. Recruitment and Selection: Job analysis provides you with information on what the job
entails and what human requirements are required to carry out these activities. This information
is the basis on which you decide what sort of people to recruit and hire.
5. Placement and Orientation: Job analysis helps in matching the job requirements
with the abilities, interests and aptitudes of people. Jobs will be assigned to persons on
the basis of suitability for the job. The orientation programme will help the employee in
learning the activities and understanding duties that are required to perform a given job
more effectively.
6. Employee Training and Management Development: Job analysis provides the
necessary information to the management of training and development programmes. It
helps in to determine the content and subject matter of in training courses. It also helps in
checking application information, interviewing test results and in checking references.
7. Job Evaluation and Compensation: Job evaluation is the process of determining
the relative worth of different jobs in an organization with a view to link compensation,
both basic and supplementary, with the worth of the jobs. The worth of a job is determined
on the basis of job characteristics and job holder characteristics. Job analysis provides
both in the forms of job description and job specification.
8. Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal involves comparing each
employee’s actual performance with his or her desired performance. Through job analysis
industrial engineers and other experts determine standards to be achieved and specific
activities to be performed.
9. Health and Safety: It provides an opportunity for identifying hazardous conditions
and unhealthy environmental factors so that corrective measures may be taken to
minimize and avoid the possibility of accidents.
10. Employee Counseling: Job analysis provides information about career choices
and personal limitation. Such information is helpful in vocational guidance and
rehabilitation counseling. Employees who are unable to cope with the hazards and
demands of given jobs may be advised to opt for subsidiary jobs or to seek premature
retirement.
9.3.3 Steps in Job Analysis
The six steps of job analysis are shown in figure

