Advantages and Disadvantages of Job

Analysis

Though job analysis plays a vital role in all other human related activities but every process that has
human interventions also suffers from some limitations. The process of job analysis also has its own
constraints. So, let us discuss the advantages and disadvantages of job analysis process at length.

Advantages of Job Analysis

 Provides First Hand Job-Related Information: The job analysis process provides with valuable
job-related data that helps managers and job analyst the duties and responsibilities of a particular
job, risks and hazards involved in it, skills and abilities required to perform the job and other
related info.
 Helps in Creating Right Job-Employee Fit: This is one of the most crucial management
activities. Filling the right person in a right job vacancy is a test of skills, understanding and
competencies of HR managers. Job Analysis helps them understand what type of employee will
be suitable to deliver a specific job successfully.
 Helps in Establishing Effective Hiring Practices: Who is to be filled where and when? Who to
target and how for a specific job opening? Job analysis process gives answers to all these
questions and helps managers in creating, establishing and maintaining effective hiring practices.
 Guides through Performance Evaluation and Appraisal Processes: Job Analysis helps
managers evaluating the performance of employees by comparing the standard or desired output
with delivered or actual output. On these bases, they appraise their performances. The process
helps in deciding whom to promote and when. It also guides managers in understanding the skill
gaps so that right person can be fit at that particular place in order to get desired output.
 Helps in Analyzing Training & Development Needs: The process of job analysis gives answer
to following questions:
 Who to impart training
 When to impart training
 What should be the content of training
  What should be the type of training: behavioral or technical
 Who will conduct training
 Helps in Deciding Compensation Package for a Specific Job: A genuine and unbiased
process of job analysis helps managers in determining the appropriate compensation package
and benefits and allowances for a particular job. This is done on the basis of responsibilities and
hazards involved in a job.

Disadvantages of Job Analysis

 Time Consuming: The biggest disadvantage of Job Analysis process is that it is very time
consuming. It is a major limitation especially when jobs change frequently.
 Involves Personal Biasness: If the observer or job analyst is an employee of the same
organization, the process may involve his or her personal likes and dislikes. This is a major
hindrance in collecting genuine and accurate data.
 Source of Data is Extremely Small: Because of small sample size, the source of collecting data
is extremely small. Therefore, information collected from few individuals needs to be
standardized.
 Involves Lots of Human Efforts: The process involves lots of human efforts. As every job
carries different information and there is no set pattern, customized information is to be collected
for different jobs. The process needs to be conducted separately for collecting and recording job-
related data.
 Job Analyst May Not Possess Appropriate Skills: If job analyst is not aware of the objective of
job analysis process or does not possess appropriate skills to conduct the process, it is a sheer
wastage of company’s resources. He or she needs to be trained in order to get authentic data.
 Mental Abilities Can not be Directly Observed: Last but not the least, mental abilities such as
intellect, emotional characteristics, knowledge, aptitude, psychic and endurance are intangible
things that can not be observed or measured directly. People act differently in different situations.
Therefore, general standards can not be set for mental abilities.

Job Analysis Tools

Job Analysis supports all other management activities including recruitment and selection, training and
development need analysis, performance analysis and appraisal, job evaluation, job rotation, enrichment
and enlargement, a right job-individual fit creation and regulation of entry and exit of talent in an
organization. The process is the basis of all these important management activities, therefore, requires
solid ground preparation. A properly performed job analysis is adequate for laying strong organization
foundation.

There are various tools and techniques such as O*Net model, PAQ model, FJA model, F-JAS model and
competency model that help HR managers to develop genuine job description and job specification data.
Though not very new but these specialized tools and techniques are used by only a few of very high
profile organizations. Not very common in use but once understood, these systematic approaches prove
to be extremely useful for measuring the worth of any job in an organization.

Job Analysis Tools

O*Net Model: The beauty of this model is that it helps managers or job analysts in listing job-
related data for a very large number of jobs simultaneously. It helps in collecting and recording
basic and initial data including educational requirements, physical requirements and mental and
emotional requirements to some extent. It also links the level of compensation and benefits, perks
and advantages to be offered to a prospective candidate for a specific job.

FJA Model: FJA stands for Functional Job Analysis and helps in collecting and recording job-
related data to a deeper extent. It is used to develop task-related statements. Developed by
Sidney Fine and his colleagues, the technique helps in determining the complexity of duties and
responsibilities involved in a specific job. This work-oriented technique works on the basis of
relatedness of job-data where complexity of work is determined on a scale of various scores
given to a particular job. The lower scores represent greater difficulty.

