Job evaluation and Job analysis are two approaches that are often used to identify

relevant criteria for recruitment and selection in an organization, with reference to your
own organization, show how you would use any one of these approaches for this
purpose?

job analysis forms the basis for most human resources approaches to
employment practice. This assignment first defines the terms job analysis, recruitment and
then selection and also examines the importance of job analysis for effective and efficient
recruitment and selection in an organisation. The write up ends with a summary.

A job analysis has been described as the essential element for virtually all of the HRM
functions. and “the basis for the solution of virtually every human resource problem”. Job
analysis is said to be a foundation for human resource management by McCormick (1976).
Job analysis is defined as the systematic process for identifying the nature and outcomes of a
position by determining the specific tasks and activities performed to achieve desired results
and the context in which work is performed (Morgeson et al., 2019). Job analysis is “the
systematic process of discovery of the nature of a job by dividing it into smaller units.”(Morgeson &
Campion 2007, p. 8). Job analysis is the procedure through which you determine the duties of
the company’s positions and the characteristics of the people to hire for them.6 Job analysis
produces information for writing job descriptions (a list of what the job entails) and job (or
“person”) specifications (what kind of people to hire for the job). Virtually every personnel-
related action interviewing applicants, and training and appraising employees, for instance
requires knowing what the job entails and what human traits one needs to do the job well. Job
analysis means to analyse the requirement of the job and match it with the requirement of the
person who will work on that job. It, thus, matches the jobs with the job holders. Job analysis
refers to the process of collecting information about jobs.3 In its simplest terms, a job analysis is a systematic
process for gathering, documenting, and analyzing data about the work required for a job include a description
of the context and principal duties of the job, including job responsibilities and working conditions, and
information about the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes (KSAOs) required in its performance. In
short, it is a method that provides a description of the job and profiles the characteristics or competencies people
need to have in order to be successful in the job. It is widely accepted as the foundation of many HR activities
and functions.4 There are three key points to remember about job analysis: A job analysis does not refer to a
single methodology but rather to a range of techniques. A job analysis is a formal, structured process carried out
under a set of guidelines established in advance. A job analysis breaks down a job into its constituent parts,
rather than looking at the job as a whole. Reference -recruitment and selection in Canada.

Recruitment is the generation of an applicant pool for a position or job in order to provide
the required number of candidates for a subsequent selection or promotion program.
Recruitment is done to meet management goals and objectives for the organization and must
also meet current legal requirements (human rights, employment equity, labour law, and
other legislation). Experience also shows that a successful appointment can produce results
which impact favourably on the wider aspects of organizational life while a poor one can
have damaging effects far outside the organization in which it is made. However, the
recruitment and selection of employees also provides an opportunity for the organization to
present itself in a favourable light (National University of Ireland, 2006). As explained by
Opatha (2010) recruitment is the process of finding and attracting suitably qualified people to
apply for job vacancies in the organization. It is a set of activities an organization uses to attract
job candidates who have the needed abilities and attitudes. Recruitment is the process of
generating a pool of qualified applicants for organizational job vacancies. For Ofori and Aryeetey
(2011) recruitment is the process of generating a pool of competent individuals to apply for
employment within an organization. The general purpose of recruitment according to Gamage
(2014) is to provide the organization with a pool of potentially qualified job candidates. The
quality of human resource in an organization highly depends on the quality of applicants attracted
because organization is going to select employees from those who were attracted. In the same
vein, Henry and Temtime (2009) construed recruitment as the entry point of manpower into an
organization and the path an organization must follow from there on in order to make sure that
they have attracted the right individuals for their culture and vibes so that the overall strategic
goals are achieved .

Selection is the choice of job candidates from a previously generated applicant pool in a way
that will meet management goals and objectives as well as current legal requirements. It can
involve any of the following functions: hiring at the entry level from applicants external to
the organization, promotion or lateral transfer of people within the organization, and
movement of current employees into training and development programs. On the other hand,
selection is the process of making the choice of the most suitable applicant from the pool of
applicants recruited to fill the relevant job vacancy (Opatha, 2010). Selection is the process by
which specific instruments are engaged to choose from the pool of individuals most suitable for
the job available (Ofori & Aryeetey, 2011). Selection involves the use of one or more methods to
assess applicant’s suitability in order to make the correct selection decision and can be
alternatively seen as a process of rejection as it rejects a number of applicants and select only a
few applicants to fill the vacancy. Thus, selection function may be a negative function rather than
a positive function (Gamage, 2014).

