Chapter 4

Job Analysis and the Talent

Management Process

PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education GARY DESSLER 4–1
The University of West Alabama
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Discuss the nature of job analysis, including what it is
and how it’s used.
2. Use at least three methods of collecting job analysis
information, including interviews, questionnaires, and
observation.
3. Write job descriptions, including summaries and job
functions, using the Internet and traditional methods.
4. Write a job specification.
5. Explain job analysis in a “worker-empowered” world,
including what it means and how it’s done in practice.

4–2
Introduction to Talent Management Process
• Many individuals view the HRM activities in a stepwise
manner; the activities are perceived to be performed in a
sequential way.

4–3
Introduction to Talent Management Process
• This stepwise/linear view is conceptually appealing (i.e
obviously one has to build a pool of candidates before
selecting them).

• However, in reality the HR activities are NOT stepwise.

Rather, they are highly interrelated and different steps
are often performed in conjunction . Moreover,
subsequent HR activities might loop back to affect preceding
activities.

• Consequently, it is imperative to view the HR activities in a

holistic manner so as to ensure better goal achievement.
This holistic view and performance of HR activities is
known as talent management.
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 Talent Management: Definition

• Talent management can be defined as the

goal-oriented, integrated and holistic process
of planning, recruiting, developing, managing
and compensating employees.

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The Basics of Job Analysis: Terms
• Job Analysis
 The procedure for determining the duties and skill requirements
of a job and the kind of person who should be hired for it. Job
analysis produces information for writing job descriptions and
job/person specifications.
• Job Description
 A list of a job’s duties, responsibilities, reporting relationships,
working conditions, and supervisory responsibilities—one
product of a job analysis.
• Job/person Specifications
 A list of a job’s “human requirements,” that is, the requisite
education, skills, personality, and so on—another product of a
job analysis.

4–6
Types of Information Collected through Job
Analysis
Work
activities

Human Human
requirements behaviors
Information
Collected Via
Job Analysis
Machines, tools,
Job
equipment, and
context
work aids

Performance
standards

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 Uses of Job Analysis Information

Recruitment
and selection

EEO
compliance Compensation
Information
Collected via
Job Analysis
Discovering Performance
unassigned duties appraisal

Training

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 Uses of Job Analysis Information
• Recruitment and Selection: Job analysis helps identify the main
skills and competencies required for a particular position. This
information is used to develop criterions during the selection stage.
• EEO compliance: Job analysis information enables HR to validate
its activities and ensure that it complies with all relevant laws.
• Performance appraisal: Job analysis helps identify the
performance standards of a particular position. These standards are
afterwards used to appraise the performance of an incumbent.
• Compensation: Quantitative job analysis enables HR to
understand the “worth” of a particular job and design commensurate
compensation packages.
• Training: job analysis helps management develop tailored training
programs so as to provide the skills and competencies required in
the person specification.

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Steps in conducting a Job Analysis

Steps in doing a job analysis:

1 Decide how you’ll use the information.

2 Review relevant background information.

3 Select representative positions.

4 Actually analyze the job.

5 Verify the job analysis information.

6 Develop a job description and job specification.

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Steps in conducting a Job Analysis
1. Decide how you’ll use the information: The use to which job
analysis information will be put into will dictate the methodology of
the job analysis. i.e Interview is prudent when job analysis is done
to prepare job description and specification whereas PAQ is
appropriate when job analysis is done for compensation
purposes.

2. Review relevant background information: At this stage, HR

must carefully evaluate and study the organizational chart to
understand the job context (i.e how the job fits in the overall
organization) and the process chart to understand the major
inputs and outputs of a job. Moreover, workflow analysis should
be done to understand whether a job even needs to exist or not.

