At the last meeting of managers and supervisors, a major topic of discussion pertained to employee confusion regarding their job duties. Some employees refuse to do any work outside their usual routine, exclaiming, "That's not my job!" This is somewhat understandable since the company has no written job descriptions. Job duties have been informal understandings, originating when the company began only a few years ago (when the company had few employees), and no one had the time or inclination to rectify the situation.

You, as the HR manager, have investigated the various methods and costs of doing a job analysis for the company. Any job analysis program includes writing a job description for each job in the company. You have discovered that job descriptions have many uses, including recruitment, interviewing, orientation, training, job evaluation, wage compensation survey, performance appraisal, and outplacement.

Although there are no dangerous jobs in your operation, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requirements state that a company must specify "elements of the job that endanger employee health or are to be considered unsatisfactory or distasteful to the majority of the population." Providing a job description to employees is a good defense against possible legal actions. Since you do not have the personnel or in-house expertise to do the work, you have received proposals from various companies to do the work.

The Proposals below are from the best-qualified and most reasonably priced company that you could locate.

Make ONLY ONE Selection from the following 5 options; the one-time cost will automatically be charged against your department budget.

1. Analyze all jobs, including managerial. (Cost: $20,000)

2. Analyze production/operations jobs. (Cost: $15,000)

3. Categorize production/operations jobs, and do a job analysis for each category.

(Cost: $10,000)

4. Hire a consultant to make a plan for doing job analysis in-house. (Cost: $5,000)

5. Put the project on hold. (Cost: none)

Decision Option

Please write your selected option here. Also explain what outcomes you are expecting from it.

 

Discussion Questions - Please answer the following questions in detail. All questions carry 5 Points

  

1. What risks does an employer face in creating formalized job descriptions?

1. What are the benefits of clear job descriptions?

1. How might job descriptions prove to be detrimental?

1. Which job(s) do you believe most need job descriptions?

1. What choice did you make? Why?