According to Gamage (2014) the objectives of selection function are to get the right person to the
right job, establish and maintain a good image as a good employer, and maintain the selection
process as cost effective as possible. Selection is an extremely important aspect to consider for
businesses due to a number of reasons. Often the performance of businesses relates directly to the
people working within it, meaning the right people need to be hired to ensure organizational
success (Henry & Temtime, 2009). It is also an expensive process to hire someone new into the
organization. So it is not something organizations want to put time and money into just to find
they have hired somebody who is not suitable. It is vital that organizations get the process right
the first time round, because resources are scarce enough as it is. Selecting the right applicant can
be a difficult task, but at the end of the day, the organization’s reputation is held by the people it
employs (Henry & Temtime, 2009).

Hiring the wrong people or failing to anticipate fluctuations in hiring needs can be costly, it is
important that conscious efforts are put into human resource planning (Biles & Holmberg,
1980; Djabatey, 2012). Effective recruitment and selection practices can mean the difference
between an organization’s success or failure. As noted in the opening vignette, bad hires may
cost an organization as much as 30 percent of a new hire’s earnings. Differences in skills
among job candidates translate into performance differences on the job that have economic
consequences for an organization. Hiring people with the right skills or the highest levels of
those skills leads to positive economic outcomes for the organization. Hiring a person with
the wrong set of skills can lead to disaster for both the person and the organization. Effective
recruitment and selection practices identify job applicants with the appropriate level of
knowledge, skills, abilities, and other requirements needed for successful performance in a
job or an organization. Effective recruitment and selection strategies flow from an
organization’s strategic objectives.

It has also been argued that in order for the enterprise to build and sustain the competitive
advantage, proper staffing is critical (Djabatey, 2012). Thus, recruitment and selection have
become imperative in organizations because individuals need to be attracted on a timely
basis, in sufficient numbers and with appropriate qualifications.

Resource Based View (RBV) of Barney (1991) suggests that sustainable competitive
advantage is attainable when firms have a human resource pool which cannot be imitated or
substituted by rivals. According to the Resource-Based view, firms should constantly
evaluate their workforce to ensure that they have the right people with the right skills in the
right places to ensure sustained competitive advantage (Barney, 2001) and when this is not
the case, firms should make-up for the shortfall by employing appropriate recruitment and
selection criteria. The theory maintained that the major part of any firm’s strength or
weakness stem from the calibre of the people employed and the quality of their working
relationships. To this end, Boxall (1998) revealed that firms which recruit and retain
exceptional individuals have the capability of generating human capital advantage. According
to Sparrow et al., (2002), technology and capital can be acquired by most firms any time, for
a price, but it is not easy to acquire a ready pool of highly qualified and motivated employees.
Thus, in order to be differentiated, the companies need to be very careful with the recruitment
and selection process.

Equity Theory as proposed by Adams (1963), underlines the principle of fairness. According
to the principles of the Equity Theory, the best recruitment and selection criteria in the
organization is that which portrays the firm as Equal Opportunity Employer Finding
competent workers is an important organizational challenge (McEvoy, 1984; Deshpande &
Golhar, 1994; Atkinson & Storey, 1994), with the difficulty centering on recruiting and
selecting employees with the correct qualifications to help achieve goals (Priyanath, 2006).
As further argued in Priyanath (2006) this problem is compounded by the lack of systematic
method for recruiting and selecting employees. A systematic recruitment process according to
Gamage (2014) involves indentifying vacancies, job analysis, job description, person
specification and advertising.

As against informal process for recruiting and selecting employees, a systematic selection
process involves the recruiting process, gathering information about qualified applicants,
evaluating the qualification of each applicant and making decisions about employment
(Gamage, 2014).

Recruitment and selection are vital functions of human resource management for any type of
business organization. These are terms that refer to the process of attracting and choosing
candidates for employment. The quality of the human resource the firm has heavily depends
on the effectiveness of these two functions (Gamage, 2014). Recruiting and selecting the
wrong candidates who are not capable come with a huge negative cost which businesses
cannot afford. Thus, the overall aim of recruitment and selection within the organization is to
obtain the number and quality of employees that are required to satisfy the strategic
objectives of the organization, at minimal cost (Ofori & Aryeetey, 2011).

Available evidence indicates that there is a positive and significant relationship between
recruitment and selection and the performance of an enterprise (Gamage, 2014). Sang (2005)
for example discovered a positive association between recruitment and selection and business
performance. Such were also of positive results between recruitment and selection and
performance as seen in Ichniowski and Shaw (1999), Katou and Budhwar (2006) and Wright
et al. (2005). Other studies such as Syed and Jama (2012) have equally shown that
implementing an effective recruitment and selection process is positively related to
organizational performance.

