Job analysis and design

For the professional to be able to act proactively, they need information about the human resources and needs of their organization. The activity of the human resources department is based on the information available regarding positions. Jobs are the very essence of the organization's productivity.

Job Information Analysis: Overview.

Before the creation of a personnel department, the managers of each area are usually in charge of all aspects related to personnel. Due to their familiarity with the functions of the people in charge, managers in specific areas do not generally require information systems, at least during the early stages of a company's activity.

As the degree of complexity of an organization increases, more functions are delegated to the personnel department, which usually does not have detailed information on the positions of other departments; This information must be obtained through job analysis, which consists of obtaining, evaluating and organizing information about the positions of an organization. It is the job analyst who performs this function. This function has the goal of analyzing each job and not the people who perform it.

If they lack an adequate information system, decision-makers will not be able, for example, to find candidates who meet the necessary characteristics for a position, nor to indicate salary levels according to the market.

The main management activities related to the information on job analysis are:

Fair and equitable compensation, Placement of employees in suitable positions, Determination of realistic levels of performance, Creation of training and development channels, Identification of suitable candidates for vacancies, Planning of human resources training needs, Providing conditions that Improve the work environment. Evaluate how changes in the environment affect employee performance. Eliminate non-essential requirements and demands. Know the real human resource needs of a company.

Obtaining information for job analysis

Before studying each position, analysts study the organization, its objectives, its characteristics, its inputs (personnel, materials and procedures) and the products or services it provides to the community. They also study reports generated by various sources such as: the same company, other entities in the industry, official reports. Provided with an overview of the organization and its performance, the following steps are carried out:

Job Identification

It is a simple task in a small organization. In a large company, you may need to use current payrolls and charts, or direct research with employees, supervisors, and managers. Although not valid, a previous job analysis is very useful.

Development of the questionnaire

It aims to identify the tasks, responsibilities, knowledge, skills and levels of performance required in a specific position.

Identification and update: the position to be described later will be identified first, as well as the date on which the last description was prepared. This information must be verified to avoid using outdated data and not to apply the information to another position. Duties and responsibilities: Many formats specify the purpose of the position and the way it is carried out. This provides a quick description of the tasks. The specific duties and responsibilities provide a thorough understanding of the tasks performed. Human skills and working conditions: describes the knowledge, skills, academic requirements, experience and other factors necessary for the person who will perform the position. It is vital to proceed to fill a vacancy or make a promotion. Likewise,allows the planning of specific training programs. Performance levels: For many industrial functions, normal minimum and maximum levels of performance are usually set. Many times, the help of supervisors or industrial engineers will be required to determine these levels.

Data collection

The analyst must determine the most appropriate combination of techniques, maintaining maximum flexibility in all cases.

Interviews: the analyst personally visits the subject who can provide relevant information about a job. It can be based on a general questionnaire, to which questions can be added that cover the specific variants that the position presents. This system offers maximum reliability, but has a high cost: it is usual to interview both people who hold the position and their supervisors (who are interviewed later. In order to verify the information provided by the employee). Expert committees: although equally expensive and slowly, the method of obtaining the opinion of a group of experts gathered expressly to analyze a position allows a high degree of reliability. It is especially useful when the evaluated position is of vital importance and is performed by many people. Employee log:A verification of the record of the employee's daily activities, according to the instructions of the employee in a notebook, record or daily activity log, constitutes another alternative for obtaining information. Verifying these logs is not a common alternative for obtaining information about a position, because it means an investment in considerable terms of time. Direct observation: this method is slow, expensive and more susceptible to errors. It is advisable to leave this field to the times and movements engineer. Except in exceptional cases, it is not recommended for the analysis of any position. The ideal method: flexibility in procedures and common sense.It is another alternative for obtaining information. Verifying these logs is not a common alternative for obtaining information about a position, because it means an investment in considerable terms of time. Direct observation: this method is slow, expensive and more susceptible to errors. It is advisable to leave this field to the times and movements engineer. Except in exceptional cases, it is not recommended for the analysis of any position. The ideal method: flexibility in procedures and common sense.It is another alternative for obtaining information. Verifying these logs is not a common alternative for obtaining information about a position, because it means an investment in considerable terms of time. Direct observation: this method is slow, expensive and more susceptible to errors. It is advisable to leave this field to the times and movements engineer. Except in exceptional cases, it is not recommended for the analysis of any position. The ideal method: flexibility in procedures and common sense.expensive and more susceptible to errors. It is advisable to leave this field to the times and movements engineer. Except in exceptional cases, it is not recommended for the analysis of any position. The ideal method: flexibility in procedures and common sense.expensive and more susceptible to errors. It is advisable to leave this field to the times and movements engineer. Except in exceptional cases, it is not recommended for the analysis of any position. The ideal method: flexibility in procedures and common sense.

