Job analysis is an important process of gathering detailed information about a job. It is used to ensure that a company’s selection process measures candidates based on relevant job requirements. Socrates who was a classical Greek philosopher argued that society needed to understand three things. The differences in individual’s aptitudes to work, meaning that everyone has various abilities.
The Different occupations require certain aptitude requirements and lastly understand that people must be placed in occupations that best suit them to achieve high quality achievement. He concluded that for society to succeed, jobs would need detailed descriptions about their requirements and the right individual with the right aptitude would need to be placed in jobs that matched them. This concept holds true in today’s competitive market place and the information that is gathered through job analysis has great value to both HR and line managers.
What is Job Analysis
Job Analysis and its importance to HR Managers
A Job analysis is a core process to all HR practices as most HR programs require some type of information that can be obtain through a job analysis. For example, HR planning, selection, work redesign, performance management, career planning, employee learning and development and job evaluation are all programs that require a job analysis as a core starting point. Leading companies like Microsoft and Google demonstrate this as they are an employer’s “brand,” as the culture, values and work performed can be key factors in attracting employees and enhancing the reputation of a company as an employer.
Human Resource Planning
In the process of HR planning, it is the duty of the planners to analyse the HR needs and develop activities that allow a firm to adapt to change. This planning process involves planners to analyse specific jobs and determine the required number of qualified employees. For this to be successful in finding the required number of individuals that are available in the organisation to meet the HR needs of the strategic plan, accurate information about the levels of skills are needed in various jobs.
Selection
The selection process involves the identification of the most suitable applicants for employment. To discover the most qualified applicants, it is important to determine every task that is performed by the individual hired and understand the skills, abilities and knowledge required to have the job perform effectively. A job analysis and selection criteria should be used to gather this information. The final step involves selecting the best suited individual from several applicants.
Work Redesign
It is quite common to find firms seeking to redesign work as to make it more effective and efficient. As Job design and job analysis are interrelated, for work to be redesigned detailed information about the specific jobs must be readily available. It can also be argued that redesigning a job is like analysing a job that does not currently exist.
Performance management
The aim of performance management is to enhance the organisational and individual performance. It is the process of gathering information on the performance of each employee and rewarding the employees who are effective and improving the performance of those who are ineffective. The behaviours and results that distinguish effective performance from ineffective performance that affect the individual as well as the organisation, can be identified through a job analysis.
Career planning
The purpose of career planning is to give employees guidance to develop career goals. This involves matching an individual with opportunities that suit their skills and aspirations that are, or may become available within the organisation. It is necessary that career planners understand the skill requirements of the various jobs to match individuals with opportunities. As a result, this will allow them to provide the proper guidance to individuals to transition into jobs in which they will achieve their goals and gain job satisfaction.
Employee learning and development
In most scenarios, an employee hired by an organisation will need instruction in their job to help them gain new knowledge and skills. The depth of their awareness and understanding of what has been taught is represented in the learning that the employees do. All programs will require a facilitator to help identify the job tasks performed to ensure that jobs are effectively performed by individuals. The support of organisational learning and the encouragement of a learning culture is the essence of employee development.
Job evaluation
Job evaluation is the process of determining the dollar value of each job to an organisation to develop internally equitable. Employee dissatisfaction can occur if pay structures are not equitable or if there is no expectation of future promotions. Information about different jobs need to be collected to help determine which jobs deserve higher pay rates than others relative to their worth to the organisation. Learn more about our business improvement services.