With specific reference to recruitment and selection criteria and organizational performance,
Montana and Charnov (2000) maintained that recruitment and selection include sourcing
candidates by advertising or other methods, screening potential candidates using tests and
interviews, selecting candidates based on the results of the tests or interviews, and on-
boarding to ensure that the candidates are able to fulfill their new roles effectively. According
to Huselid (1995) it is recruitment procedures that provide a large pool of qualified
applicants, paired with a reliable and valid selection regime that will have a substantial
influence over the quality and type of skills new employees possess. The implication of this
line of thought is that an organization’s human resource policies and practices represent
important forces for shaping employee behaviour and attitudes.

For Gamage (2014) the selection practices will determine who is hired. If properly designed,
it will identify competent candidates and accurately match them to the job. The use of the
proper selection device will increase the probability that the right person is chosen to fill a
slot. When the best people are selected for the job, productivity increases. Little wonder that
literature such as Terpstra and Rozell (1993) reported of a positive association between the
extensiveness of recruiting, selection test validation and the use of formal selection
procedures and firm profits. Similarly, Rauf (2007) discovered that sophisticated recruitment
and selection procedures are positively related to performance in organizations.

Writing on some of the challenges facing recruitment and selection criteria in organizations,
István (2010) observed that there are a plenty of techniques used in recruitment and hiring
today among which are some methods not accepted by experts universally, or not
recommended for the hiring process. As argued by István (2010), selection methods can be
evaluated in several ways. One possible approach is to compare hiring techniques on the
basis of their validity, impartiality, scope of usage, and cost.
In all, Sinha and Thaly (2013) noted that there is a variety of recruitment approaches (e.g.
employee referral, campus recruitment, advertising, recruitment agencies/consultants, job
sites/portals, company websites, social media etc.); and most organizations will use a
combination of two or more of these as part of a recruitment process or to deliver their
overall recruitment strategy. However, which recruiting channels should be used depends on
the job position, on the company’s employer brand, on the resources the company has on its
recruiting team, on how much recruiting budget the company has, etc. One can use them all
and find out which suits the best. Every recruiting channel offers different benefits and
limitations and works better for certain situations and companies. The key is collecting real-
time recruitment metrics on these recruiting channels to figure out what works best for the
company in different situations. The recruiting experience of each company is different and
the best way to figure out what works best is to analyze metrics based on the past recruiting
efforts, not the efforts of everybody else. Once the company has its recruiting metrics
solution in place, it is time to start using the recruiting channels that the company thinks will
work for it (Sinha & Thaly, 2013) Recruitment and Selection Quality and Organizational
Performance
The effectiveness of different recruitment and selection criteria of employees has been the
topic of research for over 60 years (Sinha & Thaly, 2013). The effectiveness has primarily
been assessed by examining the rates of turnover, job survival and job performance along
with organizational issues such as referrals by current personnel, in-house job postings, and
the re-hiring of former employees (Zottoli & Wanous, 2000).

The study by Sen and Saxena (1997) has emphasized the importance of a quality process
during the time of recruitment and hiring given that the right type of labor is hard to come by.
In fact, while lending credence to the importance of hiring quality candidates who are hard to
find Tendon (2006) warned that talent deficiency is unrelated to huge population. While
reporting that recruitment is the only component for attracting and retaining knowledge
workers, Unwin (2005) gave significance to the process involved during the time of
recruiting and hiring good candidate.
Although the study conducted by Subbarao (2006) explained the recruitment sources used by
individual job seekers at various levels, the study further highlighted the importance of
different types of approaches used at the time of recruitment which in turn makes any
organization well-established or less established. According to Sarkar and Kumar (2007)
organizational performance is hinged on the approach which the organization adopts in the
recruitment and selection of employees. To this end, Sarkar and Kumar (2007) spoke of a
holistic model of recruitment i.e. emphasizing the importance of the whole process of
recruitment and the interdependence of its parts (Sinha & Thaly, 2013).
Vyas (2011) asserted that the current trend is that organizations are looking for methods of
reducing the time and effort in the recruitment and selection process. However, Munyon,
Summers, Ferris and Gerald (2011) admonished that methods of team staffing should
translate to competitive advantages to a firms. In similar vein, DeVaro (2008) demonstrated
that recruitment strategies can lead to positive organizational outcomes. For Sinha and Thaly
(2013) adopting qualitative system in recruitment and selection has helped organizations to
grow as they have been able to get the right people for their vacancies. In addition, the
appropriate channels have helped the organizations to get the different and varied sources to
which they can turn to for effective hiring (Sinha & Thaly, 2013).
Recruitment and selection in any organization is a serious business as the success of any
organization or efficiency in service delivery depends on the quality of its workforce who
was recruited into the organization through recruitment and selection exercises (Ezeali and
Esiagu, 2010). Since recruitment and selection involve getting the best applicant for a job
(Obikeze & Obi, 2004), it has been emphasized that recruitment procedures that provide a
large pool of qualified applicants, paired with a reliable and valid selection regime, will have
a substantial influence over the quality and type of skills new employees possess (Okoh,
2005). For Mullins (1999) the important thing is for some suitable plan to be used, complying
with all legal requirements relating to employment and equal opportunities, to follow
recommended codes of practice and to ensure justice and fair treatment for all applicants.
Bohlander, Snell & Sherman (2001) reported that it is important for managers to understand
the objectives, policies and practices used for selection. More importantly, those responsible
for making selection decisions should have adequate information upon which to base their
decisions. As Robbins (2005) observed, organization’s human resource policies and practices
represent important forces for shaping employee behaviour and attitudes. According to Okoh
(2005), not just that organizational selection practices determine who is hired, the use of the
proper selection criteria will increase the probability that the right person will be chosen. When
the best people are selected for the job, productivity increases (Osemeke, 2012).