Job Analysis Process

1. Determine the Use of the Job Analysis Information: Start by identifying the use
to which the information will be put, since this will determine the type of data you collect
and the technique you use to collect them.
2. Collection of Background Information: According to Terry, “The make-up of a
job, its relation to other jobs, and its requirements for competent performance are
essential information needed for a job evaluation. This information can be had by
reviewing available background information such as organization charts (which show how
the job in question relates to other jobs and where they fit into the overall organization);
class specifications (which describe the general requirements of the class of job to which
the
job under analysis belongs); and the existing job descriptions which provide a starting
point from which to build the revised job description”.
3. Selection of Jobs for Analysis: To do job analysis is a costly and time consuming
process. It is hence, necessary to select a representative sample of jobs for purposes of
analysis. Priorities of various jobs can also be determined. A job may be selected because
it has undergone undocumented changes in job content. The request for analysis of a job
may originate with the employee, supervisor, or a manager. When the employee requests
an analysis it is usually because new job demands have not been reflected in changes in
wages.
Employee’s salaries are, in part, based upon the nature of the work that they perform.
Some organizations establish a time cycle for the analysis of each job. For example: A job
analysis may be required for all jobs every three years. New jobs must also be subjected to
analysis.
4. Collection of Job Analysis Data: Job data on features of the job, requited
employee qualification and requirements, should be collected either form the employees
who actually perform a job; or from other employees (such as foremen or supervisors) who
watch the workers doing a job and there by acquire knowledge about it; or from the
outside persons, known as the trade job analysis who are appointed to watch employees
performing a job. The duties of such a trade job analyst are (i) to outline the complete
scope of a job and to consider all the physical and mental activities involved in
determining what the worker does.; (ii) find out why a worker does a job; and for this
purpose he studies why each task is essential for the overall result; and (iii) the skill factor
which may be needed in the worker to differentiate between jobs and establish the extent
of the difficulty of any job.
5. Processing the Information: Once job analysis information has been collected,
the next step is to place it in a form that will make it useful to those charged with the
various personnel functions. Several issues arise with respect to this. First, how much
detail is needed? Second, can the job analysis information be expressed in quantitative
terms? These must be considered properly.
6. Preparing Job Descriptions and Job Classifications: Job information which has
been collected must be processed to prepare the job description form. It is a statement
showing full details of the activities of the job. Separate job description forms may be used
for various activities in the job and may be compiled later on. The job analysis is made
with the help of these description forms. These forms may be used as reference for the
future.
7. Developing Job Specifications: Job specifications are also prepared on the basis
of information collected. It is a statement of minimum acceptable qualities of the person to
be placed on the job. It specifies the standard by which the qualities of the person are
measured. Job analyst prepares such statement taking into consideration the skills
required in performing the job properly. Such statement is used in selecting a person
matching with the job.
9.3.4 Techniques in Job Analysis
Methods for Collecting Job Analysis Data
As discussed earlier, information is to be collected for job analysis. Such information
may be collected by the trained job analysis, superiors concerned and job holders
themselves. Job information is collected through the following methods:
1. Participant Diary/Logs: Workers can be to keep participant diary/long or lists of
things they do during the day. For every activity he or she engages in, the employee
records the activity (along with the time) in a log. This can provide you with a very
comprehensive picture of the job, especially when it’s supplemented with subsequent
interviews with the worker and his or her supervisor. This method provides more accurate
information if done faithfully. However, it is quite time consuming. Further, each job
holder may maintain records according to his own way which presents problems in
analysis at later stage. Therefore, it has limited application.
2. Interview: There are three types of interviews you can use to collect job analysis
data: individual interviews with each employee; group interviews with groups of employees
having the same job; and supervisor interviews with one or more supervisors who are
thoroughly knowledgeable about the job being analyzed. The group interview is used when
a large number of employees are performing similar or identical work, since this can be a
quick and inexpensive way of learning about the job. As a rule, the worker’s immediate
supervisor would attend the group session; if not, you should interview the supervisor
separately to get that person’s perspective on the duties and responsibilities of the job.
3. Critical Incidents: In this method, job holders are asked to describe incidents
concerning the job on the basis of their past experience. The incidents so collected are
analyzed and classified according to the job areas they describe, A fairly picture of actual
job requirements can be obtained by distinguishing between effective and ineffective
behaviors of workers on the job. However, this method is time consuming. The analyst
requires a high degree of skill to analyze the contents of descriptions given by workers.
4. Technical Conference Method: This method utilizes supervisors with extensive
knowledge of the job. Here, specific characteristics of a job are obtained from the “experts.”
Although it is a good data gathering method, it often overlooks the incumbent worker’s
perception about what they do on their job.
5. Job Performance: Under this method, the job analyst actually performs the job
under study to get first-hand experience of the actual tasks, and physical and social
demands of the job. This method can be used only for jobs where skill requirements are
low and can be learnt quickly and easily. This is a time-consuming method and is not
appropriate for jobs requiring extensive training.
6. Functional Job Analysis: Functional job analysis (FJA) is employee- oriented
analytical approach of job analysis. This approach attempts to describe the whole person
on the job. The main features of FJA include the following:
 The extent to which specific instruction are necessary to perform the task
 The extent to which reasoning and judgment are required to perform the task
 The mathematical ability required to perform the task and
 The verbal and language facilities required to perform the task.
7. Observation Method: Using this method, a job analyst watches employees directly
on the job. Observations are made on various tasks, activities, the pace at which tasks are
carried out, and the way different activities are performed. This method is suitable for jobs
that involve manual, standardized, and short job cycle activities. This method also
requires that the entire range of activities be observable; possible with some jobs.
8. Questionnaires: The method is usually employed by engineering consultants.
Properly drafted questionnaires are sent out to job-holders for completion and are
returned to supervisors. However, the information received is often unorganized and
incoherent. The idea in issuing questionnaire is to elicit the necessary information from
job –holders so that any error may first be discussed with the employee and, after
corrections, may be submitted to the job analyst. This technique is time consuming and
generally does not yield satisfactory results because many employees do not complete the
questionnaire or furnish incorrect information because of their own limitations. The use of
questionnaire is recommended only in case of those technical jobs where the job contents
are not completely known to the supervisor or the operation is too complex to observe.
There are certain standardized questionnaires developed by a few agencies which are
used by various organizations for job analysis. Most of these questionnaires are of two
types: position analysis questionnaire and management position description questionnaire
that are described as follows:
a. Position Analysis Questionnaire: Position analysis questionnaire (PAQ) is a
highly specialized instrument for analyzing a job in terms of employee activities. The PAQ
developed by Purdue University is a comprehensive questionnaire for collecting
information for job analysis. In this questionnaire, various job elements have been grouped
into six categories with each category containing relevant job elements resulting into 195
elements as shown in below table,

