Job Analysis & Design, Recruitment, Selection, Outsourcing

Explain the process of job analysis and job design. Discuss different functions related to recruitment, selection and outsourcing in your organization or any organization you are familiar with.

JOB ANALYSIS :

Job analysis is the fundamental process that forms the basis of all human resource activities. In its simplest terms, job analysis is a systematic process for gathering, documenting and analyzing data about the work required for a job. The data collected in a job analysis, and reflected through a job description, includes a description of the context and principal duties of the job, and information about the skills, responsibilities, mental models and techniques for job analysis. These include the Position Analysis, Questionnaires, which focuses on generalized human behavior and interviews, task inventories, fundamental job analysis and the job element method.

The United States Govt’s Union Guidelines on Employees Selection Procedure (1978) and the American Psychological Association’s principles for the validation and use of personnel selection procedure stipulates that job analysis is essential to valediction of any and all major human resource activities.

A job analysis provides an objective picture of the job, not the person performing the job, and as such, provides fundamental information to support all subsequent and related HR activities, such as recruitment, training, development, performance management and succession planning.

Uses of Job Analysis:

Job analysis is the procedure for identifying those duties or behaviors that define a job. Aside from verifying the fairness of selection procedures, job analysis is the foundation of virtually every other area of industrial psychology, including performance appraisal training and human factors. Additionally, job analysis is the basis of job evaluation, the procedure for setting salary scales.

Fig-I suggests some of the many uses of job analysis-

Information about jobs can be collected in a number of ways. McCormick (1976) list the following as potential sources : observation, individual interview, group interview, technical conference, questionnaire, diary, critical incidents, equipment design information, recording of job activities, or employee records. Possible agents to do the collecting are professional job analysis, supervisors, job incumbents, or even a camera in the work place.

In spite of both its importance and availability of data, however, the area of job analysis has not been studied in details. One reason for the lack of research is the nature of the data : Although qualitative information about jobs, collected through observations, is plentiful, translating this data into a quantitative form amenable to statistical analysis is often difficult.

Figure-I : Human Resource Management Cycle

Appplication of Job Analysis Data

Over time different approaches to dealing with data of job description have been developed. Some method designed to study jobs include :

1. Functional Job Analysis: The rationale behind the Functional Job Analysis(FJA) is that jobs must be defined in terms of interaction between the task, the individual responsible for accomplishing the task and the environment in which the task is to be performed. FJA was developed by Sidney A Fine during the 1950s as a part of Functional Occupational Classification Project that resulted in the third edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.
2. Critical Incident Technique : In contrast to FJA where the experts make judgement about the contents of the job, the critical incidents technique (CIT) utilizes the actual episodes of on the job behavior. This job analysis method grew out of experiences of selecting candidates for flight school during World War II. Standards of acceptance or rejection were lax, and vague reasons such as “lack of inherent flying ability” were used for disqualifying individuals who might have been good crew members.
3. Job Element Method: this method of job analysis was developed by Ernest Primoff at the federal Office of Personnel Management and uses as its focus the elements that a worker uses in performing a specific job. Job elements include Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs) as well as willingness, interest, and personal characteristics
4. Position Analysis Questionnaire :The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) was developed by MacCormic and associates (1972) on the assumption that there is an underlying taxonomy to all jobs. That is in contrast to all other methods, the PAQ approach focuses on broad categories common to all jobs rather than on individual elements of specific jobs.

JOB DESIGN

There are two basics ways in which work is organized. The first related to the flow of authority and is known as organization structure or merely organization. The second relates to flow of work itself from one operation to another and is known as procedure. Synonyms are method, system, and work flow. Alert managers usually recognize the behavioural aspects of organization structure because of the superior-subordinate relationship which it establishes, but more often than not they ignore or overlook the behavioral aspects of work flow. The reason that work flow and the lay out over which it flows are engineering factors, which are to be distinguished from human factors. In the usual case however, work flow has many behavioral aspects because it sent people interaction as they perform their work.

One management’s most fundamental idea is systems and method improvement, by which it seeks to make optimum use of division of labour, and specialization and to achieve order and balance in the performance of work. However, as indicated in the quotation introducing this chapter, workers do not lie to be “engineered” in methods improvement. They perceive that improvement is measure in technical terms and that the human dissatisfaction caused by the “improvement” are generally overlooked. The goal of methods improvement is greater productivity, but sometimes it brings human compilations which reduce effectiveness and offset the technical advantages gained.

This part discusses different aspects of work methods. Emphasis is upon the flow of work among people, rather than the personal work methods of an isolated individual. Subjects discussed are flow of work and different work system.  RGE 


RECRUITMENT

THE PROCESS OF RECRUITMENT

Preparation for Recruitment

Before you think of inviting people to apply for a job you have to decide what types of persons are to be invited and what their characteristics should be. This calls for fixing the ‘job specifications’ which may also be called ‘man specifications’.