Job analysis is pre-requisite to manpower planning. It helps to understand the nature of jobs.
Different jobs are performed in the organisation and, therefore, different kinds of people are
to be selected, trained, compensated and placed at those jobs. Job analysis means to analyse
the requirement of the job and match it with the requirement of the person who will work on
that job. It, thus, matches the jobs with the job holders.

In relation to recruitment, job analysis has traditionally sought to identify the key tasks and
responsibilities that constitute a particular role and the knowledge, skills and abilities
required to conduct those tasks and responsibilities (Torrington et al., (2009). Job analysis is
the foundation on which all human resource practices are built. It plays an integral role in all
Human Resource functions and activities. Without a thorough understanding of how jobs are
performed, effective Human Resource practices would be impossible.

Job analysis is “identification of the specific activities performed in a job and the
characteristics of the person, the work situation, and the materials or equipment necessary for
performing the job effectively.” It is the “systematic collection and recording of information
concerning the purpose of a job, its major duties, the conditions under which it is performed,
the contact with others that performance of the job requires, and the knowledge, skills and
abilities needed for performing the job effectively.” It, thus, identifies contents of the job (job
description) and characteristics of the persons (job specifications) who will perform those
jobs, Why job analysis

Job analysis is ‘key to recruitment, selection, orientation, training, career development,

counseling, health, safety, performance management and compensation’ processes. Data
gathered and analyzed through job analysis helps in designing job descriptions and job
specification and is used in a variety of other HR related functions including preparing job
classification, job evaluations, selection and recruitment, performance appraisal and training
including incentive pay and compensation, improving work conditions, charting lines of
responsibilities etc. The Performance Appraisal tool developed is based on the Absolute
Rating System and uses the Graphical Rating Scale. The Absolute Rating System was
chosen, as it is more valid and reliable as it compares employee performance with an absolute
standard of performance.

Competency with regards to job analysis is a list of tasks, duties, responsibilities, knowledge,
skills, and abilities that a person must have in order to be sufficiently competent at a given
position. Clifford (1994, pp. 321-340) concluded that an effective growth program for an
organization couldn’t be formed without performing a job analysis.
“Job analysis answers the questions of what tasks, performed in what manner, make up a job.
Outputs of this analytical study include: (a) a list of the job tasks; (b) details of how each task
is performed; (c) statements describing the responsibility, job knowledge, mental application,
and dexterity, as well as accuracy required; and (d) a list of the equipment, materials, and
supplies used to perform the job.” (Clifton 1989, p. 187).

There are four questions to answer in determining the requirements of a vacancy: What does
the job consist of? In what way is it to be different from the job done by the previous
incumbent? What are the aspects of the job that specify the type of candidate? What are the
key aspects of the job that the ideal candidate wants to know before deciding to apply? Job
analysis is used to answer these questions. Job analysis comprises a series of techniques for
collecting and analysing information about jobs. These include, among others, questionnaires,
observations, interviews and critical incident techniques (Siddique 2004).

Bodnarchu (2012, pp. 2, 6-8, 13) and Singh (2009, para.1.0-1.2, 2.0) have highlighted the
importance of JA in the changing work place environment. “Job Analysis is an important
factor in designing performance appraisal tools,” (Nankervis et al., 2002, pp. 1-736) i.e. it
guides indevelopment of different tools for different types of jobs. “Job Analysis also gives
managers a legally defensible tool against pleas of discrimination against protected groups,
when hiring and selection decisions including performance appraisal and other HR
decisions” (Kshatriya 2016, p. 205). Bodnarchuk (2012, p. 1-70) concluded that through job
analysis two important documents; Job Description and Job Specification are developed
(which set the bases for Performance Management. “Performance may be defined as how
glowing the job is being completed as per well-known standard operating procedures”,
(Nankervis et al., 2002, pp. 1-736).

