Observation
Direct observation is especially useful when the job consists
mainly of observable physical activities—assembly-line worker and accounting clerk are examples.
On the other hand, observation is not as useful when the job entails a lot of mental
activity (lawyer, design engineer).
Nor is it useful if the employee only occasionally engages in
important activities, such as a nurse who handles emergencies. And reactivity—the worker’s changing what he or she normally does because you are watching—also can be a problem.
Managers often use direct observation and interviewing together.
One approach is to observe
the worker on the job during a complete work cycle. (The cycle is the time it takes to complete the job; it could be a minute for an assembly-line worker
or an hour, a day, or longer for complex jobs.) Here you take notes of all the job activities.
Then, ask the person to clarify points not understood and to explain what other activities he or
she performs that you didn’t observe.
Participant Diary/Logs
Another method is to ask workers to keep a diary/log of what they do during the day. For every activity engaged in, the employee records the activity (along with
the time) in a log. Some firms give employees pocket dictating machines and pagers.
Then at random times during the day, they page the workers, who dictate what they are
doing at that time. This can avoid requiring workers to remember what they did hours earlier
when they complete their logs at the end of the day.
Quantitative Job Analysis Techniques
Qualitative methods like interviews and questionnaires are not
always suitable. For example, if your aim is to compare jobs for pay purposes, a mere listing of
duties may not suffice. You may need to say that, in effect, “Job A is twice as challenging as
Job B, and so is worth twice the pay.” To do this, it helps to have quantitative ratings for each job. The position analysis questionnaire explained next and the Department of Labor approach
are quantitative methods for doing this.
POSITION ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE
The position analysis questionnaire (PAQ) is a very popular quantitative job analysis tool, consisting of a
questionnaire containing 194 items. The 194
items (such as “written materials”) each represent a basic element that may play a role in the job. The items each belong to
one of five PAQ basic activities:
(1) having decision-making/communication/social responsibilities,
(2) performing skilled activities,
(3) being physically active,
(4) operating vehicles/equipment, and
(5)
processing information.
The final PAQ “score” shows the
job’s rating on
each of these five activities. The job analyst decides if each of the 194 items
plays a role and, if
so, to what extent. For example, “written materials” received a
rating of 4. Since the scale
ranges from 1 to 5, a 4 suggests that written materials (such as books and
reports) do play a significant
role in this job. The analyst can use an online version of the PAQ (see
www.paq.com) for
each job he or she is analyzing.
The
PAQ’s strength is in helping to assign jobs to job classes for pay purposes.
With ratings for each
job’s decision-making, skilled activity, physical activity, vehicle/equipment
operation, and information-processing characteristics, you can quantitatively
compare jobs relative to one another,12 and then group and classify jobs for pay
purposes.
Internet-Based Job Analysis
Methods such as questionnaires and interviews can be
time-consuming. And collecting the information from geographically dispersed employees can be challenging. Conducting the job analysis via the Internet is an obvious
solution.Most simply, the human resource department can distribute standardized job analysis
questionnaires to geographically disbursed employees via their company intranets, with instructions
to complete the forms and return them by a particular date.
Of course, the instructions should be clear, and it’s best to test
the process first. Without a job analyst actually sitting there with the employee or
supervisor, there’s always a chance that the employees won’t cover important points or that
misunderstandings will cloud the results.
Job Analysis Guidelines
Before actually analyzing the job, keep several things in mind.
● Make the job analysis a joint effort by a human resources manager, the
worker, and the worker’s supervisor. The human resource manager might observe the
worker doing the job, and have both the supervisor and worker fill out job
questionnaires. Based on that, he or she lists the job’s duties and required human traits. The
supervisor and worker then review and verify the HR manager’s list of job duties.
● Make sure the questions and the process are both
clear to the employees. (For example, some might not know what you mean when you ask about the
job’s “mental demands.”)
● Use several different job analysis tools. Do not rely just on a questionnaire, for
instance, but supplement your survey with a short follow-up interview. (The
questionnaire might miss
a task the worker performs just occasionally.)
Source
: Gary Dessler. Fundamental of Human Resource Management. Third Edition.
Pearson. 2014
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