Thornton And Associates

Our Firms Approach To Job Analysis

Thornton & Associates' approach to Job Analysis focuses on a methodology which not only gathers information about jobs but also provides a process for analyzing and synthesizing the information.  Our intention is to support the information needs of the organization.

Our process supports:

• Job Design
• Job Evaluation
• Employment
• Performance Management
• Training and Development
• Compliance With Legal Requirements

Effective work analysis is especially important to employment and compensation.  Work analysis for:

• Personnel selection can yield key information needed to develop and validate essential selection criteria for jobs/roles and occupations.  Effective work analysis supports the development of selection criteria that are legal and consistent with modern selection theory and practice-job-related, consistent with business necessity, valid, reliable, free from unfounded influences and sufficient.

• Job/role design can help identify or avoid unplanned redundancies in jobs and ill-advised content and work controls that unnecessarily limit worker input and empowerment, inhibit constructive relationships with co-workers and work against scheduling flexibility for the employee.  Effective job/role design can help reduce personnel costs, streamline work processes, increase productivity and employee empowerment, enhance job satisfaction and provide greater scheduling flexibility for the employee.

• Market pricing should provide sufficient information to ensure accurate job matching.  Without good matching, market pricing is useless and can be counter-productive.  Good matching typically requires baseline information about a job's essential functions, level of responsibility and working conditions.

• Job content evaluation must be consistent with the job evaluation system to be applied.  If, for example, the evaluation system measures (1) responsibility for safety of others and (2) accountability for material assets, the work analyst must provide information about the degree to which the work (1) requires attention to safety and prevention of injuries and (2) is directly or indirectly responsible for cash/negotiable instruments, investments, property, waste, damage, defects, etc.  Effective work analysis for job evaluation supports internal equity.

Work analysis is often misunderstood.  Sometimes it is undervalued or poorly implemented by the organization.  However, work analysis for human resource management, organization design and other endeavors, when competently done and wisely applied by the organization, is well worth the time, effort and resources expended.

JOB ANALYSIS METHODS

A.  Observation: Watching employees perform job, recording tasks and duties observed and then compiling information into the necessary skills, abilities and knowledge.

Best for: short cycle production jobs.

B.  Interview: Face-to-face discussion where employee is questioned about the skills, abilities and knowledge needed to perform the job.                                                  Best for: professional jobs.

C. Position Analysis Questionnaire: Job incumbents (and sometimes their managers) answer questions on form outlining skills, abilities and knowledge needed to perform the job. Responses are compiled and a composite job requirement statement is produced.

Best for: Analyzing a large number of jobs with limited resources available.

          

D. Work Diaries Or logs:  Employee maintains an anecdotal record of the frequency and timing of tasks over an extended period of time.  The information is reviewed to determine patterns.        Best for: most jobs; though it is time consuming and may not be maintained.                           

JOB DESCRIPTIONS - AN OVERVIEW

Depending on how detailed they are, job descriptions can be used directly or indirectly to:

• Assign work and document work assignments
• Help clarify missions
• Establish performance requirements
• Assign occupational codes, titles and/or pay levels to jobs
• Recruit for vacancies
• Explore reasonable accommodation
• Counsel people on career opportunities and their vocational interests
• Train employees
• Check for compliance with legal requirements related to equal opportunity, equal pay, overtime eligibility, etc.
• Make decisions on job restructuring
• Suggest ways to enrich the work experience

In plain, clear language, job descriptions document a job's major functions or duties, responsibilities and/or other critical features, such as skill, effort and working conditions.  They may be specific and detailed or generic and general.  In accordance with the employer's purposes, job descriptions may tell:

• Who (usually the incumbent or the supervisor)
• Does what work (including review of the work of others)
• Where
• When (or how often)
• Why (the purpose or impact of the work)
• How (it is accomplished)

A single job task may be essential.  If so, it should be covered in the job description.  If the essential task exists in the job by itself, apart from a "larger" essential duty (or function) that is described, then it must be expressed, not implied.  Conversely, if it is an integral part of a duty (or function) that is expressed, then it may be implied.  Another requirement of the ADA is that essential functions be distinguished from non-essential ones if the employer chooses to describe non-essential functions.  There are several practical approaches to meeting this requirement.  Employers may:

• Indicate the time spent on each function (most, but not all, functions that account for only a small part of the job are non-essential)
• Surround non-essential functions with asterisks
• List non-essential functions last under a separate heading or other means of demarcation
• Put non-essential functions in a footnote

Job descriptions can be very useful to employers, employees and job applicants.  However, there are pitfalls.  To avoid them, the employer must:

• Carefully consider the format and degree of detail to be used (generic/general v. specific/detailed, disclaimer(s)etc.)
• Ensure that the descriptions are prepared with care (i.e., clear, accurate and sufficient for the intended purpose(s), using non-prejudicial language)

Gary R. Thornton, MBA, SPHR, CEBS, RPA, GBA is the Principal of Thornton & Associates, a human resources management consulting firm located in Scarborough, ME. He has more than 25 years’ experience in human resource management for both private and nonprofit organizations. He holds credentials as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS), Retirement Plan Associate (RPA) and Group Benefit Associate (GBA). He currently serves as a Special Expertise Panel Member - Total Rewards, Compensation & Benefits for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). He has also held leadership roles in the Maine Employee Benefits Council and the Human Resources Association of Southern Maine. For more information about the information contained in this article, you may contact him at 207-885-9333 or email gthorn@ThorntonAndAssociates.net