There are two elements of job analysis: Job description and job specification. These are the
important documents that managers prepare before recruitment and selection.

1. Job Description:

It describes the duties, responsibilities and working conditions of a specific job. It specifies
requirements of the job so that standards of performance can be developed and actual
performance can be measured against these standards. It also helps in job grading,
recruitment and selection parameters, training and development needs, developing career
paths and providing standards for performance appraisal.

It provides details of the job like name, code number, tools and equipment’s, location, duties,
working conditions, working hours and relationship with other jobs etc. “It is a written
statement of what a job holder does, how it is done and why it is done. It typically describes
job content, environment, and conditions of employment.”

2. Job Specification:
It describes the knowledge and skills of people who perform the job. Job specification
enables to select individuals with skills to perform the job. If people are not competent to do
the job, managers provide them training facilities. Selection, training and placement
programmes largely depend upon job specification, ie., knowledge possessed by individuals
and knowledge required to be possessed by them.

“Job specification states the minimum qualifications that a person must possess to perform a
given job successfully.” It identifies the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by job holders
to perform their jobs effectively.

After identifying job description and job specification, the jobs are evaluated. Job evaluation
means rating the jobs on the basis of their importance in the organisation. The importance of
a job can be judged on the basis of skills required to do that job, complexities of the job and
difficulties and stress to be faced while performing that job. The jobs are arranged in the
descending or ascending order of their importance and rewards and compensation are fixed
for each job. It helps in fixing equal pay for equal jobs.

Job analysis is important for the following reasons:

1. Job design:

It provides information about what work is to be performed on the job. It helps in identifying
the work, grouping it on the basis of similarity of features, defining relationship amongst
different jobs and authority-responsibility structure required to perform those jobs. It, thus,
helps in designing the organisation structure.

2. Human resource planning:

It helps in knowing the type of people to be appointed and placed (manpower requirement)
on respective jobs. By determining the types of jobs to be performed in the organisation, it
also helps in determining the number and type of people (in terms of knowledge, skills and
experience) required to work on those jobs.

3. Recruitment and selection:

It helps in recruitment and selection by identifying the sources from where people will be
acquired and selecting those who meet the criteria specified in job description. It aims at
maintaining balance between the jobs (tasks and responsibilities of the job) and the job
holders (skills, knowledge and experience of job holders). While responsibilities of the jobs
define job description, skills of job holders define job specification.

4. Placement:

It helps in placing the right person at the right job. When people are appointed for a group of
jobs (for example, trainees) rather than specific jobs, job analysis helps in matching
requirements of jobs with people who can be placed at those jobs. It, thus, helps in placement
— right person at the right job.
5. Training and development:

It helps in training and developing the employees by making them skilled and competent to
perform the specific jobs. People work on dynamic jobs with changing job requirements, both
present and potential. Job analysis helps in analysing the requirement of jobs up the hierarchy
and provides information about training and development needs so that people can be
prepared to assume jobs of higher importance.

6. Job evaluation:

It helps in modifying the nature of jobs. Job analysis evaluates jobs in terms of their worth
and helps in fixing compensation for the respective jobs. If compensation is not worth the
qualification and skills of job holders, it helps in revising either the job contents or the
compensation policies.

7. Performance appraisal:

Employees’ performance is appraised against job standards to make it conform to desired

performance and identify training needs and people worthy of promotions and transfers.
Promotions involve assuming jobs of higher status and also have advanced compensation
attached to them.

Job analysis helps in effectively identifying the characteristics of jobs at different levels so
that promotions and transfers are worth the effort and benefits arising out of them are more
than the costs (higher compensation, payment to outside experts for appraisals, etc.).

Job analysis, is the process of determining and recording all the pertinent
information about a specific job, including the tasks involved, the knowledge
and skill set required to perform the job, the responsibilities attached to the
job and the abilities required to perform the job successfully.

Job analysis differentiates one job from the other, in an organisation, and is
based on observation and study. It is also referred to as job review or job
classification. Job analysis provides the basic foundation for many of the HR
activities.

Though there are several methods of collecting job analysis information yet
choosing the one or a combination of more than one method depends upon
the needs and requirements of organization and the objectives of the job
analysis process.

Job analysis differentiates one job from the other, in an organisation, and is based on
observation and study. It is also referred to as job review or job classification. Job analysis
provides the basic foundation for many of the HR activities.
The analysis involves compiling a detailed description of tasks, determining the relationship
of the job to technology and to other jobs and examining the knowledge, qualifications or
employment standards, accountabilities and other incumbent requirements. In short, job
analysis is a recording of all the activities involved in a job and the skill and knowledge
requirements of the performer of the job.

