A job analysis consists of a thorough analysis of the job duties and knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics (KSAPCs) required for success in a certain position. However, a job analysis can sometimes take a substantial amount of time and effort. So why should an organization consider performing a job analysis?
The primary reason an organization will perform a job analysis is to ensure the selection procedures they use to choose between job applicants are valid and defensible. Practically speaking, a valid selection procedure is one that accurately measures the actual requirements of the job in a fair and reliable way. A valid selection procedure should measure only knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics that the job analysis has identified as being required to perform important and/or critical job duties. Essentially, a valid selection procedure should only measure the qualifications that are really needed for the job.
In the legal realm, a selection procedure is valid if it can be proven by an employer in litigation that it is “… job related and consistent with business necessity” (see Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424,1971), to address the requirements of the various federal Civil Rights Act. This standard is usually met (or not) by arguing how the selection procedure address, (1) the federal Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978); (2) professional testing standards, such as, but not limited to, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures (SIOP Principles, 2003) and the American Psychological Association’s Standards for Education and Psychological Testing (APA Standards, 1999); and three (3) court decisions that have examined the validity of employment testing in various settings.
Academically speaking, the SIOP Principles and APA Standards have adopted the same definition for validity: “The degree to which accumulated evidence and theory support specific interpretations of test scores entailed by proposed uses of a test.”
Beyond this overlying benefit, there are several more compelling benefits to performing a job analysis:
- Workforce planning — An effective job analysis can work in tandem with an organization’s future-casting. By identifying the duties and KSAPCs for various job titles, HR professionals can match the needs of their organization with the talent of their current and future workforce.
- Succession planning — A strategy of workforce planning, HR professionals can use job analysis results to help fill key roles within their organization, now and in the future.
- Training — By basing training procedures on the findings of a job analysis, organizations are better equipped to identify the gaps or distances between the current workforce or a newly-hired workforce and the KSAPCs needed the first day of the job. HR professionals can consequently create job-specific or group/employee-specific training procedures.
- Employee development — Using the results of a job analysis, organizations may identify any gaps on an individual level and assist employees with their career management.
- Compensation — With an effective job analysis, organizations can ensure that job titles requiring similar duties and KSAPCs are being compensated similarly.
- ADA compliance – Biddle Consulting Group’s patented GOJA job analysis (Guidelines-Oriented Job Analysis) process asks specific questions that are outlined by the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to determine whether or not a duty is considered
If you have questions about job analysis and how conducting one may benefit your organization, please contact us at (800)999-0438. We’re happy to help.