Job Analysis

and the Talent

Management Process

Dr. Wafaa Hashem

Gary Dessler.
16th edition
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
• When you finish studying this chapter, you should
be able to:
• Define talent management, and explain what
talent management-oriented managers do.
• Discuss the process of job analysis, including why
it is important.
• Explain and use at least three methods of
collecting job analysis information.
• Explain how you would write a job description,
and what sources you would use.
• Explain how to write a job specification.
• Give examples of competency-based job analysis.
 Talent management:
• The goal-oriented and integrated process of
planning, recruiting, developing, managing,
and compensating employees.
• The manager who takes a talent management
approach tends to take actions such as asks,:
“What recruiting, testing, training, or pay
action should I take to produce the employee
competencies we need to achieve our
company’s goals?”
• Knows that having employees with the right skills
depends as much on recruiting and training.
 The organization chart:
• A chart that shows the organization wide distribution of
work, with titles of each position and interconnecting lines
that show who reports to and communicates with whom.
The Organization
Chart:
• A hierarchical organizational structure: is
characterized by a clear chain of command where
authority flows from the top down. It’s the most
traditional and commonly used structure. (e.g., Walmart).
• Functional Structure: Best for specialization and
innovation (e.g., Apple).
• Matrix Structure: Ideal for collaboration and multitasking
(e.g., Amazon).
• Geographic Structure: Crucial for tailoring to local
markets (e.g., Unilever).
• Flat Structure: Enables speed and empowerment (e.g.,
Tesla).
• Divisional Structure: Focuses on specific products or
markets (e.g., P&G).
• 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.
Job analysis produces information for writing
job descriptions.
• Job descriptions:
• A list of a job’s duties, responsibilities,
reporting relationships, working conditions,
and supervisory responsibilities—one product of
a job analysis.
• Job 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.
HR types of information
collected via the job analysis:
● Work activities: Information about the job’s actual
work activities, such as cleaning, selling,
teaching, or painting. This list may also include how,
why, and when the worker performs each activity.
● Human behaviors: Information about human
behaviors the job requires, like sensing,
communicating, lifting weights, or walking long
distances.
● Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids.
Information regarding tools used, materials processed,
knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or
law), and services rendered (such as counseling or
repairing).
HR types of information collected
via the job analysis:
● Performance standards: Information about the
job’s performance standards (in terms of quantity
or quality levels for each job duty).
● Job context: Information about such matters as
physical working conditions, work schedule,
incentives, and for instance, the number of people
with whom the employee would normally
interact.
● Human requirements: Information such as
knowledge or skills (education, training, work
experience) and required personal attributes
(aptitudes, personality, interests).
Uses of Job Analysis
Information:
• RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION Information about what
duties the job entails and what human characteristics are
required to perform these duties helps managers decide what
sort of people to recruit and hire.
• PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL A performance appraisal
compares an employee’s actual performance of his or her
duties with the job's performance standards. Managers
use job analysis to learn what these duties and
standards are.
• COMPENSATION (such as salary and bonus) usually
depends on the job’s required skill and education level, safety
hazards, degree of responsibility, and so on—all factors you
assess through job analysis.
• TRAINING The job analysis lists the job’s specific duties
and requisite skills—thus pinpointing what training the
job requires.
 Conducting a Job Analysis:
• Steps in doing a job analysis of a job:
• STEP 1: Identify the use to which the information
will be put because this will determine how you collect
the information. Some data collection techniques—like
interviewing the employee—are good for writing job
descriptions. Other techniques, like the position
analysis questionnaire provide numerical ratings for
each job; these can be used to compare jobs for
compensation purposes.
• STEP 2: Review Relevant Background Information About
the Job, Such as Organization Charts and Process
Charts It is important to understand the job’s context. For
example, organization charts show the organization wide
division of work, and where the job fits in the overall