Job analysis provides the necessary inputs for a number of HR activities like recruitment,
selection, job design, estimating job worth, training, and appraisal. These activities depends
on job analysis and its end products for their own functioning. For example, job description
and job specification-the end products of a job analysis – form the basis for recruitment.

They help in evaluating a candidate against the requirements of the job and selecting the most
suitable one. Similarly, job analysis provides inputs for training. While training employees
for a particular position, the parameters on which the employees need to be trained can be
obtained from job analysis. Job analysis also helps management in evaluating the relative
worth of each job, which would be one of the basic inputs in designing the compensation
system.

Job analysis plays a key role in designing and managing the performance appraisal system in
an organisation. It helps in identifying the key responsibility areas (KRAs) for a position and
then setting the goals or objectives for the appraisal period. This forms the basis for the
evaluation of an employee’s performance.

A comparison of the job specifications arrived at, at the end of a job analysis, with the
existing competencies of an employee, helps in identifying his training needs. Thus, job
analysis contributes either directly, or indirectly, to almost all the fields of human resource
management.

The various methods of job analysis are as follows:

1. Observation Method:

Three methods of Job Analysis are based on observation. These are- Direct Observation;
Work Method Analysis, including time and motion studies and micro-motion analysis; and
critical incident method.

2. Interview Method:

It involves discussions between job analysis and job occupants or experts. Job analysis data
from individual and group interviews with employees are often supplemented by information
from supervisors of employees whose jobs are to be analysed.

3. Daily Method:

It requires the job holders to record in details their activities on a daily basis.

4. Technical Conference Method:

In this method, services of the supervisors who possess extensive knowledge about a job are
used with the help of a conference of the supervisors. The analyst initiates discussion which
provides details about the job.

5. Functional Job Analysis (FJA):

It is a method that uses precise terminology and a structured job analysis “schedule” to record
information regarding the job content. It is especially useful to the recruiting and selection
functions.

6. Questionnaire Method:

These can be filled out by the employees on an individual basis or by job analysts for a group
of employees.

7. Job Inventories or Checklists:

These are structured questionnaires that require a respondent to check or rate behaviour
and/or worker character necessary to a particular job or occupation. Job inventories can either
be Task/Job Oriented or Qualifications/Worker oriented.

8. Job Performance Method:

In this method the job analyst actually performs the job in question and thus receives 1st hand
experiences of contextual factors on the job including physical hazards, social demands, and
emotional pressures mental requirements.

Job analysis is thus key to Recruitment, Selection, Orientation, Training, Career

Development, Counseling, Health, Safety, Performance Management and Compensation.
“JA plays a vital role in Human Resource Management and is a prerequisite for other core
functions of HRMsuch as Selection, Training and Development, Compensation and
Performance Management.”(Zubair et al., 2014, pp. 51)

“A sustainable competitive advantage is achieved through people, starting with recruiting the
best”. (Cantano et al., 2010, p. 249). Organization and job analysis will help identify human
resources required to implement the business plan, both through internal resources and
KSAO’s obtained through recruitment.A Person-Organization Fit is carried out to “assess
potential employees’ in terms of their fit with both the job and the organization to ensure that
the job candidate fit’s with the organization’s values and culture and to have contextual
attributes desired by the organization” and is ascertained to ensure “the case when a job
candidate has the knowledge, skills, abilities, or competencies required by the job in
question”, (Catano et al., 2010, p. 121).

Job analysis is used for a large number of purposes. Several authors have developed lists of
such uses, including Ash (1988), Ash and Levine (1980), McCormick (1979), Morgeson and
Dierdorff (2011), Prien and Ronan (1971), Sanchez and Levine (2012), and Zerga (1943).
The list covers purposes of interest to organizations as they manage their workforces.

Morgeson, F.P., Brannick, M.T. and Levine, E.L., 2019. Job and work analysis: Methods,
research, and applications for human resource management. Sage Publications.
job analysis data support several HR activities and can be used toward several ends (e.g., recruitment and
selection; training and development; performance management; and, as we’ve seen, job evaluation, among
several others).5 Many activities in an organization that focus on identifying a match between a person and a job
rely on accurate information produced by job analysis. Job analysis helps to ensure that decisions made
with respect to HR processes are good decisions (i.e., fair and accurate), and that those employee-related
decisions can be defended in courts and tribunals, if necessary. All of these HR activities are concerned with
matching people to jobs within a specific organizational context. Job analysis is a procedure to assess the
goodness of this fit between people and jobs. It provides information about both the job requirements and
the KSAOs needed to do the job. Since job analysis data have the potential for many uses, it is important to
know how the information will be used before deciding on an approach or method to use in collecting the data.

