Job analysis is a fundamental building block for personnel management, performance appraisal, the creation of job descriptions, and most human resources planning processes. Clearly understanding the tasks involved in jobs within a workplace is the first step in building a comprehensive approach to HR planning.

First Steps

Your first step in conducting the job analysis consists of identifying an acquaintance who is currently working in a position, and who is willing to participate as your subject in the job analysis process. Depending on the research approach you select, this may involve interviewing, journaling, completing a survey, or another method of collecting and refining data about the tasks involved in their job. As you will be submitting your tool on September 26thand to allow for feedback from the professor, you should plan for your participant to take part in the exercise to allow you time to complete it and then develop your Job Description for Part 2 which is due October 5th.

Validation

It is important, as part of your validation process, that you solicit feedback from the participant regarding the accuracy of the job description you have created. You will be asking your incumbent to review and comment on a close-to-final draft for the job description you create. You can facilitate this process by making your request in advance of the due date, giving them a head's up, and time to respond.

Research

As part of the process, you will need to research what you believe to be the best method for collecting job analysis information. I would recommend you create a Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) or interview template as these methods tend to be the most widely used in the industry and are well suited for students who may not have access to additional information within a company. You will include a bibliography that outlines where you drew inspiration from in terms of the creation of your tool. You are not to copy and paste the tool.

Job Analysis Tool Requirements

Based on your research, you will build a complete job analysis tool that you will be using to gather all the required information necessary to write a job description. As such, your tool should collect information on the following elements:

• Job title
• Department
• Reporting requirements
• Job grade/level (if applicable)
• Job summary
• Detailed description of relevant duties
  • Frequency of tasks or percentage of time spent on tasks
  • Inclusion of any specific reporting requirements
• Job specifications
  • Education, experience, additional certifications, etc.
  • Skill and/or ability requirements
  • Physical and/or mental demands

It should be noted that it is not sufficient to simply ask the incumbent to summarize their job. A thoughtful approach to designing the questions is required to make sure that you draw out the required information from the incumbent. The goal of the tool is to make the process as easy to follow as possible, providing ease of use for yourself as well as valuing the time of the incumbent.

Marking Scheme

• Brief explanation on how and why the tool style was chosen (5 marks)
  • Should include explanation of how secondary sources were incorporated
• Tool will allow the collection of all relevant information to create a job description (10 marks)
  • The assignment is worth 10% of your overall grade.
  • Due date: September 26th at 11:00pm through Moodle
  • Late assignments will receive a mark of ZERO