HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Chapter-3(JOB ANALYSIS AND HR PLANNING)

for MBA, III Semester

Instructor:
Isubalew Daba Ayana
(Msc, MBA, Ph.D. Candidate)
Great Land College,
Nekemte, Ethiopia
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 DEFINITION OF JOB ANALYSIS
• Job analysis is the process of collecting and
analyzing information about jobs and the
employee knowledge or skills necessary to
perform them. Thus, jobs are the basic
components of the organization’s structure
and are the means by which it achieves its
objectives.

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 Analyzing the roles and responsibilities of a
particular job or various job positions in the
organization is called job analysis. It is a
systematic investigation of job tasks, duties, and
responsibilities necessary to do a job.
• Task: it is an identifiable, measurable piece
of activity.
• Duty: it consists of several tasks; it is a
larger work segment.
• Responsibility: it is an obligation posed by
management to perform job, tasks and duties.
3
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 Steps in Job Analysis (contd.)

1. Organizational Analysis
2. Selection of Representative
Positions for Analysis
3. Collection of Job Analysis Data
4. Preparation of Job Description
5. Preparation of Job Specification

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 Uses of Job Analysis

Job analysis provides information for many HR activities:

i)Human resource planning
• The number and the type of personnel are determined by the
jobs that need to be staffed.
ii)Recruitment and Selection
• Job analysis provides information about what the job entails
and what human characteristics are required to carry out
these activities. Such job description and job specification
information is used to decide what sort of people to recruit
and hire.
• To carry out a selection process, one needs to know the tasks
to be performed and the qualifications requirements to
perform the work satisfactorily.
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fore training-that are required.
 Uses of Job Analysis

iii)Compensation
• Job analysis information is also essential for
estimating the value of and appropriate
compensation for each job.
iv)Training
• Job analysis information is also used for designing
training and development programs because the
analysis and resulting job description show the
skills-and therefore training-that are required.

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 Uses of Job Analysis
v)Performance Appraisal
• A performance appraisal compares each employee's actual
performance with his or her performance standards.
• Job analysis provides standards for performance in relation to
which actual performance of an employee is compared and
assessed.
vi)Safety and Health
• In job analysis, it is possible to identify hazardous conditions
and unhealthy environmental factors (such as heat, noise,
fumes, and dust).
vii)Discovering unassigned Duties
• Job analysis can also help reveal unassigned duties.
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 Method of collecting Job Analysis Data

a. Job Performance: In this method the analyst as a matter of fact

inspecting the job under study to get first hand exposure to
actual tasks, and physical, environmental and social demands of
the job. The job, which requires lesser skill, comes under this
category where learning is quick and easy. The job, which
requires extensive training, may not need this sort of approach.
b. Observation: The analyst observes without getting directly
involved in the job, the worker or a group engaged in doing the
job. The observation is made on various tasks, activities, the
pace at which tasks are carried out, and the way different
activities are performed. The manual, standardized and short job
cycle activities related jobs might require this sort of method.
The obtained information is reported in a standard format.

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c. Interview: The jobs, which are not given either
room for observation or actual performance of
the job, used this interview method. This
method is meant to make observation and
seeking clarification on job related aspects.
Standard format/ Standard interview schedule
is used during the interview, so as to have
control on the situation. The collected data of
workers irrespective of the number can be
compared to discern the common and critical
aspects of a job.
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 Method of collecting Job Analysis Data

d. Questionnaire: The structured questionnaire has to be

developed on different aspects of job related tasks and behavior
such as coordinating, negotiating, manual and mental processes.
Each task or behavior is described in terms of characteristics
such as frequency, significance, difficulty and relationship to
overall performance. This questionnaire is administered on
relevant employees and they are asked to provide their ratings
of these job dimensions.
Which Method one is expected to follow? Experts agree that the
choice of job analysis method depends upon the purposes to be
served by the data. There is no one best way to conduct a job
analysis. Wherever possible, multiple methods of job analysis
must be followed.
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 Comparison between Job description Vs Job specification

Job Descriptions
• A job description is a written statement that explains the duties, working
conditions, and other aspects of a specified job. Within a firm, all the job
description should follow the same format, although the form and content
may vary among companies. One approach is to write a narrative
description in a few paragraphs. Another way is to break down the
description into several sub-parts.

Job Specifications
• A job specification describes the job demands on the employees who do it
and the human skills required. It is a profile of the human characteristics
needed by the person performing the job. These requirements include
experience, training, education, and the ability to meet physical and mental
demands. When positions cross national boundaries, linguistic, legal and
cultural familiarity may become an important addition to the specifications.