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Steps in conducting a Job Analysis
The second step of reviewing background information while
conducting job analysis has some interesting by-product
implications as discussed below:

•It enables business process reengineering: Management might

get ideas of reengineering business processes, usually by combining
steps, so that small multifunction process teams using modern
technology can do the jobs formerly done by a sequence of
departments and people. i.e Regional ROC at banks, enhancement of
credit approval rating
•It enables job redesign: Even a decade back, the understanding
was the specialization of work is good as it enhances productivity,
reduces defect/wastage and cuts cost. However, nowadays it is
understood that excessive specialization might adversely affect
employee morale leading to manifestation of undesirable behavior
(absenteeism, turnover, slacking, low commitment etc.)
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Steps in conducting a Job Analysis
• Job redesign can be achieved in three ways:

 Job Enlargement: This involves assigning workers additional

same-level activities.

Job Rotation: This involves systematically moving workers from

one job to another. This enables employees to get exposed to
different job duties, working conditions and enables them to learn
different skills.

Job Enrichment: This is the best form of job redesign. It involves

modifying jobs in such a way that it increases the opportunity of
workers to feel more responsibility, achievement, recognition,
growth etc. It empowers and motivates employees.

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Steps in conducting a Job Analysis
3. Select representative positions: Once a position is
selected for analyzing, the manager must select a sample of
employees engaged in that position instead of analyzing
everyone involved.
4. Actually analyze the job: This involves collecting the
required information from the chosen employees and their
supervisory by using different techniques.
5. Verifying the information collected: The factual
accuracy of the information needs to be verified. This is
usually done by sharing the main understandings of the
analysis with the employee and supervisor of the position and
getting a consensus.
6. Prepare the Job Description and Person Specification
using the information collected
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 Methods for Collecting Job Analysis
Information

Methods for Collecting Job Analysis Information

Interviews Questionnaires Observations Diaries/Logs

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Methods for Collecting Job Analysis
Information: The Interview
• Information Sources • Interview Formats
 Individual employees  Structured (Checklist)
 Groups of employees  Unstructured
 Supervisors with knowledge
of the job
• Advantages
 Quick, direct way to find
overlooked information
• Disadvantage
 Distorted information (due to
heuristics, fear that it might
affect compensation etc.)

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Job Analysis: Interviewing Guidelines
• The job analyst and supervisor should work together
to identify the workers who know the job best.
• Quickly establish rapport(relation)with the interviewee.
• Follow a structured guide or checklist, one that lists
open-ended questions and provides space for answers.
• Ask the worker to list his or her duties in order
of importance and frequency of occurrence.
• After completing the interview, review and verify
the data.

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Methods for Collecting Job Analysis
Information: Questionnaires
• Information Source • Advantages
 Have employees fill out  Quick and efficient way
questionnaires to describe to gather information
their job-related duties and from large numbers of
responsibilities employees
• Questionnaire Formats • Disadvantages
 Structured checklists  Expense and time
 Open-ended questions consumed in preparing and
testing the questionnaire

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FIGURE 4–3 Job Analysis Questionnaire for Developing Job Descriptions

Note: Use a
questionnaire like
this to interview job
incumbents, or have
them fill it out.

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FIGURE 4–3 Job Analysis Questionnaire for Developing Job Descriptions (cont’d)

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Methods for Collecting Job Analysis
Information: Observation
• Information Source • Advantages
 Observing and noting the  Provides first-hand
physical activities of information
employees as they go  Reduces distortion
about their jobs by of information
managers.
• Disadvantages
 Time consuming
 Is appropriate for job
 Reactivity response
involving physical activities.
distorts employee behavior
 Difficulty in capturing
entire job cycle
 Of little use if job involves a
high level of mental activity

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Methods for Collecting Job Analysis
Information: Participant Diaries/Logs
• Information Source • Advantages
 Workers keep a  Produces a more complete
chronological diary or log picture of the job
of what they do and the  Employee participation
time spent on each activity
• Disadvantages
 Distortion of information
 The job analyst collects
 Depends upon employees
this diary and studies it to
identify the main duties to accurately recall their
and responsibilities of the activities
job along with skills
required.

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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 and the
Department of Labor approach are quantitative methods
for doing this.

