Discuss the Importance of Job Analysis

Question 1 (10)

In order to achieve better work performance the company needs to start all their human resource processes with a proper job analysis. Discuss the importance of job analysis in terms of the following bullet points:

• Define job analysis (4)

• Identify and describe the factors that influence job analysis reliability and validity (4)

• Describe the products of a job analysis (2)

Define job analysis:

A job analysis is a process of collecting and analysing information about the content and human requirements of jobs, as well as, the context (environment, situation) in which jobs are performed. This process determines the placement of jobs.

Job analysis is thus a detailed examination of:

1. Tasks that make up a job (employee role)

2. Conditions under which an employee performing his/her job, and

3. What exactly a job requires in terms of aptitudes (potential for achievement), attitudes (behaviour characteristics), knowledge, skills, educational qualifications and the physical working condition of the employee. ("Job analysis - HR l Concepts l Topics l Definitions labour Laws l Online - whatishumanresource.com", 2017)

Identify and describe the factors that influence job analysis reliability and validity:

To identify and describe the factors we first have to understand what reliability and validity is.

Reliability refers to how consistently a data collected through a specific job analysis procedure or test, measures a characteristic (Coetzee, & Schreuder, 2016). If a person takes the test (technique) again, will he or she get a similar test score, or a much different score? A test that yields similar scores for a person who repeats the test is said to measure a characteristic reliably.

Validity refers to the accuracy of interferences made based on the data yielded from the specific job analysis method or technique (Coetzee, & Schreuder, 2016). Validity can simply be defined as to, what characteristic the test measures and how well the test measures that characteristic.

• Validity tells you if the characteristic being measured by a test is related to job qualifications and requirements.

• Validity gives meaning to the test scores. Validity evidence indicates that there is linkage between test performance and job performance. It can tell you what you may conclude or predict about someone from his or her score on the test. If a test has been demonstrated to be a valid predictor of performance on a specific job, you can conclude that persons scoring high on the test are more likely to perform well on the job than persons who score low on the test, all else