PAQ Model: PAQ represents Position Analysis Questionnaire. This well-known and commonly
used technique is used to analyze a job by getting the questionnaires filled by job incumbents and
their superiors. Designed by a trained and experienced job analyst, the process involves
interviewing the subject matter experts and employees and evaluating the questionnaires on
those bases.

F-JAS Model: Representing Fleishman Job Analysis System, it is a basic and generic approach
to discover common elements in different jobs including verbal abilities, reasoning abilities, idea
generation, quantitative abilities, attentiveness, spatial abilities, visual and other sensory abilities,
manipulative abilities, reaction time, speed analysis, flexibility, emotional characteristics, physical
strength, perceptual abilities, communication skills, memory, endurance, balance, coordination
and movement control abilities.
 Competency Model: This model talks about the competencies of employees in terms of
knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, expertise and performance. It also helps in understanding
what a prospective candidate requires at the time of entry in an organization at a particular
designation in a given work environment and schedule. The model also includes some basic
elements such as qualifications, experience, education, training, certifications, licenses, legal
requirements and willingness of a candidate.

Job Scan: This technique defines the personality dynamics and suggests an ideal job model.
However, it does not discuss the individual competencies such as intellect, experience or physical
and emotional characteristics of an individual required to perform a specific job.

Different tools can be used in different situation. Selection of an ideal job analysis tool depends upon job
analysis needs and objectives and amount of time and resources.

Problems with Job Analysis

No process can be entirely accurate and fully serves the purpose. Job analysis is no exception to it. The
process involves a variety of methods, tools, plans and a lot of human effort. And where ‘people’ are
involved, nothing can be 100 percent accurate. However, they may be appropriate considering various
factors including organizational requirements, time, effort and financial resources. Since the entire job
analysis processes, methods and tools are designed by humans only, they tend to have practical issues
associated with them. Human brain suffers with some limitations, therefore, everything created, designed
or developed by humans too have some or other constraints.

Coming back to the subject, even the process of job analysis has lot of practical problems associated with
it. Though the process can be effective, appropriate, practical, efficient and focused but it can be costly,
time consuming and disruptive for employees at the same time. It is because there are some typical
problems that are encountered by a job analyst while carrying out the process. Let’s discuss them and
understand how the process of job analysis can be made more effective by treating them carefully.

Problems with Job Analysis

  Lack of Management Support: The biggest problem arises when a job analyst does not get
proper support from the management. The top management needs to communicate it to the
middle level managers and employees to enhance the output or productivity of the process. In
case of improper communication, employees may take it in a wrong sense and start looking out
for other available options. They may have a notion that this is being carried out to fire them or
take any action against them. In order to avoid such circumstances, top management must
effectively communicate the right message to their incumbents.
 Lack of Co-operation from Employees: If we talk about collecting authentic and accurate job-
data, it is almost impossible to get real and genuine data without the support of employees. If they
are not ready to co-operate, it is a sheer wastage of time, money and human effort to conduct job
analysis process. The need is to take the workers in confidence and communicating that it is
being done to solve their problems only.
 Inability to Identify the Need of Job Analysis: If the objectives and needs of job analysis
process are not properly identified, the whole exercise of investigation and carrying out research
is futile. Managers must decide in advance why this process is being carried out, what its
objectives are and what is to be done with the collected and recorded data.
 Biasness of Job Analyst: A balanced and unbiased approach is a necessity while carrying out
the process of job analysis. To get real and genuine data, a job analyst must be impartial in his or
her approach. If it can’t be avoided, it is better to outsource the process or hire a professional job
analyst.
 Using Single Data Source: A job analyst needs to consider more than one sources of data in
order to collect true information. Collecting data from a single source may result in inaccuracy and
it therefore, defeats the whole purpose of conducting the job analysis process.

However, this is not the end. There may be many other problems involved in a job analysis process such
as insufficient time and resources, distortion from incumbent, lack of proper communication, improper
questionnaires and other forms, absence of verification and review of job analysis process and lack of
reward or recognition for providing genuine and quality information.
ole of Job Analysis in Establishing
Effective Hiring Practices
A major change has been observed in the world of work since 1980s. The era of structured jobs, packed
or fixed work schedules, male-dominated working culture and no family intruding started diminishing
gradually.

Companies and employees around the world faced dramatic effects of modernization, flexibility in work
schedules, job sharing, work from home options and employee-supportive policies, etc. All thanks to the
then managers who analyzed the importance of fitting an individual at a job he or she excelled at to
increase the company turnover, employee satisfaction and achieve a professional-personal life balance.
And all this was possible by analyzing the worth of a specific job and collecting genuine job-related data.

A proper job analysis, hence, may prove to be a turning point for an organization. It not only
creates the right job-candidate fit but also enhance the success of management practices, which in turn,
lays the foundation for a strong organization.

