Jobs and Job Analysis

Human resource professionals deal with the segment of the population that works in current jobs or that is looking for work. The goal is to develop jobs that are inherently motivating to employees or to create work situations that are desirable enough to attract and hire competent workers.

Many efforts focus on developing skills to improve employees’ readiness for work. Organizations, including their human resource departments, can also address skills shortages.

Work is effort directed toward accomplishing results, and such effort may be performed by humans, machines, or both. The total amount of work to be performed in an organization must be divided into jobs so that effort can be coordinated in some logical way.

A job is a grouping of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that constitutes the total work assignment for an employee; these tasks, duties, and responsibilities may change over time, and therefore, the job may change. Workflow analysis is the study of the way work moves through an organization.

The result of strong work analysis should be a more responsive workflow for customers, more efficient responses to service problems, and more empowered jobs. Job design refers to organizing tasks, duties, responsibilities, and other elements into a productive unit of work. Job redesign involves changing existing jobs in different ways to improve them.

Motivation, performance, and satisfaction can be influenced by the level of each job characteristic. In other words, as one or more factor increases, employees should become more engaged with their work duties and responsibilities. Autonomy and feedback are especially powerful because they can magnify the effects of the other job characteristics.

Flexibility can be designed into a job in several different ways, such as by changing where or when the work can be performed. For many employees, balancing their work and personal lives is a significant concern. Work–life balance involves employer-sponsored programs designed to help employees balance work and personal responsibilities.

Job analysis is a systematic way of gathering and analyzing information about the content, context, and human requirements of jobs. The decision about whether to use a task-based or competency-based approach to job analysis is affected by the nature of jobs; however, task-based analysis is likely to remain more widely used because it is the most defensible legally.

Implementing your job analysis process is the foundation for what we do in human resource management. Job Analysis is the systematic process of identifying tasks, duties and responsibilities expected to be performed in a job as well as competencies to be successful. The outcome is Job Documentation.

A detailed examination of jobs, although necessary, can sometimes be a demanding and disruptive experience for both managers and employees, in part because job analysis can identify the difference between what currently is being performed in a job and what should be done.

Job documentation impacts every functional area of human resource management, making job analysis a crucial strategic function of human resource management. A job description identifies a job’s tasks, duties, and responsibilities. It describes what is done, why it is done, where it is done, and, briefly, how it is done.

The critical end products of a job analysis are job descriptions, which identify the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of jobs, and job specifications, which list the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform a job satisfactorily.