Chapter 4:
Job Analysis and
Competency
Modelling
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Learning Objectives
• Illustrate how job analysis supports successful
recruitment and selection activities.
• Differentiate between various job analysis methods and
techniques.
• Explain the role of competencies in recruitment &
selection.
• Contrast competency- based models and those based
on job analysis.
• Explain the common elements in contemporary job
description formats.
• Contribute to the development of a job description
based on job analysis or other data sources.
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What Is Work and Job Analysis?
• Work analysis
• any systematic gathering, documenting, and
analyzing of information about the content of work
performed
• Job analysis
• the process of collecting information about jobs
“by any method for any purpose”
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What Is Job Analysis?
• A systematic process of collecting information about
jobs
• The data from a job analysis includes:
– a description of the context and principle duties of
the job
– working conditions
– information about the knowledge, skills, abilities
and other attributes required for performance
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What Is Job Analysis?
Job analysis key considerations:
• Does not refer to a single methodology but rather to
a range of techniques
• A formal, structured process carried out under a set
of guidelines established in advance
• Breaks down a job into parts, rather than looking at
the job as a whole
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Job Analysis Criteria
•
•
•
The goal of job analysis should always be the
description of observable work behaviours and
analysis of their products.
The results of job analysis should describe
the work behaviour independent of the
personal characteristics of employees who
perform the job.
Job analysis must be verifiable and replicable.
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Why Is Job Analysis Important?
• Job analysis is the starting point for a defensible
selection system
• Job analysis is something that must be done to
defend challenged employment practices.
• Conducting a job analysis is the first line of defence
in protecting the organization if its selection
procedures are challenged in court.
• A job analysis provides objective evidence of the
skills and abilities required for effective performance
in the job, which can then be used to provide
evidence of the relevance of the selection
procedures measuring those abilities.
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The Legal Defensibility of a Job
Analysis
A “good” job analysis is one that:
• Is performed according to a set of formal procedures
• Is well documented
• Includes data collected from several up-to-date
sources (this suggests using several different methods)
• Has a sufficient number of people interviewed to
accurately capture the job information and the sample
should also represent the full diversity of job incumbents
• Has trained job analysts to ensure objective information
is collected
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Job Analysis Terminology
• Job description
• a written description of what job occupants are
required to do, how they are supposed to do it,
and the rationale for any required job procedures
• Job specification
• the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes
or competencies that are needed by a job
incumbent to perform well on the job
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Job Evaluation
• Job evaluation
• the job specification may include the
compensable factors that are used in performing
a job evaluation, such as analytical abilities,
physical exertion, accountability for budgets
• job evaluation is a specific application of job
analysis to determine a job’s value to the
organization in order to establish the pay range
for the job
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Job Analysis Terminology
• Job
• a collection of positions that are similar in their
significant duties (consists of a group of tasks and
may be held by one or more people)
• Position
• a collection of duties assigned to individuals in an
organization at a given time
• Job family
• a set of different, but related, jobs that rely on the
same set of KSAOs
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Comparison of Job, Position, and Job
Family
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Overview of Job Analysis Process
and Outcomes
Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Ltd.
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Job Analysis Data Sources
• Supervisors
• Employees
• Job Analysts
• Existing Documentation
– National Occupational Classification System:
systematically describes occupations in the
Canadian labour market based on extensive
occupational research
– Job Descriptions; Training manuals
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Work Oriented Vs. WorkerOriented Job Analysis
• Work-oriented job analysis: techniques that
emphasize work outcomes and descriptions of tasks
performed to accomplish those outcomes
• Worker-oriented job analysis: techniques that
emphasize general aspects of jobs; describes
perceptual, interpersonal, sensory, cognitive, and
physical activities
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Survey of Work-Oriented Job
Analysis Methods
• Interviews
• Direct Observation
• Self-Monitoring Data
• Structured job analysis questionnaires & inventories
• Critical Incidents
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Critical Incident Technique
• Critical incidents are examples of effective and
ineffective work behaviours that are related to
superior or inferior performance
• Generates behaviourally focused descriptions of
work activities
• Job experts gather, edit and review critical incidents
which are then sorted into themes that are believed
to characterize a complete set incidents related to
a position
• Very useful in creating interview scoring guides
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Figure 4.4
Critical Incident Report Form
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Critical Incident Technique
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Worker-Oriented Job Analysis
Methods
• Once again, worker-oriented job analysis are
techniques that emphasize general aspects of jobs.
Methods include:
• Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): structured
job analysis questionnaire that focuses on the
general behaviours that make up a job.
• Worker trait inventories: Methods used to infer
employee specifications from job analysis data:
– Does not provide information on the job as a
whole or any tasks associated with it, but only on
certain requirements needed to carry out the job
– Example: Fleishman Job Analysis Survey (F-JAS)
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Worker-Oriented Job Analysis
Methods
Sample of
PAQ
Items
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Worker-Oriented Job Analysis
Methods
The F-JAS Ability
Scale for Oral
Comprehension
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Activity: Advantages & Disadvantages
of Job Analysis Methods
• One your own this week, using your textbook (page
142-143), take a moment to review the advantages
and disadvantages for various job analysis methods
(sources). Pay particular attention to the following
methods:
1. Existing documentation
2. Structured Interview
3. Direct observation
4. Critical Incident technique
5. Position Analysis Questionnaire
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The Role of Competencies in
Recruitment and Selection
• Changing workplaces due to globalization, rapid
technological advances, workforce demographics have
led to ever evolving worker requirements
• Workers now need to apply a wider range of skills to an
ever changing series of tasks
• Evolution towards rapidly changing jobs and need for
flexibility of workers has led to competency based
analysis
• No agreed upon method for developing competency
models
• Competency models lack the validity and legal
defensibility of job analysis methods
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The Role of Competencies in
Recruitment and Selection
• Competencies: groups of related behaviours that
are needed for successful job performance in an
organization; measurable attributes that distinguish
outstanding performers from others.
