Purposes/ Outcomes of Job Analysis (JA)

 The main purpose of job analysis is to develop JD, JS and JE. Each of these categories serves distinct purpose in the job analysis process. The job analysis is the conceptual, analytical process (or action ) from which we develop one tangible outcomes. 

Job Description (JD) 

Concept of JD

A job description is an organized, factual (fact based) statement of the duties and responsibilities of a specific job. In brief, it should tell what is to be done, how it is done, and why. It is a standard of function in that it defines the appropriate and authorized content of a job.  Job description is an important document which is basically descriptive in nature and contains a statement of job analysis. It provides both organizational information and functional information. It defines the scope of the job activities, major responsibilities and positioning of the job in the organization. It provides the worker, job analyst and supervisor with a clear idea of what the work (job) must do to meet the demand of the job. It describes "job" not the "job holder" .

Components or Contents of JD (Writing JD) 

A job description  contains the following data: 

1. Job title (Job identification or organizational position): It includes the job title, alternative title, department, division, plant and code number of the job.

Summary items of JD

Job Description (a statement containing items such as):

• Job title
• Job  summary
• Machines, tools, equipment
• Supervision given or received
• Hazards
• Location
• Duties
• Materials and forms used
• Working conditions

The job title identifies and designates the job properly . The department, division, etc. indicates the name of the department where it is situated. The location gives the name of the place. This position of job description gives answer to two important questions: to what higher level job accountable; and who is supervised directly?

2. Job Summary : It serves two important purposes. First, it provides a short definition which is useful as an additional identification information when a job title is not adequate. Second, it serves as a summary to orient the reader towards an understanding of detailed information which follows. It gives the reader a quick (capsule) explanation of the content of a job usually in one or two sentences.

3. Job duties and responsibilities: It gives a comprehensive listing of the duties. It also states some indication of  the frequency of occurrence (or percentage) of time devoted to each major duty. It is regarded as heart of a job. It tells us what needs to be done? How it should be done? And why it should be done? It also describes the responsibilities related to the requirement of money, the supervision of workers and the training of subordinates. 

4. Relation to other jobs : It helps to locate the job in the organization. It is done by indicating the job immediately below or above it in the job hierarchy. It also gives as ideas of the vertical relationships of work flow and procedures. 

5.Supervision: This section gives the number of person to be supervised along with their job title. It also indicates the extent of supervision involved.

6. Machine, tools and equipment: It defines each major type of trade name of the machine, tools, and the raw materials used.

7. Working Conditions: It usually gives us information about the environment in which a job holder work. These include cold, heat, dust wetness, moisture, fumes and other conditions etc. obtained inside the organization. 

8. Hazards: It gives us the nature of risks to life and limb and their possibilities of occurrence, etc. 

b. Uses of Job Description

JD has several uses, such as : 

1.  Preliminary drafts of JD can be used as a basis for productive group discussion, particularly if the process starts at the executive level.
2. It aids in the development of job specifications, which is useful in planning recruitment, training  and in hiring people with required skills. 
3. It can be used to orient new employees towards basic responsibilities and duties. 
4. It is a basic document used in developing performance standards. 
5. It can be used for job evaluations, wage and salary administration technique.

c. Limitations of JD

In any use of JD, it should be remembered that these job descriptions are not perfect reflections of the job. The objective of a JD is to differentiate it from other jobs and set its outer limits. Further, executives tend to carry work patterns which are unstructured. Thus it demands modifying the job drastically. To avoid such problems care must be exercised in writing a JD to make it as accurate as possible. It should be reviewed and discussed from time to time. Jobs tend to be dynamic, and a JD can quickly go out of date. Therefore, jobs should be constantly revised. They must be kept up-to-date. Therefore, HR and other departmental heads should be aware of changes. Both supervisors and subordinates should understand the uses to which a JD would be applied so that appropriate information is recorded by them. The relevant parties should agree that a job description fairly reflects the job.  Otherwise, job evaluation and job performance review are likely to be unfair.

