When employers want to know what tasks each role undertakes, conducting job analyses can provide the best insight. The information gained can be used to find the right candidates for a vacant role, provide career paths and ensure adequate health and safety measures are in place.
What is a Job Analysis?
A job analysis is used to identify the skills, qualifications, expertise and knowledge required to perform a job. The analysis may help determine how one role relates to other roles in the organisation, the right conditions and equipment needed to complete the job. A job analysis never analyses a person doing the job, it’s only the details of the role.
A job analysis is also called a duties analysis or work role analysis. Other similar sounding terms such as job evaluation is something different. A job evaluation is the comparison of multiple jobs within the organisation and may be completed to decide on pay rates for each role.
Why Conduct a Job Analysis?
Organisations undertake a job analysis for a variety of reasons. It can help reduce staff costs through a lower turnover rate, identify areas for additional training, improve relationships between management and staff, and help to keep staff safe.
Recruitment and Career Development
The information can help with recruitment and selecting the right person for the role. Following a job analysis, the human resources team will know more about the role and what attributes they need to look for in a candidate. The cost of making a hiring mistake far outweighs the cost of a job analysis.
Career development is important for most workers so medium and large organisations should provide advancement opportunities to help retain staff. By analysing related job roles, management can group jobs by their duties, tasks or related work. This assists with identifying career paths and provides guidance on how employees can move through the ranks of the organisation.
When human resources have a good understanding of a role after an analysis, they are better equipped to do performance management. Knowing the requirements of the role helps with setting key performance indicators and benchmarking.
Staff and Training Costs
Staff costs are the largest expense for most organisations so it’s important to undertake workforce planning. Forecasting and planning the workforce ensures a sufficient supply and demand so the organisation doesn’t have too many or not enough workers to fill the demand.
Training and development is another large cost to the organisation. It’s important that money is spent on training that will benefit staff in their current role and possible future roles as part of their career development.
A job analysis highlights the skills and experience required to complete the role, which allows it to be classified as entry-level, intermediate or senior. The complexity of the work and its classification of the role can ensure staff receive the correct level of training and opportunities.
Workers’ Health and Safety
Without understanding all the tasks a role undertakes, it’s difficult to know the possible health, safety and security risks. A job analysis can identify the environmental demands of a role. Following a job analysis, the right PPE can be identified, the necessary equipment, and safety measures can be put in place. A sufficient worker’s compensation policy can also be arranged.
Job analyses assist an organisation undertaking a thorough risk management review to identify and deal with potential risks. The information gained through a job analysis can help shape relations between employees and management and between the union/s and the organisation.
How to Conduct a Job Analysis
There are a few different methods for completing a job analysis. Involving a current employee doing the role is helpful, but it’s important to remember to analyse the job role, not the person in the job. Whichever method is chosen, the analysis should be repeated every few years to keep up with changes to the role.
Interview method - Conducting an interview with the employee in the role to understand the tasks they undertake. This is a good method to use for office employees.
Observation method - For employees who have physical or field roles such as a warehouse worker or building project manager, it’s helpful to observe them on the job to gain an understanding of what the role entails.
Questionnaire - A set of written questions about the job which an employee answers can also provide valuable insight at a lower cost.
Expert Assistance Conducting a Job Analysis
An expert can assist with the assessing the physical, cognitive and environmental demands of work tasks that form a specific role. This not only ensures your organisation hires the right person for the job, but can actually lead to sustained success when it comes to recruitment. Our experts at Altius Group can provide a Job Task Analysis for your organisation. To enquire, please contact Altius Group or call 1800 258 487.