Job Analysis

Job analysis: a definition

Job analysis (تحليل الوظائف) is the structured gathering of information about a specific job. The information it gathers answers four questions about that job: which tasks are actually performed in it, with which tools, with which abilities, and within which relationships of supervision and responsibility.

• The tasks. The first question asks which tasks are performed in the job in practice. Its subject is what is actually done in the job, not what the job is said to involve.
• The tools. The second question asks which tools the job holder uses to perform those tasks.
• The abilities. The third question asks which abilities the work in the job calls on.
• Supervision and responsibility. The fourth question asks where the job stands in the relationships of supervision and responsibility around it: who supervises the job holder, whom the job holder supervises, and what the job is responsible for.

The analysis concerns one specific job at a time. The answers it gathers describe that job and not a general category of work to which the job might belong.

How job analysis differs from a job description

Job analysis is a process of gathering and examination. A job description is a document that results from it. The first is the work of collecting information about a job and examining it; the second is the written record that comes out of that work. The analysis comes first, and the job description follows from it.

The analysis is what makes a job description grounded in reality rather than copied from a similar job in another organisation. A job description written after an analysis rests on information gathered about the job it describes, in the organisation where that job is performed. A job description copied from elsewhere rests on a different job that resembles it, in another organisation.

A job description with no analysis before it is a guess written in formal language. The formal language gives the document the look of a description grounded in the job, but no information about the job was gathered before it was written, so what the language carries is still a guess.

Where job analysis gathers its information

Job analysis draws on four sources of information. Each of them sees the job from a different position, and each has a limit that comes from that position.

• The job holder. They are the source closest to what actually happens in the job. Alongside that closeness, they can have a natural tendency to emphasise what they consider important, so the account they give can lean towards the parts of the job that matter to them.
• The direct manager. They see the job from the angle of what is required rather than what is performed. Their account describes the job as it is expected to be done, and what the holder actually performs can differ from that expectation.
• Direct observation. It reveals the tasks that nobody mentions because they have become habit. A task done out of habit can go unmentioned by the job holder and by the manager alike. Watching the work while it is being done is how such a task comes to light.
• The outputs of the work itself. Reports, requests and records show what has actually been produced. They do not show the work that left no written trace. The outputs are evidence of the work that produced them, and work that ends without a report, a request or a record leaves nothing of this kind behind for this source to show.

Relying on a single source produces a picture biased towards that source’s angle, which is why the sources are combined.

What is built on job analysis

Job analysis is an input to a number of decisions, not to a single one. The decisions built on it are the following.

• The job advertisement and the selection criteria. The advertisement for the job is drafted, and the criteria for selecting among candidates are set, on the basis of the job that the analysis describes.
• The required competencies. The competencies that the job requires are identified on the basis of the analysis.
• The standards for performance appraisal. The performance standards against which the job holder’s performance is appraised are built on the analysis.
• The training need. The training that the job calls for is identified on the basis of the analysis.
• The pay level. The job is placed at a pay level by comparison with the other jobs in the organisation, and that placing is also built on the analysis.

Because all of these decisions rest on the same analysis, a weakness in the analysis passes into all of them at once. It does not stay inside one decision: the job advertisement, the selection criteria, the competencies, the performance standards, the training need and the pay level all inherit it together.

When job analysis is carried out again

Jobs can change without any announced decision. A new tool can remove half of the tasks in a job. A task can be moved to another department, and nothing is updated. In each case the job has changed, while what was recorded about it stays as it was before the change.

The occasions that call for job analysis to be carried out again are these.

• A technical change in the tool. The tools are one of the four things job analysis records, and a change in the tool can change the tasks performed with it.
• A restructuring. It can move tasks between jobs and change the relationships of supervision and responsibility within which a job sits, both of which are recorded by the analysis.
• Repeated difficulty in recruiting for a specific job. When the same job is hard to recruit for again and again, that job is the one whose analysis is carried out again.
• Repeated disagreement over who takes on a task. It concerns the responsibility attached to the jobs involved, and responsibility is one of the things the analysis records.

Job analysis describes the job as it is

Job analysis describes the job as it is, not as it ought to be. Its subject is the job as actually performed: the tasks carried out in practice, the tools, the abilities and the relationships of supervision and responsibility, which are the four questions named in the definition.

If the job itself is badly designed, for example when it is made up of unrelated tasks that were brought together for historical reasons, the analysis reveals that and does not fix it. The analysis records the unrelated tasks as they are performed, and by recording them it shows the poor design. It does not change the design.

Fixing a badly designed job is a matter for job redesign, and job redesign is a separate decision. The analysis shows the job as it is; whether and how the job should be designed differently is decided outside it.

This is an explanation of the concept, not legal advice.