A job description is a list that a person might use for general tasks, or functions, and responsibilities of a position.

It may often include to whom the position reports, specifications such as the qualifications or skills needed by the person in the job, or a salary range. Job descriptions are usually narrative,
[1]

but

some may instead comprise a simple list of competencies; for instance, strategic human resource planningmethodologies may be used to develop a competency architecture for an organization, from which job descriptions are built as a shortlist of competencies.
Contents
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1 Creating a job description

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1.1 Roles and responsibilities 1.2 Goals

2 Limitations 3 See also 4 References

[edit]Creating

a job description

A job description is usually developed by conducting a job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job. The analysis considers the areas of knowledge andskills needed for the job. A job usually includes several roles. The job description might be broadened to form a person specification or may be known as Terms Of Reference [edit]Roles

and responsibilities

A job description may include relationships with other people in the organization: Supervisory level, managerial requirements, and relationships with other colleagues. [edit]Goals A job description need not be limited to explaining the current situation, or work that is currently expected; it may also set out goals for what might be achieved in future. [edit]Limitations Prescriptive job descriptions may be seen as a hindrance in certain circumstances:[2]  Job descriptions may not be suitable for some senior managers as they should have the freedom to take the initiative and find fruitful new directions;

Job descriptions may be too inflexible in a rapidly-changing organisation, for instance in an area subject to rapid technological change;

 

Other changes in job content may lead to the job description being out of date; The process that an organisation uses to create job descriptions may not be optimal.

Job analysis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Job analysis is the process of describing and recording aspects of jobs and specifying the skills and other requirements necessary to perform the job.
Contents
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1 Purpose 2 Methods 3 Systems 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

[edit]Purpose
One of the main purposes of conducting job analysis is to prepare job description and job specification which in turn helps to hire the right quality of workforce into the organization. The general purpose of job analysis is to document the requirements of a job and the work performed. Job and task analysis is performed as a basis for later improvements, including: definition of a job domain; describing a job; developing performance appraisals, selection systems, promotion criteria, training needs assessment, and compensation plans. [1] In the fields of Human Resources (HR) and Industrial Psychology, job analysis is often used to gather information for use in personnel selection, training, classification, and/or compensation. [2] The field of vocational rehabilitation uses job analysis to determine the physical requirements of a job to determine whether an individual who has suffered some diminished capacity is capable of performing the job with, or without, some accommodation.

Professionals developing certification exams use job analysis (often called something slightly different, such as "task analysis") to determine the elements of the domain which must be sampled in order to create a content valid exam. When a job analysis is conducted for the purpose of valuing the job (i.e., determining the appropriate compensation for incumbents) this is called "job evaluation." Job analysis aims to answer questions such as: 1. Why does the job exist? 2. What physical and mental activities does the worker undertake? 3. When is the job to be performed? 4. Where is the job to be performed? 5. How does the worker do the job? 6. What qualifications are needed to perform the job? 7. What are the working conditions (such as levels of temperature, noise, offensive fumes, light) 8. What machinery or equipment is used in the job? 9. What constitutes successful performance?

[edit]Methods
There are several ways to conduct a job analysis, including: interviews with incumbents and supervisors, questionnaires (structured, open-ended, or both), observation, critical incident investigations, and gathering background information such as duty statements or classification specifications. In job analysis conducted by HR professionals, it is common to use more than one of these methods. [3] For example, the job analysts may tour the job site and observe workers performing their jobs. During the tour the analyst may collect materials that directly or indirectly indicate required skills (duty statements, instructions, safety manuals, quality charts, etc). [4] The analyst may then meet with a group of workers or incumbents. And finally, a survey may be administered. In these cases, job analysts typically are industrial/organizational psychologists or Human Resource Officers who have been trained by, and are acting under the supervision of an industrial psychologist. [5] In the context of vocational rehabilitation, the primary method is direct observation and may even include video recordings of incumbents involved in the work. It is common for such job analysts to use scales and other apparatus to collect precise measures of the amount of strength or force required for various tasks. Accurate, factual evidence of the degree of strength required for job performance is needed to justify that a disabled worker is legitimately qualified for disability status. In the United States, billions of dollars are paid to disabled workers by private insurers and the federal government (primarily through the Social Security Administration). Disability determination is, therefore, often a fairly "high-stakes" decision. Job analysts in these contexts typically come from a health occupation such as occupational or physical therapy. Questionnaires are the most common methodology employed by certification test developers, although the content of the questionnaires (often lists of tasks that might be performed) are gathered through interviews or focus groups. Job analysts can at times operate under the supervision of a psychometrician.

[edit]Systems

The O*Net[6] (an online resource which has replaced the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)) lists job requirements for a very large number of jobs and is often considered basic, generic, or initial job analysis data. Data available from O*Net includes physical requirements, educational level, and some mental requirements. Task-based statements describing the work performed are derived from the functional job analysistechnique. O*Net also provides links to salary data at the US national, state and city level for each job. The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a well-known job analysis method. Although it is labeled a questionnaire, the PAQ is actually designed to be completed by a trained job analyst who interviews the subject matter experts (e.g., job incumbents and their supervisors). Functional job analysis (FJA) is a task-based (or work-oriented) technique developed by Sidney Fine and colleagues in 1944. In this method, work elements are scored in terms of relatedness to data (0-6), people (08), and things (0-6), with lower scores representing greater complexity. Incumbents, considered subject matter experts, are relied upon, usually in a panel, to report elements of their work to the job analyst. Using incumbent reports, the analyst uses Fine's terminology to compile statements reflecting the work being performed in terms of data, people, and things. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles uses elements of the FJA in defining jobs. Task inventories use tasks gathered from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)about the tasks performed by the job incumbents. Typically, subject matter experts rate long lists of tasks on scales such as frequency, amount of time spent, or importance. The KSAO's required for a job are then inferred from the most frequently-occurring, important tasks. In a skills-based job analysis, the skills are inferred from tasks and the skills are rated directly in terms of importance of frequency. This often results in data that immediately imply the important KSAO's. However, it can be hard for subject matter experts to rate skills directly. The Fleishman Job Analysis System (F-JAS) represents a generic, skills-based approach. Fleishman factoranalyzed large data sets to discover a common, minimum set of KSAO's across different jobs. His system of 73 specific scales measure three broad areas: Cognitive (Verbal Abilities; Idea Generation & Reasoning Abilities; Quantitative Abilities; Memory; Perceptual Abilities; Spatial Abilities; and Attentiveness), Psychomotor (Fine Manipulative Abilities; Control Movement Abilities; and Reaction Time and Speed Abilities), and Physical (Physical Strength Abilities; Endurance; Flexibility, Balance, and Coordination; Visual Abilities; and Auditory and Speech Abilities). JobScan is a measurement instrument which defines the personality dynamics within a specific type of job. By collecting PDP ProScan Survey results of actual performers and results of Job Dynamics Analysis Surveys completed by knowledgeable people related to a specific job, JobScan provides a suggested ideal job model for that position. Although it does not evaluate the intellect or experience necessary to accomplish a task, it does deal with the personality of the type of work itself.