HR may wish to undertake an organizational analysis that can be used to anchor job analysis in the context of
the organization’s mission, goals, and strategy. When designing and implementing recruitment and selection
programs to fill jobs within their organization, HR specialists must be aware of the overall organizational
mission and strategic goals. Losing sight of the organization level can result in less-than optimal recruitment and
selection policies and practices that are used to fill positions at the job level. Although there are many ways to
conduct an organization analysis, most methods share the common goals of describing and understanding the
design and structure, functions and processes, and strategies and missions of organizations, issues that we
discussed in Chapter 1. Data obtained from an organization analysis can highlight areas of strengths and
weakness useful to HR planning, such as:
• identifying expected changes in the external environment;
• aligning staffing and development plans to ensure appropriate succession planning;
• identifying expected structural changes in the organization; and
• understanding how expected changes will affect recruitment and selection practices.

A job analysis should be used to specify the requirements of the job and knowledge, skills, and abilities of the
people who will be selected to fill the positions. After completion of the planning process, job analysis is the
next step in identifying job tasks and duties as well as the KSAOs needed to carry out those duties. These are the
two basic products of a job analysis. The first is formally referred to as a job description, a written description
of what the persons in the job are required to do, how they are supposed to do the job, and the rationale for any
required job procedures. A job description contains a summary of job analysis data. Recruitment and Selection
Today 4.1 presents a job description for a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) to work in an assisted living facility.
The second product is a job specification, which states the KSAOs that are required to perform the job
successfully. These may include the compensable factors that are used in performing a job evaluation, such as
analytical abilities, physical exertion, accountability for budgets, and unpleasant working environments. A job
description like that in Recruitment and Selection Today 4.1 is typically used to recruit employees and is based
on an actual job analysis. The job description does not present all of the information gathered as part of a job
analysis, only a summary of the important aspects. As we go through this chapter we will use examples based
on this job analysis to demonstrate how the information was collected.

1. Job description. Friedman and Harvey (1986, p. 779) found that

“Job analysis information is used in a variety of personnel functions (e.g., writing job
descriptions, designing performance appraisal and selection tools, assessing training needs,
classifying jobs, and administer in compensation systems).” A job description is a brief
written description of work—it’s a snapshot intended to communicate the essence of the job.
A job description usually contains identifiers (job title plus other classifying information), a
summary (mission or objective statement), and duties and tasks (what gets done), and it may
contain other information such as reporting relations, accountability, and minimum
qualifications (i.e., the minimum human attributes needed to perform the job adequately).
Among other things, job descriptions are important for communicating the nature of the job
to someone who doesn’t already know what the job is. Morgeson, F.P., Brannick, M.T. and
Levine, E.L., 2019

2. Job classification. Job classification is the process of placing one or more jobs into a
cluster or family of similar jobs (for example, because of its requirements, a job is classified,
say, as a Programmer Analyst III). The family may be based on lines of authority, duties, and
responsibilities of the work or behavioral requirements of the job. Job classification can be
important for setting pay rates and selecting employees.

3. Job evaluation. Job evaluation is the process of establishing the worth of jobs to an
employer. Employers want the pay for various jobs to match their value in relation to one
another within the company and to stack up well against pay rates offered by other
companies. By maintaining fair pay, job evaluation helps to attract and retain people. 4. Job,
team, and system design and redesign. Job design is the process of bundling tasks or clusters
of tasks into a collective called a job. Job design is necessary whenever a new job is created
or changed. Team design is the process of bundling tasks or clusters of tasks for a team of
workers as opposed to individuals. System design overlaps with team design but also attends
to assigning tasks to equipment and people in the system. Job, team, and system redesign is
the sorting of tasks to replace old jobs and functions with new ones. Job redesign
is often part of an effort to increase work efficiency and productivity. It may also be
conducted to increase employee satisfaction, motivation, safety, or product quality. In today’s
dynamic business climate, many jobs are being redesigned almost on a daily basis, sometimes
by the workers themselves.

5. Human resource requirements and specifications. Human resource requirements refer to

human attributes necessary or desirable for performing the job. Such attributes are often
thought of as knowledge, skills, abilities, or other characteristics like personality (KSAOs).
For example, an accounting job might require skill in using current tax software. Job
specifications refer to minimum qualifications that employers require for the job (for
example, a college degree in engineering, 6 months of experience as a cashier). These
specifications can be used to inform job applicants and staff charged with screening
applicants about the standards the applicants must meet.