A step-by-step process of discovering the different aspects of a job results in a proper regulation of
incoming and outgoing of the talent or human resource. Job Analysis thus, started gaining popularity in
early 1990s in order to create competitive advantage and has been considered as the basis for other
HRM practices since then.

The data collected during the process helps managers in identifying the risks and challenges involved in a
specific job and kind of person suitable for delivering the desired duties perfectly. An employer’s
recruitment and selection process purely depends on job analysis. Until the recruiting managers do not
know about job to be performed, expectations from prospective candidate and the right individual profile
required for performing a specific job, it is almost impossible to source or target talent or human resource
in order to fill the vacancy.

Job analysis process helps in establishing effective hiring practices and guides managers in
identifying the selection criteria required to deliver the expected output. Let’s discuss how.
How to Establish Effective Hiring Strategies ?
 Identifying KRAs: Job Analysis process helps in identifying Key Result Areas/Key
Responsibilities Areas (KRAs) such as knowledge, technical, communication and personal skills,
mental, aptitude, physical and emotional abilities to perform a particular task.

Different jobs have different requirements. Therefore, the process needs to be performed every
time when there is a requirement to fill the job opening. This is a basis for developing
questionnaires, devising interview questions and setting selection test papers. The information in
the form of scores or grades can then be used for hiring process.

 Setting Selection Standards: Job Analysis also helps managers in setting certain standards for
selection process in terms of educational qualifications, work experience, expertise, special skill
sets, unusual sensory abilities, specific career track, certifications and licenses and other legal
requirements. This helps in identifying the basic requirements that make a candidate eligible for a
particular post.
 Identifying KSAs: The process also helps managers in determining Key Success Areas or Key
Performance Areas. These are performance measurement tools that are used by companies
around the world to measure those aspects that determine success of a job such as
organizational goals, individual goals and the actions required to achieve these goals. This is
about comparing the actual results delivered by an individual with pre-set success factors and
analyzing the performance. Once through, the whole process may require few changes if
achieved results are around the set standards. They may require a complete change if there is a
huge gap between the expected and delivered results.

Therefore, a thorough and unbiased job analysis process can help organizations source right candidates,
hire the most suitable individual and set appropriate selection standards.

ob Analysis and Strategic HRM

Human Resource Management is the most critical function of any organization as it deals with the most
complicated problems - the people problems, especially when the organizations are operating in highly
competitive and uncertain environments. Strategic HRM lays emphasis on developing and implementing
policies and strategies in order to get the desired output. Therefore, job analysis and strategic HRM are
inter-related. In fact, we can say, establishing a person-job-environment fit is the basic function of
SHRM.

Person-Job-Environment Fit
Job analysis demonstrates who can fit at a particular place and why. The process promotes the alignment
of other HR processes and functions. Additionally, it supports the organizational strategy to deal with
talent crisis and market competition. The process of job analysis involves collecting job-related
information and assembling it together to design a corporate strategy that helps HR managers in
determining whom to target and how to fill a particular job vacancy.

It also creates linkages between other HR verticals including recruitment and selection, training needs
analysis, performance evaluation and appraisal, entry and exit of talent and many more. Strategic Human
Resource Management endeavors to connect all these HR functions with organizational goals, work
quality, organizational culture, annual turnover and profit and tapping resources for future organizational
needs.

SHRM is basically concerned with the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of an organization.
The identification of organization’s competencies and flaws is extremely crucial for its success. It provides
a clear vision to managers to source, recruit and retain people, develop their skills and competency,
address their issues and concerns, motivate people to produce desired output and ensure future
planning.

Inter-relationship between Job Analysis and SHRM

Job Analysis, being an integral part of strategic planning, provides a detailed analysis of tasks and
responsibilities, risks and hazards, functions and duties, tools and equipments to be used and the
expected output. The main objective of conducting the process is to understand who to fit at a particular
place to get the work done. Whereas, the fundamental aim of Strategic Human Resource Management is
to determine how to exploit human capital to achieve organizational goals.

Job Analysis deals in determining the training needs analysis of employees to get the desired output
whereas SHRM decides upon the training content, when and how to train the employees to increase the
output to achieve higher business profits. To successfully plan the future strategies of a company, the
process of job analysis serves as the basis. If information collected during the process is genuine,
managers can make effective strategies and policies in advance and can remain pro-active to deal with
unforeseen situations.

The main aim of conducting job analysis process is to determine the things affecting human behaviour in
an organization. The idea is to find out if they are competent enough to perform the assigned job
successfully or they need to be placed somewhere else. Strategic Human Resource Management is all
about making strategies and policies to place right person at the right place and at the right time to get the
maximum out of an employee. In other way, it is concerned about optimal utilization of human resources.