• Example competencies for a nurse practitioner
working in an assisted living facility:
• Client focus: The willingness and ability to give
priority to clients, delivering high quality care and
services that meet their needs.
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Competency Modelling
• Competency model: a collection of competencies that are
relevant to performance in a particular job, job family, or
functional area
• Usually developed as a three-tiered competency framework
based on an organization’s strategy and vision including:
– Core competencies: characteristics that every member of an
organization, regardless of position, function, job, or level of
responsibility within the organization, is expected to possess.
– Functional competencies: characteristics shared by different
positions within an organization. Only those members of an
organization in these positions are expected to possess these
competencies.
– Job-specific competencies: characteristics that apply only to
specific positions within the organization. Only those people in
the position are expected to possess these competencies.
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Competency Modelling
• Competency dictionary: a listing of all the
competencies required by an organization to
achieve its mandate, along with the proficiency
level required to perform successfully in different
functional groups or positions
• Proficiency level: the level at which a competency
must be performed to ensure success in a given
functional group or position
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Competency Dictionary
The RCMP
Competency
Dictionary
Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd.
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Competency Modelling
HRPA Competency proficiency levels by designation
Retrieved from
https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/Designations/HRPA_Professional_Comp
etency_Framework_Final-2016.pdf
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Competencies or Job Analysis?
• Job analysis was rated as superior to competencies
on most evaluation criteria.
• Job analysis methods were assessed as more
rigorous and reliable.
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Competencies or Job Analysis?
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Job Descriptions & Job
Specifications
• One of the basic products of a job analysis is a job
description which is a written description of what job
occupants are required to do, how they are
supposed to do it, and the rationale for any required
job procedures.
• Another product of a job analysis is a job
specification which states the KSAOs that are
required to perform the job successfully – usually
included as a section at the end of a job description
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Job Descriptions
Job Identification Section
Job Summary Statement
Essential Functions
Job Specifications
Competencies (Optional)
Working Conditions (Optional)
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Job Description: Example
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Job Description: Example
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Task Statements
• After collecting job analysis data, the job analyst needs to identify
critical task statements
• A task statement is a discrete sentence containing one action verb
that concisely describes a single observable activity performed by
the job incumbent. They contain four elements:
1. Action verb – describes the actions performed;
2. Object of the verb – person, data, or things affected by the
action;
3. Rationale or observable work product – the intended outcome
4. Materials, equipment, procedures used to carry out the action;
5. The guidelines or direction under which the action is taken.
• Example for a nurse:
• Administers medications to residents of the assisted living facility
using approved dosages in accordance with physician’s
instructions.
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Characteristics of Well Written Task
Statements
• One action and one object
• The statement should make sense by itself
• All statements should be written in the same tense
• Statements should include the tools and equipment
used to complete the task
Remember: Task statements are not job specifications!
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Characteristics of Well Written Task
Statements
Poorly Written Task Statements Well Written Task Statements
Sends purchase requests
Sends purchase requests to
purchasing department using
campus mail.
Drives
Drives company vehicle to
make food deliveries to
customers in the city of
Oshawa.
Posts jobs
Posts all job vacancies to the
company website using the
applicant tracking system.
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What is wrong with these Task
Statements?
• Build and maintain relationships
• Takes orders
• Problem solving abilities
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Task Statements
• The number of task statements needed to describe
a job will vary with the complexity of the job
• The goal is to describe all of the essential functions of
the job to give a clear understanding of its nature
and level of complexity
• All tasks are not equal - Some are performed more
frequently; Some are more important; Some require
a degree of difficulty to perform
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Task Statements and KSAOs
• Once task statements are identified for a job,
the job analysts must identify the KSAOs
needed to perform each task.
• KSAO’s are also know as job specifications.
• What knowledge, skill, ability or other
attribute is needed in order to perform the
task?
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Task Statements and KSAOs
Task Statement:
Administers medications to residents of the assisted living
facility using approved dosages in accordance with
physician’s instructions.
KSAO example:
•
Knowledge: Two years experience administering
medication to residents.
•
Other: caring – demonstrates compassion and
kindness to residents.
A specific knowledge, skill, ability or other attribute is not
required for each task statement, however, there are as
many KSAO’s for each statement as the job analyst can
identify.
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Chapter Summary
• It is important to understand work and job analysis
and its relevance to employee recruitment and
selection.
• There are several job analysis methods. One of the
most complete is to categorize a technique as either
work oriented or worker oriented. There is no right
method to use. It depends on the purpose for which
you are doing the job analysis: selection, job
evaluation, compensation, pay equity, etc.
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Chapter Summary
• Work-oriented job analysis methods include
structured job analysis interviews, direct observation,
rating task statements and KSAOs, structured job
analysis questionnaires and inventories, functional
job analysis, and critical incident technique (CIT)
• Worker-oriented methods include Position Analysis
Questionnaire (PAQ), worker traits inventories,
Personality Oriented Job Analysis (POJA), Fleishman
Job Analysis Survey (F-JAS)
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Chapter Summary
• Rapidly changing jobs and organizations that
demand flexibility of their workers has led some HR
practitioners to search for alternatives to traditional
job analysis techniques such as competency-based
models.
• Organizations that use competency models usually
develop a three-tiered competency framework or
architecture.
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Next Week
• Next week we will cover Chapter 6
• In preparation for next week, come to class having
read the article “General Electric Focuses on Tech in
its Talent Hunt” – this article may be found in the
Week 6 folder on DC Connect
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