JOB ANALYSIS Richard J. Wagner, PhD

© 2013 CAPELLA UNIVERSITY

JOB ANALYSIS

Richard J. Wagner, PhD

Part-time faculty

Updated: January 28, 2016

© 2013 CAPELLA UNIVERSITY

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WHAT IS JOB ANALYSIS?

Systemic process of collecting information about work performed in a job

Must include making some decisions about that information

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WHAT IS DONE WITH THE INFORMATION?

Job requirements and specifications

Hiring (advertising and selecting)

Training

Evaluating (performance evaluation)

Job descriptions

Job evaluation

Compensation

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LEGAL ISSUES

Job analysis must be performed

Must be in writing

Must describe in detail methods used

Must have knowledgeable job analyst gather data from various sources

Must have large and representative sample size

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MORE ABOUT LEGAL ISSUES

Include tasks, duties, and activities

Use most important tasks

Specify competency levels of performance for entry-level jobs

Specify KSAs especially for content validity models

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RANDOM SAMPLING

Assumes all are equal in some level

Example: Everyone in this class can read English.

Representative of the population as a whole

Example: Don’t ask people about their majors when standing outside of a business school.

How to be truly random

Example: Last 4 digits of Social Security number

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CONTENT VALIDITY

A job mini-sample

Example for a school bus driver

Go outside, and back the school bus into a designated slot.

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SME (SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT)

Someone who knows a lot about a given position

May be

Job incumbent

Supervisor

Staff or outside expert

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WHO PERFORMS THE JOB ANALYSIS?

Someone trained to do it

Internal HR person or specialist

• Knows the company and the people
• Long-term vested interest in organization
• Relatively inexpensive

External consultant

• Broad range of specialty knowledge
• Unbiased
• Can be expensive

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SELECTING JOBS TO STUDY

Legal guidelines involved

Job representative of organization?

Criticality of the job (healthcare workers)

Number of applicants (discrimination charges)

Stability of job

Entry-level job (Uniform Guidelines)

Physically-demanding job (ADA)

Evidence of adverse impact

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LEGAL ISSUES IMPACTING WHICH JOBS TO STUDY

Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP)

Federal hiring guidelines

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Requires use of essential job functions in job analysis

Adverse impact (disproportionate)

Example: I gave the same test to all students but one group (females) scored lower than others (males) and so received lower grades. It’s found that the test does not focus exclusively on course-related material.

More in Unit 4

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LET’S NOT REINVENT THE WHEEL

Use federal Occupational Information Network (O*NET)

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WHICH JOB AGENTS COLLECT THE DATA?

Job analysts

Job incumbents

Supervisors

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JOB ANALYSIS METHODS

Interviews

Questionnaires

Task analysis inventory

• PAQ (Position Analysis Questionnaire)
• Widely-used example of a task analysis inventory
• List of job tasks
• Initiate requests for new identification cards for new hires
• Rating scales
• How much time is spent on this task? (Likert scale of 1-5 or 1-7)

SME workshops or meetings

Observations

Critical incident technique

Incidents of good and poor behavior

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The end