organization. A process chart provides a detailed picture
 Conducting a Job Analysis:
• Steps in doing a job analysis of a job, as follows:
• STEP 3: Verify the Job Analysis Information with
the Worker Performing the Job and with His or Her
Immediate Supervisor This will help confirm that the
information (for instance, on the job’s duties) is correct
and complete and help to gain their acceptance.
• STEP 4: Develop a Job Description and Job
Specification The job description lists the duties,
activities, and responsibilities of the job, as well as its
important features, such as working conditions. The
job specification summarizes the personal qualities,
traits, skills, and background required for getting the
job done.
Workflow Analysis:
• Reviewing the organization chart, process
chart, and job description helps the manager
identify what a job’s duties and demands are
now. . However, it does not answer questions
like “Does this job relates to other jobs make
sense?” or “Should this job even exist?” To
answer such questions, the manager may
conduct a workflow analysis.
• Workflow analysis is a detailed study of the
flow of work from job to job in one identifiable
work process. In turn, this analysis may lead to
changing or “reengineering” the job. The
following HR as a Profit Center feature illustrates
workflow analysis.
Business Process
Reengineering:
• Means redesigning business processes, usually by
combining steps so that small multifunction teams,
often using information technology, do the jobs
formerly done by a sequence of departments.
• The basic reengineering approach is to:
1. Identify a business process to be redesigned.
2. Measure the performance of the existing processes
3. Identify opportunities to improve these processes
4. Redesign and implement a new way of doing the work
Job Redesign:
• Early economists enthusiastically described why
specialized jobs were more efficient (as in,
“practice makes perfect”).
• Today, most agree that specialized jobs can
backfire, for instance by sapping morale.
Experts typically suggest three ways to redesign
specialized jobs to make them more challenging.
 Job Redesign:
• Job enlargement:
• means assigning workers additional same-level activities.
• EX: Volvo’s Assembly Line Redesign
• Action: Volvo expanded the scope of assembly line
workers’ tasks by giving them responsibility for assembling
entire vehicle components (e.g., dashboards) instead of
just repetitive small parts.
• Outcome: Improved product quality, enhanced job
satisfaction, Workers became more engaged and motivated
and reduced absenteeism.
• Job rotation:
• means systematically moving workers from one job to another.
• EX: Procter & Gamble (P&G) Leadership Development
• Action: P&G implemented a job rotation program for
employees in management tracks, allowing them to rotate
across functions such as marketing, supply chain, and
finance for a while.
• Outcome: Increased retention of high-potential talent and
 Job enrichment
• Psychologist Frederick Herzberg argued that the best way to
motivate workers is through job enrichment.
• Job Enrichment:
• means redesigning jobs in a way that increases the opportunities
for the worker to experience feelings of responsibility,
achievement, growth, and recognition.
• It does this by empowering the worker, by giving the worker
skills & authority to inspect the work, instead of having
supervisors do that.
• EX: AT&T’s Call Center Redesign
• Action: AT&T enriched call center agents’ jobs by adding
decision-making authority, giving them autonomy to resolve
customer issues without manager approval, and involving
them in process improvement discussions.
• Outcome: Improved employee morale and reduced
turnover. The employees felt more valued and motivated,
while increasing customer loyalty.
Methods for Collecting Job
Analysis Information:
• The Interview:
• Job analysis interviews range from unstructured
(“Tell me about your job”) to highly structured
ones with hundreds of specific items to check off.
• Managers may conduct individual interviews
with each employee, group interviews with
groups of employees who have the same job,
and/or supervisor interviews with one or more
knowledgeable supervisors.
• The interviewee should understand the reason
for the interview.
Methods for Collecting Job
Analysis Information:
• The Interview Method PROS AND CONS:
• It’s a simple and quick way to collect
information.
• Skilled interviewers can also unearth important
activities that occur occasionally, or informal
contacts not on the organization chart.
• Distortion of information is the main
problem.
• Job analysis often precedes changing a job’s pay
rate. Employees therefore often view it as pay-
related, and exaggerate some responsibilities
while minimizing others.
Collecting Job Analysis
Information
Questionnaires:
• Having employees fill out questionnaires to describe
their job duties and responsibilities is another popular
job analysis approach. Some questionnaires are
structured checklists.
Job Analysis QUESTIONNAIRE.pdf