2. Job Specification (JS) 

a. Concept of JS

A JS is a statement of the minimum acceptable human qualities necessary to perform a job property. In contrast to the JD, it is a standard of personnel qualities. Job specification specifies the qualities required for acceptable performance. The JS takes the JD and answers the questions " what human traits and experience are needed to do the job well?" It tells what kind of person to hire (recruit) and for what qualities that person should be tested. JS translates the JD into the terms of human qualification which are required for a successful performance of a job. They are intended (planned) to serve as a guide  in hiring and job evaluation. As a guide in hiring, they deal with such characteristics which are available in an application form (with testing, interviews and checking of references). 

Job specifications (JS) Items in Summary

It is a statement of the human qualities/qualifications necessary to the job. Usually it contains such items are : 

• Education
• Training
• Initiative
• Experience
• Judgement
• Physical effort
• Physical skills
• Responsibilities 
• Communication skills 
• Emotional characteristics
• Unusual sensory demands such as sight, smell, hearing, etc.

JS are developed with the cooperation of the HR department and various supervisors in the whole organization. The HR department coordinates the writing of job descriptions and job specifications and secures agreement on the qualifications required. 

b. Contents or Components of a JS (Writing JS) 

1. Physical characteristics: It includes health, strength, age-range, body size, height, weight, vision, voice, eye, hand and foot coordination, and colour discrimination. 

2. Psychological characteristics (or traits of temperament) :They are also called special aptitudes. They include such qualities as, mechanical aptitude, judgement, resourcefulness, analytical ability, mental concentration and alertness.

3. Personal characteristics (or traits of temperament):  Such as personal appearance, good and pleasing manners,  emotional stability, aggressiveness or submissiveness, extroversion or introversion, leadership cooperativeness, initiative and drive. Moreover, it also contains skills in dealing with others, unusual sensory qualities of sight, smell, hearing, adaptability, conversational ability, etc. 

4.  Other features: They are of demographic nature like age, sex, education, experience and language ability, etc. 

The information to be included in job specifications differ according to the nature of an organization and the uses. However, items like age, sex , experience, skills, education, and personality are necessarily included in job specifications. Job specifications are mostly based on the educated guesses of supervisors and HR managers. They give their opinion as to who do they think should be considered for a job in terms of education, intelligence, training, etc. One of the most extensive judgmental approaches to developing job specifications is contained in a Dictionary of Occupational Titles" . It is published by the U.S. Training Employment Service. 

3. Job Evaluations (JE)

a. Concept

Job evaluation is an ordinary and systematic process of determining the wages (worth) for the job in relation to other jobs. It is a process of rewarding the job after it has been analyzed . Each job should be paid or priced according to its real value. A high value job should receive higher wages and low value job should receive lower wages. If it is reverse, the employees would feel dissatisfied. Hence, job evaluation aims at fixing fair and equitable wage structure. So, that a person gets wages according to the worth of the job. In fact job evaluation is concerned with translating, in terms of money, the qualities required for performing the job (specified in the job description). 

b. Objectives of Job Evaluation 

The main objective of job evaluation is to get external and internal consistency in wages structure. Thus, inequalities in wages can be removed. In this context a report of I.L.O. states that " the aim of the majority of systems of job evaluation is to establish equity." 

c. Advantage (Merits ) of Job Evaluation

Job evaluation brings into the following advantages: 

1. The wages differentials are rationally and systematically established.
2. It is acceptable to management as well as employees.
3. Any dispute resulting to wages can be easily settled by referring it to the job evaluating committee.
4. It helps in bringing uniformity in wage structure. 
5. It helps in job classification and work simplification.

d. Disadvantages (Demerits) of Job Evaluation

Job evaluation can suffer from following disadvantages : 

1. Job evaluation cannot be scientific-though it is claimed to be so because it is based on judgment.
2. Factors applied in it usually overlap. Thus, value given to them and their reliability become questionable. 
3. It is not unusual to find wages differentials in  case of highly specialized jobs. It happens because of the competition from other firms who are ready to pay more. 
4. It introduces inflexibility in wage structure. The demand and supply of labour is responsible for wage  differentials  to a great extent. 
5. Its usefulness is restricted only to big concerns because its installation requires time and money.