No. of
Job Aspects
elements
Information input - Where and how do employee get information to do theirjob? 35

Mental processes- what reasoning, planning, organizing, and decision 14

Making is done?
Work output – what physical activities, tools and machines are used? 49
Relationships – what contact with other people, both in the company and 36
outside is maintained or developed?
Job context- what is the physical and social context in which the job is 19
Maintained?
Other job characteristics – what other activities, conditions or Characteristics 42
not covered by the categories are relevant?
The advantage of PAQ is that it provides a quantitative score or profile of any job in
terms of how that job rates on the basic activities. The PAQ’s real strength is, thus, in
classifying jobs. PAQ’s results can be used to compare the jobs relative to one another and
pay levels can be assigned for each job. The major problem with PAQ is the time it takes
for a job analyst to fill out the ratings. However, PAQ has been widely researched and
tested and appears to be both reliable and valid.
b. Management Position Description Questionnaire: Management position
description is a highly structured questionnaire containing 208 items relating to
managerial responsibilities, restrictions, demands and other miscellaneous position
characteristics. W.W. Tomov and P.R. Pinto have developed the following Management
position Description factors:
 Product, marketing and financial strategy planning.
 Coordination of other organization units and personnel
 Internal business Control
  Products and services responsibility
 Public and customer relations
 Advanced consulting
 Autonomy of actions
 Approval of financial commitments
 Staff Service
 Supervision
 Complexity and stress
 Advanced financial responsibility
 Broad personnel responsibility
The above methods are the most popular ones for gathering job analysis data. They
all provide realistic information about what job incumbents actually do. They can thus be
used for developing job descriptions and job specifications. Caroll L. Shartle, Otis and
Lenhert have provided the following suggestions for making the job analyst’s task simple.
 Introduce yourself so that the worker knows who you are and why you are there.
 Show a sincere interest in the worker and the job that is analyzed;
 Do not try to tell the employee how to do his job.
 Try to talk to the employee and supervisors in their own language;
 Do a complete job study within the objectives of the programmer: and
 Verify the job information obtained.
9.4 REVISION POINTS
1. A job may be defined as a “collection or aggregation of tasks, duties and
responsibilities which as a whole, are regarded as a regular assignment to
individual employees,” and which is different from other assignments, In other
words, when the total work to be done is divided and grouped into packages, we call
it a “job.”
2. Job analysis refers to the process of studying the operations, duties and
organizational aspects of jobs in order to derive specifications or as they called by
some, job descriptions.
3. A job is a collection of tasks that can be performed by a single employee to
contribute to the production of some product or service provided by the
organization. Each job has certain ability requirements (as well as certain rewards)
associated with it. Job analysis process used to identify these requirements
4. Jobs are at the core of every organization’s productivity, if they are designed well
and done right, the organization makes progress towards its objectives. Otherwise,
productivity suffers, profits fall, and the organization is less able to meet the
demands of society, customer, employees, and other with a stake in its success.
5. Job analysis provides information about career choices and personal limitation. Such
information is helpful in vocational guidance and rehabilitation counseling. Employees
who are unable to cope with the hazards and demands of given jobs may be advised to
opt for subsidiary jobs or to seek premature retirement
9.5 INTEXT QUESTIONS
1. What do you understand by job analysis? What is its importance in the
management of human resources?
2. What is job analysis? What steps are involved in the preparation of job analysis?
3. What are the byproducts of job analysis? Discuss the techniques used for collecting
data for job analysis?
4. What do you know about Job Analysis? Explain.
9.6 SUMMARY
The purpose of an organization is to give each person a separate distinct job and to ensure that
these jobs are coordinated in such a way that the organization accomplishes its goals. Developing
an organization structure results in jobs that have to be staffed. Job analysis is the procedure
through which you find out (1) what the job entails, and (2) what kinds of people should be hired
for the job. It involves six steps: (1) determine the use of the job analysis information; (2)
collection of background information; (3) selection of jobs for analysis; (4) collection of job
analysis data; (5) processing the information; (6) preparing job descriptions and job
classifications; and (7) developing job specifications. Techniques of job analysis are –
observation method, questionnaires, participant diary/logs, interview, critical incidents, technical
conference method, and job performance.