Job specifications are based on job description which is dependent upon the nature and requirements of a job. Thus, job specification will be different for each job.

We shall explain below the various elements of job specification.

Physical Specifications : For certain jobs some special features may be required. For example, for assembly of a TV set or some other electronic equipment good vision is required, for a typing job you need finger dexterity, for a heavy job you need a strong, heavy and thick-set body. The particular physical abilities and skills necessary for a given job have to be specified. These may refer to height, weight, vision, finger dexterity, voice, poise, hand and foot coordination, motor coordination, colour discrimination, age-range, etc.

Mental Specifications : These include intelligence, memory, judgment, ability-plan, ability to estimate, to read, to write, to think and concentrate, scientific faculties, arithmetical abilities, etc. Different jobs require different degrees of such abilities and the more important ones should be specified.

Emotional and Social Specifications : These include characteristics which will affect his working with others, like personal appearance, manners, emotional stability, aggressiveness, or submissiveness, extroversion or introversion, leadership, cooperativeness, initiative and drive, skill in dealing with others, social adaptability, etc.

Behavioural Specifications : Certain management personnel at higher levels of management are expected to behave in a particular manner. These are not formally listed but have to be kept in mind during the process of recruitment, selection and placement.

Sources of Manpower

There are two categories of sources of supply of manpower-Internal and External.

Internal Sources : These include personnel already on the pay-roll of the organization as also those who were once on the pay-roll of the company but who plan to return, or whom the company, would like to rehire. These include those who quit voluntarily or those on production lay-offs.

External Sources : These sources lie outside the organization, like the new entrants to the labour force without experience. These include college students, the unemployed with a wider range of skills and abilities, the retired experienced persons, and others not in the labour force, like married women.

A policy of preferring people from within is advantageous as it improves the morale of the employees and promotes loyalty among them towards the organization. This also helps employers as they are in a better position to evaluate those already with them and as these people require no induction.

The policy of preferring internal candidates, however, suffers from some disadvantages. It may lead to inbreeding, discouraging new blood from entering an organization. If promotion is based on seniority, the real capable hands may be left out.

Method of Recruitment that is followed in our organization can be put into three types
a) Direct method
b) Indirect methods
c) Third party method.

a) Direct methods : It includes sending recruiters to educational and professional institutions, employee contact with the public, manned exhibits and waiting lists

Colleges and Professional Institutions like Agricultural colleges, Engineer colleges, Diploma schools are usually the best source of recruiting professionals for our consultancy organization. These institutions usually have a placement officer who normally provides help in attracting employers arranging the interviews, furnishing space and other facilities and providing student resumes. Our organization maintain a list of such institutions, keep touch with them, send them our brochure indicating job openings, future prospects, etc. On the basis of these students who want to be considered for the given jobs are referred to our recruitment panel.

Employee contact with the public : The employees of our organization are told about the existence of particular vacancies and they bring this to the notice of their relatives, friends and acquaintances.

Manned exhibits : Our organization send recruiters to conventions and seminars, setting up exhibition at fairs and using mobile offices to go to the desired centers.

Waiting list : Also sometimes depends on our application folders. These records list individuals who have indicated their interest in jobs, either after visiting the organisation’s employment office or making enquiries by mail or phone. Such records prove a very useful source if they are kept up-to-date.

b) Indirect methods : It cover the advertising in newspapers, on the radio, in trade and professional journals, technical journals and brochures.

When qualified and experienced persons are not available through our sources, advertising in newspapers and professional and technical journals is made. Where as all type of posts are advised in newspapers and magazines only particular types of posts are advertised in Professional and technical journals.

c) Third-party methods: Various agencies are used for recruitment under these methods. These include commercial and private employment agencies, state agencies, placement officer of colleges and universities, professional associations, recruiting firms, indoctrination seminars for college professors, friends and relatives.

In this category our organization ECO-CARE AND AWARE mainly uses web based recruiting firms like Naukri.com, jobs.com, Orissacareer.com, monster.com, craiglists.org, devnetjobsindia.com etc. Many new sites are coming which provide the services of job listing (advertisement) free of cost.
Executive search agencies maintain complete information records about employed executives and recommend persons of high caliber for managerial, marketing and of other professional areas as required by the organization.

Indoctrination of Seminars for college professors : these are arranged to discuss the problems of companies to which professors are invited. Visits and banquets are arranged so that professors may be favorably be impressed and later speak well of the company and help in getting required personnel.

Friends and relatives of the present employees constitute a good source from which employees may be drawn. Also steps are taken to avoid nepotism in this categories.


SELECTION :

Selection is the process of examining the applicants with regard to their suitability for the given job or jobs and choosing the best from the suitable candidates and rejecting the others. Thus, you will notice that this process is negative in nature in the sense that rejection of candidates involved.

