Legal reasons
Probably one of the most compelling reasons to perform job analyses is to avoid being sued. As our society ostensibly tends to become more litigious, it is important to exercise every addi- tional precaution to avoid costly lawsuits. Although correctly performing a job analysis is not free and does cost not only money but employee productivity time, there is an inherent associated opportunity cost as well. However, when weighted against potential lawsuits that can be in the millions, doing a job analysis is often the least costly option.
Specifically, doing a job analysis insulates against lawsuits stemming from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act that covers federal contractors and grant recipients. The ADA is more far-reaching, imposing compliance by all employers. In essence, it protects disabled individuals (i.e. those who have a physical or mental impair- ment that substantially limits one or more major life activities such as walking). Employers cannot discriminate against other- wise qualified disabled applicants who can fulfill the “essential functions” of the position. “Essential functions” are those parts of the job that require more time and generally have greater importance, perhaps by having great consequences of errors, while being parts of the position that cannot easily be tasked to someone else. Let us take the example of a “barback,” or person whose main job is to ensure the bar is adequately stocked. This individual predominantly carries heavy cases of alcohol from the back of the bar/restaurant to the bartending area and would have the essential function of carrying heavy items. To reassign this part of a barback’s job would be to basically remove his/her position, thus it would be deemed an essential function.
To deal with otherwise qualified disabled individuals, employers must make “reasonable accommodations” (e.g. restructuring the job or the workplace) for the nonessential functions, unless making such accommodations would present “undue economic hardship” on the organization. The logical question is: “What constitutes ‘undue economic hardship?’” and such a question is not answerable as it is too subjective, forcing the courts to decide on an individual basis.
The question that may easily be answered is: “What consti- tutes an essential function of a job?” This question is one of the main functions in conducting a job analysis. The job descrip- tion section basically lists out the major work duties, or essen- tial functions, in order of important or frequency and thus gives a preemptory legal rationale as to why someone was or
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was not hired on the basis of whether that individual could accomplish the essential functions of the position.
Non-legal reasons
The root of all things H.R.
Beyond the avoidance reason to conduct a job analysis, there are many uses for the results of a job analysis and hence the name for this chapter: Job Analysis: The Basis for All Things H.R.
For example, conducting job analyses let an organization know what jobs comprise the organization and what associ- ated skills are demanded for those jobs. Finding skill deficien- cies suggests direction for workforce planning. Once human resource needs are determined, naturally the recruitment of qualified talent and the selection of such individuals ensues.
Job analyses color both important organizational processes of recruitment and selection. Recruitment will be based on open jobs and human attributes needed to fulfill those positions.
Selection completely depends on the job description and the job qualifications as those determine selection methods (i.e.
interviewing, testing, assessment centers). To give a more spe- cific example, consider a job interview for a tour guide. Asking the job applicant if she can stand for prolonged periods of time is a legally defensible question as it is defined in the job description as a major work duty. Boiled down to its barest elements, testing for or selecting on any criteria is permissible, as long as job-relevancy may be demonstrated, and it is not in violation of an employment law. Believe it or not, even asking if a candidate is of a particular religion is legal if, for example, the person was applying to be a priest in a Catholic church.
A good rule of thumb to keep in mind during any selection activities is to remember the term “job-relevant.” Whenever an organization uses a means of selection that can directly be traced back to something on the job analysis, be it a duty or KSA, then the selection procedure may better be deemed “content valid.”
Thus, the job analysis governs the recruitment and selection process, which will be elaborated on in the next chapter.
Job analysis also plays an important role in placement.
Sometimes an organization, such as a new hotel may have a need to hire a great number of employees quickly. Perhaps there will be mass hiring and then, on the basis of the job analysis that pinpoints what KSAs are necessary for each position, new employees may be assigned.
Compensation systems are heavily influenced by the results of the job analyses. Specifically, job classification requires using
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job descriptions resulting from a job analysis to decide which jobs should be slotted into which job grades (range of like jobs).
The jobs become relatively easy to group when the job descrip- tions are side by side. Beyond classification, the job evaluation, or determining pay levels and differentials among jobs within one organization, is also highly dependent upon the job analy- sis. Although determining pay during the job evaluation process is never easy and different results come about if different meth- ods are utilized, nonetheless using the job analysis outcomes does ease this procedure. As well, it increases the likelihood of jobs that require more critical duties and more extensive or rare KSAs, to be paid more than those positions requiring less or fewer.