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Quantitative Job Analysis Techniques

Quantitative Job
Analysis

Department of
Position Analysis Electronic Job
Labor (DOL)
Questionnaire Analysis
Procedure

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 Position Analysis Questionnaire
• The PAQ asks questions to incumbents pertaining to 194
items (skills, duties, competencies etc.) relevant to the
job.

• This 194 item are classified under 5 basic activities of

any job. These activities are;
 Having decision making, social and communicating
responsibilities
 Performing skilled activities
 Being physically active
 Operating vehicles/Equipment
 Processing information

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 Position Analysis Questionnaire
• In the PAQ, the analyst tries to identify the extent to
which the items are required in a job and this is done by
assigning a score against each item.

• Ultimately, a composite score is calculated and used to

assess the “worth” of a job.

• Jobs with high score require high level of skills,

knowledge, decision making ability etc. and therefore
deserve higher compensation and vice versa.

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 Department of Labor Procedure
In this technique, a job is assumed to involve dealing with
three aspects; data, people and things.

Under each aspect, an employee might perform different

roles and each role has a corresponding rating (with lower
rating meaning more significant role)

Jobs which have an overall lower combination rating

deserve a higher compensation and vice versa.

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TABLE 4–1 Basic Department of Labor Worker Functions

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FIGURE 4–6 Sample Report Based on Department of Labor Job Analysis Technique

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Internet-Based Job Analysis
• Advantages
 Collects information in a standardized format from
geographically dispersed employees
 Requires less time than face-to-face interviews
 Collects information with minimal intervention or guidance

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 Writing Job Descriptions

Job
identification

Job Job
specifications summary

Sections of a
Typical Job
Working Description Responsibilities and
conditions duties

Standards of Authority of
performance the incumbent

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–31

The Job Description
• Job Identification • Responsibilities and Duties
 Job title  Major responsibilities and
 Tax exemption status duties (essential functions)
 Preparation date  Decision-making authority
 Preparer  Description of the duties and
responsibilities
• Job Summary
 General nature of the job
• Standards of Performance
 Major functions/activities
and Working Conditions
 What it takes to do the job
• Relationships successfully
 Reports to:
 Supervises:
 Works with:
 Outside the company:

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–32

 FIGURE 4–8 Sample Job Description, Pearson Education

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–33

 FIGURE 4–8 Sample Job Description, Pearson Education (cont’d)

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–34

 Writing Job Specifications

“What human traits and

experience are required to
do this job well?”

Job specifications Job specifications

Job specifications
for trained versus based on statistical
based on judgment
untrained personnel analysis

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–35

 Job Specifications for trained vs untrained
employees
• It is easier to prepare job specifications for senior
positions/trained employees. In this cases, the job
specification focuses on things like length of previous
service, quality of relevant training, and previous job
performance etc.

• Preparing a job specification for untrained positions is

much more difficult. In this cases, thorough job analysis
will need to be done to identify the exact skills,
qualifications, competencies required for the post.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–36

 Job specification based on judgment
• Job specifications can be based on the best judgments
or the common-sense experiences of supervisors and
human resource managers. The basic procedure here is
to ask, “What does it take in terms of education,
intelligence, training, and the like to do this job well?”

• For example, the CGPA requirement in jobs are often set

arbitrarily based on the judgment and viewpoint of the
employer. Thus, some firms might seek 3.5 CGPA
whereas others might seek 3.0

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–37

Job specification based on statistical
analysis
• Basing job specifications on statistical analysis is more
defensible than the judgmental approach

• The aim of the statistical approach is to determine

the statistical relationship between (1) some
predictor (human trait, such as height, intelligence,
or finger dexterity), and (2) some indicator or
criterion of job effectiveness, such as performance
as rated by the supervisor.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–38

Job specification based on statistical
analysis
• Steps in the Statistical Approach
1. Analyze the job and decide how to measure job
performance.
2. Select personal traits that you believe should
predict successful performance.
3. Test candidates for these traits.
4. Measure the candidates’ subsequent job
performance.
5. Statistically analyze the relationship between the
human traits and job performance.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 4–39