WHAT IS MEANT BY JOB ANALYSIS? CONCEPT AND USES OF JOB ANALYSIS?
Meaning: -A job may be defined as a sum total of tasks, duties and responsibilities which is assigned to individual employees. After definition of job, HR manager needs to undertake job analysis. Job analysis is the starting point of recruitment and selection. It is a systematic process of collecting and studying information about the various jobs in the organization.
Definition: -“Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and responsibilities of a specific job.” Defined by ………………… (Edwin Flippo)
Job analysis consists of two areas:-
(a) Job Description (b) Job Specification
· Job Description gives details of the job in respect of duties, responsibilities and other aspects. It is an overall written summary of task requirements.
· Job Specification gives details relating to the candidate who is supposed to do the job, such as qualifications, skills, experiences, etc. it is an overall written summary of employee requirements.
USES OF JOB ANALYSIS
Job analysis is the foundation of many human resource management programs. Job analysis is important due to the following:
1. Organizational structure and design: -By clarifying requirements and the interrelationship among jobs, responsibilities at all levels can be specified. This helps to promote organizational efficiency and effectiveness. It also minimizes overlapping (go beyond) or duplication of work.
2. Human Resource Planning: -Job analysis is the foundation for forecasting human resource requirements. It also helps to plan for activities such as training, transfer, or promotion. HR requirements’ forecast is done in terms of quality and quantity. Job analysis provides information on quality of manpower in terms of qualities, qualifications, experience, etc.
3. Recruitment and Selection: - Job Analysis is the starting point of recruitment and selection. Properly analyzed jobs can be advertised effectively. Only the suitable candidates apply for the job. This facilitates proper selection.
4. Placement: - Job Analysis facilitates proper placement. The selected candidates can be placed at the right job depending upon their qualities, qualifications and experience.
5. Performance appraisal: -The Performance of the employees can be compared to the duties and responsibilities as stated in the job description. Accordingly, the company can find out the strengths and weaknesses of its employees.
6. Training: - Job Analysis is useful for providing effective training. Those employees whose performance is weak can be identified and accordingly training can be provided to correct their weaknesses.
7. Job Evaluation: -Job Analysis acts as a base for job evolution. The relative worth of each job can be found out by comparing the details provided by job description and job specification. Thus the company can fix proper salary and wage structure for different jobs.
8. Promotion and Transfers: -Job Analysis facilitates promotion and transfer of employees. The performance of employee is compared against the job duties and responsibilities. The employees may be transferred from one department to another depending upon their performance, abilities and skills.
9. Career path Planning: -Job Analysis help in thorough understanding of the requirements of available jobs and how at succeeding
10. Health and Safety: -Job analysis helps to discover unhealthy and hazardous environments and operational conditions in various jobs. Heat, noise, dust etc. are examples of such conditions.
11. Job Design: -With the help of job analysis information, improvements can be made in work design and work method to improve productivity and job satisfaction. This takes two forms:
· Human Engineering: -it is concerned with redesigning of jobs to match the physical and psychological capabilities of employees.
· Industrial Engineering: - it is concerned with measurement, simplification and improvement of work so as to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
12. Acceptance of Job Offer: - Job analysis is useful to the candidate for the acceptance of the job offer. The candidate can get clear and correct information about the duties, salary, working conditions, promotion opportunities, etc. this facilitates the candidate’s decision to accept or reject the job offer.