• Pros and cons:

• This is a quick and efficient way to obtain information
from a large number of employees.
• It’s less costly than interviewing dozens of workers.
• Developing and testing it (perhaps by making sure the
workers understand the questions) can be time-
consuming.
• And as with interviews, employees may distort their
answers.
Collecting Job Analysis
Information
Observation:
• Direct observation is especially useful when jobs
consist of observable physical activities.
• It’s usually not appropriate when the job entails
a lot of mental activity (lawyer, design
engineer).
• 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.) Here you take notes of all
the job activities. Then, ask the person to clarify
open points and to explain what other
activities he or she performs.
Collecting Job Analysis
Information
Observation:
• Pros and cons:
• It is useful if the employee only occasionally
engages in important activities, such as a
nurse who handles emergencies.
• Reactivity—the worker’s changing what he or
she normally does because you are watching—
is another problem.
Collecting Job Analysis
Information
Participant Diary/Logs:
• Another method is to ask workers to keep a
diary/log; here 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 randomly
during the day, they page the workers, who
dictate what they are doing at that time.
Applying Job Analysis
Techniques:
• Applying job analysis and job descriptions has led to
measurable success in many companies by improving
efficiency and employee satisfaction. Here are some notable
examples:
• Google: Enhancing Hiring and Performance
• Action: Google used data-driven job analysis to define key
roles, establish required skills, and create detailed job
descriptions.
• Outcome: Improved talent acquisition, increased
productivity, and enhanced team performance.
• Southwest Airlines: Aligning Culture and Roles
• Action: Southwest Airlines integrated job analysis to define
roles that aligned with their customer-centric culture,
focusing on soft skills such as friendliness and teamwork in
their job descriptions.
• Outcome: Employees better fit the company’s values and
expectations, Higher customer satisfaction and lower
Applying Job Analysis Techniques:
• EX. McDonald’s: Defining Roles for Better
Training
• Action: McDonald’s used job analysis to define
every position in detail, which became the
foundation for their global training programs.
• Outcome: Clear job descriptions enabled the
company to standardize tasks and provide
consistent training worldwide. Faster
onboarding, improved service quality, and
scalability of operations.
• EX. General Electric (GE): Redesigning Jobs for
Efficiency
• Action: GE used job analysis to understand the
overlap in roles in manufacturing and
engineering divisions.
Writing Job Descriptions:
• The most important product of job analysis is the
job description.
• A job description: is a written statement of
what the worker actually does, how he or
she does it, and what the job’s working
conditions are.
• You use this information to write a job
specification; this lists the knowledge,
abilities, and skills required to perform the job
satisfactorily.
Writing Job Descriptions:
• There is no standard format for writing a job
description. However, most descriptions contain
sections that cover:
1. Job identification
2. Job summary
3. Responsibilities and duties
4. Authority of incumbent
5. Standards of performance
6. Working conditions
7. Job specification
Writing Job Descriptions:
• Job identification:
• The job identification section (on top) contains the
job title specifies the name of the job, Showing
the job’s location in terms of facility/division and
department. This section might also include the
supervisor’s title and information regarding salary
and/or pay scale. There might also be space for the
pay grade/level of the job.
• Job Summary:
• The job summary should summarize the essence
of the job, and should include only its major
functions or activities.
Writing Job Descriptions:
• Relationships:
• Is a statement that shows the jobholder’s
relationships with others inside and outside the
organization.
• EX: for a human resource manager.
• Reports to: Vice president.
• Supervises: Human resource clerk, administrators,
labor relations staff, and one secretary.
• Works with: All department managers and executive
management.
• Outside the company: Employment agencies,
executive recruiting firms, employment offices, and
various vendors.
Writing Job Descriptions:
• Responsibilities and Duties:
• This is the heart of the job description. It should
present a list of the job’s responsibilities and duties.
List each of the job’s major duties separately,
and describe it in a few sentences.
• The manager’s basic question here is, “How do I
determine what the job’s duties are and
should be?”
• The answer first is, from the job analysis; this
should reveal what the employees on each job are
doing now.
• Second, you can review various sources of
standardized job description information.
Writing Job Descriptions:
• Standards of Performance and Working
Conditions:

• A “standards of performance” section lists the

standards the company expects the employee to
achieve for each of the job description’s main
duties and responsibilities. One way to set
standards is to finish the statement, “I will be
completely satisfied with your work
when . . . .”
Job Specifications:

• Writing Job Specifications:

• The job specification takes the job description
and answers the question, “What human traits
and experience are required to do this job
effectively?” It shows what kind of person to
recruit and for what qualities you should
test that person. It may be a section of the job
description, or a separate document.