Applications of information on job analysis

Information about the various positions can be used in job descriptions, for job specifications and to establish the levels of performance required for a given role.

Job Description: It is a written explanation of the duties, working conditions and other relevant aspects of a specific position. All forms for job descriptions should be of the same format within the company, to preserve comparability of data.

Basic data: a job description can include information such as the code assigned to the job (department key, if the job is unionized or not, the number of people who hold it): Date, to determine if the job description is found updated or not. Data of the person who described the position, so that the personnel department verifies the quality of their performance and can provide feedback to their analysts. Location: department, division, shift (position). Hierarchy, to establish levels Compensation Supervisor is the person who exercises direct authority over the position and is linked in many ways with the performance achieved. Special features: overtime pay regime, if schedule changes can be requested, if availability must exist for traveling etc.

Job Summary: After the identification section, it is usually followed by a summary of the activities to be performed. Ideally, the summary should consist of a few sentences, accurate and objective. Each responsibility is described in terms of the expected actions and performance is highlighted.

Working conditions: not only the physical conditions of the environment in which the work must be carried out, but also working hours, professional risks, the need to travel and other characteristics.

Approvals: Job descriptions influence decisions about staff. Its accuracy must be verified. This verification can be done by the analyst's supervisor, the department manager where the position is located and the personnel manager.

Job Specifications:

The difference between a job description and a job specification lies in the perspective you take. The description defines what the position is. The specification describes what kind of demands are made on the employee and the skills that the person holding the position must possess.

It is not frequent to separate the description from the specification entirely, it is more practical to combine both aspects.

Performance levels:

Job analysis also allows job performance levels to be set, thereby achieving objective guidelines for employees that they should try to achieve and allowing supervisors an impartial instrument for measuring results.

Job control systems have four characteristics: levels, measurements, correction and feedback.

The performance levels in a position are developed from the information generated by the analysis of the position. When low levels of performance are noted, corrective action is taken. They are taken by the supervisor, although in some cases the manager intervenes. Corrective action serves the employee as feedback. In some cases, it is not the employee's behavior that needs to be corrected, but the job structure itself.

When the specified levels are not adequate, they provide a warning for appropriate personnel to take corrective action.

The human resources information system.

Job descriptions, specifications, and performance levels integrate the minimum data base that personnel departments need and enable decision making.

Organization of the database:

Disposing the information for its entry in magnetic or paper files requires, in many cases, the coordinated work of the personnel department with the computer department. The database is organized with the postulate that positions constitute a basic unit. Increasingly, positions are organized into labor groups. Job groups are sets of similar positions, called typical or typical positions.

Job design

Jobs are the link between individuals and the organization.

Since the role of personnel departments is to assist the organization in obtaining and maintaining a suitable workforce, personnel specialists must possess a deep understanding of job layouts.

The design of a position shows the organizational, environmental and behavioral requirements that have been specified in each case.

Employee productivity, satisfaction with the work being carried out and difficulties in their daily work will provide a guide to how well the job is designed. When a given occupation presents serious deficiencies in its design, phenomena such as high staff turnover, absenteeism, complaints, union protests, and sabotage frequently occur. However, not all positions lead to the same degree of personal satisfaction. Likewise, not in all cases can design be blamed for the negative behavior of people who have a certain function.

