When small businesses are expanding or startups are bolstering, they require a bunch of new employees to join the workforce so that the enlargement can happen successfully. However, they often ignore or even neglect to do a job analysis before it happens. When there is a rush to fill out vacant positions to support the expansion of business, employers get the hiring done based on generic job titles and descriptions rather than focusing on specific requirements. In this process, the need to have the skill set to do the particular job roles gets lost and in the end, it impacts the business and its growth on a larger scale.
Now, this is a common mistake that can be avoided at the beginning of the hiring process and mitigated. When businesses end up with inappropriate hiring, they become costlier, more stressful, and overall extremely time-consuming. The only way to completely mitigate this wrongdoing is possible through performing a job analysis. So, let’s check what job analysis is and why it is important.
What is Job Analysis?
Job analysis is a systematic process through which an employer gathers all information that is related to a specific job role or designation. This procedure identifies the activities involved in a specific designation and what are the requirements that are needed to perform those activities. These requirements include an in-depth study of the tasks associated with the job role and the responsibilities along with the specific required skill set. A job analysis is the first official step toward the recruitment process. Doing a job analysis and writing down the details will help you as an employer to be clear about the needs of the company and your expectations from the candidate.
Why is Job Analysis an Important Process?
Usually, the Human Resources department of any company is responsible for the job analysis before the hiring process and it counts as one of the major responsibilities. Let's figure out its importance.
● Planning of the Needed Manpower:
As job analysis determines the requirements of the position in terms of skills, soft skills, qualities, and other attributes, it also becomes a qualitative aspect of manpower planning and needs. Job analysis helps with the division of labor in different departments and designations.
● Recruitment and Selection Process:
To hire the perfect employee, the most suitable one for the job, it is important to know what that most-suited employee would look like. It means what attributes the employee must have to be fit for the job role, and only a job analysis can deliver the expectations.
● Training:
By doing job analysis, the standard level of job performance is also determined which helps in the employee training and development procedure.
● Role Evaluation:
A job analysis provides the basic requirements needed for a role evaluation. Providing a clear standard for a particular job role helps figure out the relative value of the position. This is what can be used as a great measurement point when it comes to employee performance evaluation and appraisal.
● Employment Guidance:
Job analysis is, no doubt, the basic rule based on which a job description is written. Job descriptions then further help the candidates coming for the hiring process for the specific job role understand what skills are required and what tasks they are expected to perform.
How to Do a Job Analysis?
a) The first step of a successful job analysis is to gather all the information about the job designation. This can be done by observing and interviewing the present employees and discussing them with the management.
b) Once you have understood what skills are needed to perform that job role, determine the top-level skills that are required and evaluate the importance of each task along with its competency.
c) Once you are done with the evaluation, it is time to revise the previous job descriptions and standards and update them if required.
To conduct a job analysis you can use different methods like taking interviews, doing observations, conducting surveys, and checking the work logs.