Often tied to compensation are performance appraisals, which also are directly linked to job analyses. Organizations are able to target desired employee behavior on the basis of what is rewarded. The performance outcomes are determined to a large degree on the job analysis’s resulting job description and how well the job incumbent met those duties. There is likely to be a greater perception of procedural justice (Cropanzano &
Folger, 1989) if the employee is rewarded based on how well he or she carried out the major work duties delineated in the job description. This becomes another example of content validity with rewards directly tied to the fundamentals of the job. Put another way, if a job analysis were not done, there would be no systematically written job description and thus no solid basis on what behavior to reward. Given the scenario, it would be easy to imagine employees crying “foul” about who was rewarded and to what extent, even in cases when everyone was given the exact same pay. Thus, again, job analyses are shown to be the root of important fundamental HR functions.
For success in the marketplace, it is critical to keep top-notch talent. One way to better ensure this is to provide frequent and relevant opportunities for employees to keep their skills finely tuned and to increase their knowledge bases. The initial step in planning employee training is to first conduct a job analysis to reveal what KSAs are relevant to current positions. This is nat- urally followed by a needs analysis that assesses KSA deficits.
Also based on the job analysis is the whole concept of employee development, which focuses more on career planning. When employees are looking to make either upward (promotions) or lateral moves within the company, one way for them to bet- ter ensure their success is to first examine the job description and job qualification for their target job. If they believe they can handle the major work duties and they think they either have or can acquire the necessary minimal KSAs, then the job becomes a natural fit for them. In the case of KSA deficiencies
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for a coveted position, the employee finds him/herself directed toward which KSAs need sharpening or acquiring. Likewise, from the employer’s perspective, open jobs may be filled with internal candidates by examining the job description and job qualifications, both outgrowths of the job analysis. Many times qualified and interested individuals are already on staff, a situ- ation that cuts down on time mandated when hiring externally.
Namely, external candidates inherently cost not only time from the recruitment phase to when the employees are oriented and socialized to the time they reach productivity, but also elimi- nates the expense of advertising and selection.
In the same vein, succession planning is aided by the job analysis. Analysis of which employees move into which posi- tions after attrition or promotion is succession planning. This is often done with key positions in the upper echelon of man- agement. Without time spent developing succession plans, many organizations would be sunk. Imagine what would hap- pen were a large hotel chain CEO to be killed in a car accident.
Unless one of his/her underlings were groomed to fill those shoes, much knowledge, finesse, skills, etc. would go unde- veloped and the hotel may stumble a bit in recovery. Planning saves scurrying about to make do and can be more easily done with solidly performed job analyses.
Workforce analysis involves a structural examination of the organization to forecast which jobs need to be filled, who is filling them, etc. One easy way to do this is via technology.
In regards to the varied human resources tasks that have been made facile with a computer program, there is a whole HR sub- field termed Human Resources Information Systems or, more commonly, HRIS. Such systems retain vast quantities of infor- mation about employees or jobs and enable data to be stored, queries to be run, reports to be generated, and regulatory man- dated statistics to be compiled for easy reporting. Again, all of these HR functions are facilitated by conducting job analyses.
Job migration
Another reason to conduct job analyses is that jobs tend to migrate over time. Some are done away with while others are added. Jobs also morph to take on the characteristics of the incumbent. For example, let us say a busser (formerly bus boy) at a restaurant is detail-oriented and has the skill for organizing. By virtue of his abilities, his job during slow bussing times is expanded to include inventory control. After he vacates the position, the manager now searches for a busser who can also handle inventory control tasks.
Thus the person has changed the job duties.
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Sometimes positions become altered because of technologi- cal improvements. Years ago cashiers in a souvenir shop, for example, would have to ring up items by tapping the numeri- cal keys on the cash register. Now, they tend to scan bar codes linked to the correct price to trigger whether the good is tax- able and concurrently subtract the good from inventory all the while adding one quantity of it to the outgoing inventory order.
In some cases, as in fast food restaurants, cashiers simply push a button on the cash register that says “small fry” and the price is rung. Such cash registers also count out and dispense the cor- rect amount of change directly to the customer, thus eliminating the cognitive demand of performing math from the required KSAs for the cashier position. Following that example, fewer KSAs are required. At other times, automation demands more or different KSAs as in the example of small hotel front desk clerk who must feel comfortable using computers and chang- ing toner in the copy machine, fixing the FAX machine, etc.
Regardless of the reason jobs change over time, the impor- tant thing to keep in mind is that job analyses should be done regularly to keep job descriptions and job qualifications cur- rent. With so much riding on the job analysis outcomes, keep- ing on top of this HR tool is a wise means of not only staving off lawsuits, but also ensuring that all of the other HR func- tions that rest on job analyses run more smoothly.