Organizational elements of job design:

These elements are related to efficiency. Properly designed positions allow for optimal employee motivation and lead to optimal results.

Specialization is an essential element in job design. When workers simply do a few repetitive tasks, production is usually higher. This is a mechanistic approach, seeking to identify all the tasks in a job, so that these tasks can be arranged in a way that minimizes the time and effort of workers. Once the identification of the tasks has been determined, a limited number of tasks are grouped and a position is integrated. The result is a specialization in certain tasks. Specialized positions lead to short job cycles.

The mechanistic approach highlights the efficiency in the effort, in the time, in the cost of wages, training and learning time that the worker or employee requires. This technique is widely used in assembly operations. It is especially effective when unskilled or inexperienced workers are employed in industrial jobs. This approach has given way to elaborate job designs from the perspective of workflow and work practices.

Work flow. When studying the nature of the product or service to be processed, the ideal flow line can be determined so that the work is carried out efficiently.

Labor practices. They are the procedures adopted for the performance of work. They can originate in the habits of the past, in the class actions, in the guidelines of the person who runs the company, etc.

Elements of the environment in the design of positions:

When designing positions it is necessary to take into account both the skill and the availability of potential employees. Likewise, it is necessary to take into account the social environment.

Skill and availability of employees. Efficiency demands must be balanced with the actual skill and availability of employees that the market can provide.

Demands of the social environment. The degree of acceptance of a job is also influenced by the demands and expectations of the social environment. A skilled designer will give the posts he designs features that make him desirable.

Behavioral Elements in Post Design:

Posts cannot be designed using only elements that improve efficiency. Job designers rely heavily on behavioral research to create a work environment that meets individual needs. People with a desire to meet higher needs need to perform better when placed in highly rated positions in certain areas. These areas are:

Autonomy - responsibility for work. Enjoying autonomy means being responsible for the work performed. It implies the freedom to select your own responses to the environment. This increases individual responsibility and the possibility of self-esteem. Lack of autonomy can lead to poor levels of performance or apathy. Variety - use of different skills and knowledge. Lack of variety can lead to boredom, which in turn leads to mistakes, fatigue, and accidents. Identification with the ability to follow all phases of the work. The problem with some positions is that they do not allow the employee to identify herself with her task. Possibly, the employee experiences little sense of responsibility and may not show any satisfaction with the results he / she gets. Task meaning.This aspect becomes especially relevant when the individual evaluates their contribution to the whole of society. Feedback - information on performance. When feedback is not provided to employees on their performance, there is little reason for their performance to improve.

The right balance between behavioral elements and efficiency.

Increasing behavioral aspects may have an impact on efficiency. In this sense, there is no unambiguous solution. Personnel experts must strive to strike the right balance between behavioral elements and efficiency.

Productivity and specialization:

The belief that more specialization would always correspond to greater productivity is only true to a certain degree. As a position becomes more specialized, productivity also rises, until behavioral elements such as tedium cause progress in productivity to be suspended.

Satisfaction and Specialization:

At first, satisfaction tends to rise with specialization. After a certain point, further specialization leads to a rapid decline in satisfaction.

Non-specialized positions require long periods of adaptation. Frustration decreases as feedback increases, when a certain degree of specialization is added. When specialization exceeds a certain point, however, satisfaction decreases due to lack of autonomy, variety, and identification with the task.

Productivity continues to rise only if the advantages of specialization outweigh the advantages of lack of satisfaction.

Learning and specialization:

When a job is highly specialized, the need to learn decreases. It takes less time, therefore, to learn how to do specialized work.

Rotation and specialization:

Although a specialized job is learned in less time, the levels of satisfaction generally associated with those tasks are lower. In turn, this factor can lead to a high turnover rate. When turnover rates are high, a new post design, with more attention to behavioral aspects, can reduce them.

Techniques for new job design.