It is the process of securing relevant information about an applicant to evaluate his qualification, experience and other qualities with the view of matching with the requirement of a job. It is the process of picking out the man or men best suited for the organization’s requirement.

The Selection Process :
The selection process involves rejection of unsuitable or less suitable applicants. This may be done at any of the successive hurdles which an applicant must cross. These hurdles act as screens designed to eliminate an unqualified applicant at any point in the process. This technique is known as “successive hurdle technique” Figure-II gives these hurdles.

Figure-II : Successive Hurdles in Selection Process

Yoder calls these hurdles ‘go on go’ gauges. Those who qualify a hurdle go to the next one; those who do not qualify are dropped out. The complexity of the process usually increases with the level and responsibility of the position to be filled. Moreover, these hurdles need not necessarily be placed in the same order. Their arrangement may differ from organization to organization.

Initial Screening or Preliminary Interview : This is a sorting process in which prospective applicants are given the necessary information about the nature of the job and also, necessary information is elicited from the candidates about their education, experience, skill, salary expectation etc. If the candidate is found to be suitable, he is selected for further process and, if not he is eliminated. This is a crude screening and can be done across the counter n the organization’s employment office. Due care should be taken so that suitable candidates are not turned down in hurry.

Application Scrutiny : Different types of application forms are used by the organization for different types of positions/posts. Some forms are simple, general and easily answerable, while others may require elaborate, complex and detailed information. Sometimes applications are asked in plain sheet.

Application forms are designed to serve as a highly effective preliminary screening device, particularly when applications are received in direct response to an advertisement and without any preliminary interview.

In our organization the applications are used in two ways : 1) to find out on the basis of information contained there in as to the chances of success of the candidate in the job for which he is applying, and 2) to provide a starting point for the interview.

SELECTION TEST
A test is a sample of an aspect of an individual’s behavior, performance or attitude. It can also be a systematic procedure for comparing the behavior of two or more.

Purpose of the test : the basic assumption underlying the use of tests in personnel selection is that individuals are different in their job –related abilities and skills ad that these skills can be adequately and accurately measured.

Test seek to eliminate the possibility of prejudice on the part of the interviewer or supervisor. Potential ability only will govern selection decisions.

The other measure advantage is that the tests may uncover qualifications and talents that would not be detected by interviews or by listing of education and job experience.

Types of tests: The various tests used in the selection can be put into four categories.

1. Achievement or Intelligence Tests
2. Aptitude or potential ability test.
3. Personality test
4. Interest Test

OUTSOURCING :

Companies that see outsourcing as a short-term cost cutting opportunity are almost always disappointed with the results. But companies that approach outsourcing as one element of overall business strategies are applying some specific best practices to reach their goals more quickly and with fewer roadblocks.

Eighty four percent of the buyers of outsourcing services in diamond cluster’s ‘2004 Global IT outsourcing Report” said they are concerned about backlash of jobs lost to offshore outsources. But those same companies have probably underestimated the ripple effect of their outsourcing decision.

Why outsourcing ? An obvious benefit of outsourcing is the significant cost savings and improvement to the bottom line. Depending upon the work process outsourced, some organizations save up to 60 % in content development and maintenance of e-learning technologies, such as learning management systems (LMSs), content management systems (CMSs) and outsoaring platform.

Also outsourcing is often used to overcome resource shortage. It is the classic “more for less’ story heard every where in organization today.

Specialised Knowledge : in recent months, some training organization have seen a shift towards centralized functions. Centralization has put the onus on training management to ensure that training is not only the best of breed but is also standardized and consistent in quality. Therefore training executives are now working closely with the specialist vendors--- the outsourcing partners to control and maintain quality and consistency of training material, be it e-learning content or classroom course ware. In addition to improving training effectiveness, education organization are also under tremendous pressure to reduce time-to-train or time-to-market.

Outsourcing in our organization is done as a strategic initiative. The organization needs to be prepared to outsource as the vendor is prepared to manage the outsourced operation.

Size does matter : Outsourcing can lead to tremendous cost saving. However, organization must remember that cost saving actually build up over time. The potential for cost saving in the early part of the outsourcing initiative is offset by one-time relationship establishment costs, initial time lags in development and possibility of rework until the relationship between the organization and vendor matures.

Maturity makes it easy : Organization with a clear definition of finished deliverables (the output), well-aligned resource responsibilities (the process) and requirement acquisition (the input) have been shown to outsource more effectively than those without reliable and consistent work plan that includes elements of all three-the output, the input and the process. The organizations can measure the reliability and consistency of their input and output by using the Outsourcing Maturity Matrix.

By : Abhishek Kumar Sadhu

Human Resource Management Cycle : Application of Job Analysis Data