• It has also been defined as a statement of human attributes, abilities, skill

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required performing the job.
 Potential Problems with Job analysis

While carrying out the job analysis, managers must take note of certain strong
behavioral responses from the employees. Employees may not always like the
idea of someone taking a hard look at their jobs. Thus, frequently encountered
problems associated with the job analysis are the following:

1)Employee fears: A searching examination of jobs may uncover employee faults,

which might have escaped the employer's attention so far. Thus, jobholders may
not cooperate or exaggerate about the job.

2)Resistance to change: When jobs change with changes in technology, there is an

urgent need to revise job descriptions and job specifications to make them more
meaningful. This would have a significant impact on the safe and secured job
worlds, employees used to live comfortably. Employees resist such changes
because when jobs are redefined, they may have to handle difficult tasks and
shoulder painful responsibilities. To ward off such threats, managers must
involve employees in the revision process, stating the reasons for incorporating
latest changes clearly.

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 Potential Problems with Job analysis

3 )Over emphasis on current employees: Job analysis efforts should not

place heavy emphasis on what the employees are currently doing.
Some employees may be gifted with unique capabilities and given a
chance they may expand the scope of the job and assume more
responsibilities. The company may have difficulty in finding someone
like that person if he or she were to leave the company. Therefore,
"the job description and job specifications should not be merely a
description of what the person currently filling the job does".

4)Top management support is missing: Top management should at least

make it clear to all employees that their full and honest participation
is extremely important to the process. Unfortunately, this message is
often not communicated

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 Potential Problems with Job analysis
5)Only a single means and source are used for gathering data: There are many proven
methods for gathering job data. All too often combination of methods might
provide better job data. However, people use single method in collecting the data.
6)The supervisor and jobholder need to participate in the design of the job analysis
exercise: Too many analyses are planned and implemented by one person who
assumes exclusive responsibility for the project. The jobholder and the supervisor
should be involved early in the planning of the project. Employee involvement from
the beginning of the project is a good way to minimize problems of distortion.
7)Training for jobholders: Job incumbents are potentially a great source of information
about the job. Unfortunately, they are seldom trained or prepared to generate
quality data for job analysis. Also, jobholders are rarely made aware of the
importance of the data and almost never are rewarded for providing good data.
Without proper training and preparation, employees may submit distorted data –
either intentionally or not.
8)Give employees sufficient time to complete the analysis: Usually a job analysis is
conducted as if it was a crash program and employees are not given sufficient time
to complete analysis.

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 Meaning and definition of human resource planning
Definitions of HRP
• Human Resource Planning (HRP) is the starting
point in staffing function. Human Resource
Planning basically deals with forecasting of human
resources required in an organization in future.
• Determining what number of people required to
run the organization effectively is called Human
Resource Planning/ man Power Planning.

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 Importance of HR Planning
• Ensures optimum use of manpower and capitalize on the
strength of HR. The organization can have a reservoir of talent
at any point of time. People skills are readily available to carry
out the assigned tasks, if the information is collected and
arranged beforehand.
• Forecasts future requirements (this is done by keeping track of
the employee turnover) and provides control measures about
availability of HR labor time. If, for example the organization
wants to expand its scale of operations, it can go ahead easily.
Advance planning ensures a continuous supply of people with
requisite skills who can handle challenging jobs easily.
• Helps determine recruitment/induction levels. A manager
wants to determine what kind of induction the organization
will require at such in such date. If one has a ready HR plan,
s/he will have fairly good idea what kind of people are being
recruited and at what position.
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 Importance of HR Planning
• Anticipates redundancies/ surpluses.
• Determines training levels and works.
• Helps assess accommodation requirements. A good HRP
can assist in solving many problems of the firm, from day
to day ones to very strategic ones, too. For instance, if an
organization decides to establish its production center in a
remote area, an accurate HR plan can help it to decide
how many people will be required there, and thus start
the process of establishing a township for them in
advance. The physical facilities such as canteen, school,
medical help, etc., can also be planned in advance.
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 5steps in the HRP process

1. Looking at organizational Objectives.

2. Forecasting the demand for Human
Resources(Expert forecast, Trend Analysis, Work
Force Analysis, Work Load Analysis)
3. Preparing Man Power Inventory (Supply
Forecasting)(Internal; Staffing Table, Markov
Analysis, Skills Inventory, Replacement Charts)
4. Determining man Power Gaps (Difference
Between Demand and Supply of HR/Labour)
5. Formulating HR Plans ( Recruitment plan,
Selection Plan, Training and Development Plan,
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etc)
 Factors affecting human resource planning

• A variety of organizational factors, including

competitive strategy, technology, structure,
and productivity can influence the demand
for labor. We can easily categories the factors
in three different sources.
• 1)External environmental
challenge,
• 2)Organization decision and
• 3)Work force factors.
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 End of the chapter Three
Thank you for your attention

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