The central point in a new job design is often whether a specific job should be more specialized or not. The answer will depend on whether the position is already highly specialized.

Analysis and experimentation are the only means of determining the point at which a given position is located.

Insufficient specialization:

When the personnel specialists consider that the posts are not sufficiently specialized, they proceed to simplify the tasks. The tasks of a position can be divided between two positions. Non-essential tasks are identified and eliminated in order to design positions that include fewer tasks.

The risk of simplification lies in producing boredom, mistakes, and even accidents. This problem will tend to occur more frequently in direct proportion to the degree of academic readiness of the workforce. The higher the level of education, the greater the possibility that boredom appears as a serious manifestation.

Over- specialization: As education spreads to the popular classes and living standards rise, highly specialized routine jobs, such as repetitive, monotonous industrial jobs, become less and less attractive. In order to increase the quality of the work environment, various methods can be used. The most frequently used techniques include:

Rotation of tasks. It consists of assigning changing tasks. The positions do not change in themselves, it is the employees who rotate. Rotation breaks the monotony of highly specialized work, because it requires the use of very different skills. This technique needs to be treated with caution as it does not improve the positions themselves. The relationship between tasks, activities, and goals continues unchanged. It should be put into practice only after other techniques have been considered. Including new tasks. By means of this technique, the number and need of the tasks carried out in a job are increased. Reduces monotony by expanding the job cycle and appeals to a broader range of employee skills. Job enrichment. Based on the addition of new sources of satisfaction,This technique increases the levels of responsibility, autonomy and control. The inclusion of new tasks, which consists of adding new tasks to those already performed. In the process of enriching a position, there is an appeal to increase the possibility of planning and control. The new task inclusion technique can be described as an expansion of the execution level. The use of job enrichment techniques is a resource that can always be appealed to. The most frequent criticisms highlight the lack of responsiveness usually found in union groups, the cost of designing and implementing it, and the limited data currently available to predict its long-term effects. It is also pointed out that this technique is not radical enough.The inclusion of new tasks, which consists of adding new tasks to those already performed. In the process of enriching a position, there is an appeal to increase the possibility of planning and control. The new task inclusion technique can be described as an expansion of the execution level. The use of job enrichment techniques is a resource that can always be appealed to. The most frequent criticisms highlight the lack of responsiveness usually found in union groups, the cost of designing and implementing it, and the limited data currently available to predict its long-term effects. It is also pointed out that this technique is not radical enough.The inclusion of new tasks, which consists of adding new tasks to those already performed. In the process of enriching a position, there is an appeal to increase the possibility of planning and control. The new task inclusion technique can be described as an expansion of the execution level. The use of job enrichment techniques is a resource that can always be appealed to. The most frequent criticisms highlight the lack of responsiveness usually found in union groups, the cost of designing and implementing it, and the limited data currently available to predict its long-term effects. It is also pointed out that this technique is not radical enough.appeal is made to increase the possibility of planning and control. The new task inclusion technique can be described as an expansion of the execution level. The use of job enrichment techniques is a resource that can always be appealed to. The most frequent criticisms highlight the lack of responsiveness usually found in union groups, the cost of designing and implementing it, and the limited data currently available to predict its long-term effects. It is also pointed out that this technique is not radical enough.appeal is made to increase the possibility of planning and control. The new task inclusion technique can be described as an expansion of the execution level. The use of job enrichment techniques is a resource that can always be appealed to. The most frequent criticisms highlight the lack of responsiveness usually found in union groups, the cost of designing and implementing it, and the limited data currently available to predict its long-term effects. It is also pointed out that this technique is not radical enough.The most frequent criticisms highlight the lack of responsiveness usually found in union groups, the cost of designing and implementing it, and the limited data currently available to predict its long-term effects. It is also pointed out that this technique is not radical enough.The most frequent criticisms highlight the lack of responsiveness usually found in union groups, the cost of designing and implementing it, and the limited data currently available to predict its long-term effects. It is also pointed out that this technique is not radical enough.

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