6. Performance appraisal and management. Performance appraisal is the process of

evaluating the job performance of individuals (and now teams) who have been working for
some period of time; performance management refers to the broader process of managing the
performance of individuals and teams. Usually, performance appraisals are completed by
management and used to help make decisions about raises and promotions and to give
workers feedback about
their performance. They are sometimes used as motivational tools. Because of equal
employment opportunity laws, it has become increasingly important to tie performance
appraisals to important tasks and work behaviors required by the job. Performance
management encompasses appraisals but incorporates aspects such as coaching as needed in
addition to periodic formal reviews.

7. Training. Much of what workers need to know, think, or do to perform successfully on the
job is learned after they are hired. Training is the process by which such learning takes place.
Job analysis informs the development of training by identifying the key KSAOs job
incumbents need to perform the tasks of a job. Once it is clear what KSAOs the job
incumbents still need to develop, appropriate training can be designed (built from the key
tasks performed in the job). In the team context, which is increasingly relied upon in modern
work places, team training must include the development of team competencies such as
conflict resolution skills in addition to task and functional competencies.

8. Worker mobility. People move into and out of jobs via initial appointments, transfers,
promotions, and even demotions. It is generally in everyone’s best interest that people and
jobs fit together well. Career counseling provides individuals with information about jobs and
about themselves that is intended to promote beneficial worker mobility. Some organizations
provide formal career ladders or paths that are intended to foster skill development and
occupational success for individuals. Related to the issue of worker mobility is the use of job
analysis data for disability determination purposes. In the United States, this process is run by
the Social Security Administration and focuses on the kind of (other) work people might be
able to perform if they have a permanent disability. Job analysis information is crucial to this
process, as it provides key insight into the various physical and mental demands of work and
how a disability might impact the ability of workers to meet those demands.

9. Workforce planning. Workforce planning is essentially the flip side of worker mobility.
Organizations want to plan for jobs that will need to be filled and to be confident that
qualified applicants will be available to fill them. Planning is critical in the context of
management and leadership succession planning, and such planning requires the
identification of present and future competencies via job analysis. Job analysis can indicate
the KSAOs needed to be successful in a particular job. Organizations can then design
selection and training and developmental programs to ensure that applicants will possess the
needed KSAOs.

10. Efficiency. Improving efficiency at work includes things such as shortening the work
process or making it easier to do—for example, (1) reducing the number of physical
movements in a repetitive task, (2) developing work aids (perhaps a checklist giving all the
needed steps for completing a job), or (3) designing better tools (such as a shovel of a certain
size). Among teams, efficiency is promoted by the allocation of tasks to individuals to
minimize task redundancy but also to avoid requiring too many KSAOs for any given job.

11. Safety and health. Job analysis can identify specific behaviors and working conditions
that increase the chances of accidents and injury. Improving safety can involve changes in the
work process, the development of work aids and tools, or changes in the work context (work
environment). Likewise, job analysis can identify work aspects that might contribute to
reduced stress and burnout at work.

12. Legal and quasi-legal requirements. Although there are no laws that specifically require a job
analysis prior to implementing recruitment and selection programs, employment decisions must be based on job-
related information.9 Job analysis is a legally acceptable way of determining job-relatedness. Several
different laws apply to conditions of
employment, including safety and health, hiring, training, paying, promoting, and firing
employees. Several governmental agencies are charged with enforcing such laws. The
agencies include, among others, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),
the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), and the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA). Each agency has sets of guidelines intended to help
employers comply with employment laws. Job analysis is used to describe jobs and worker
qualities so that interested parties can determine whether employment practices serve to
improve productivity and efficiency and do not unlawfully discriminate against people. It
was concluded, “Recruitment is done to meet Management goals and objectives for the organization
and must also meet current legal requirements - human rights, employment equity, labor law and other
legislation” (Catano et al., 2010, p. 236). “A sustainable competitive advantage is achieved through
people, starting with recruiting the best,” (Catano et al., 2010, p. 249). Furthermore, Kshatriya (2016,
p. 205) concluded that
“Job Analysis gives managers a legally defensible tool against pleas of discrimination
against protected groups, when hiring and selection decisions are made including
performance appraisal and other HR decision related to pay increases, promotion, training
etc., are based on job analysis.”

Some might argue that our list of purposes is not complete, that there are other purposes to be
served by job analysis. Well, yes, such purposes include quality of work life and finding
employment for long-term unemployed workers or workers displaced by advances in
technology. Some might choose test development as a category. Or we might have added a
“miscellaneous” category, except we wanted to avoid 13 purposes. For the sake of harmony,
let’s assume that the list is reasonably but not totally complete.

Torrington, Derek, Hall, Laura, Atkinson, Carol, & Taylor, Stephen (2017). Human Resource
Management. 11th Edition. McGraw-Hill. NY. Pearson.

Morgeson, F.P., Brannick, M.T. and Levine, E.L., 2019. Job and work analysis: Methods,
research, and applications for human resource management. Sage Publications.