Strategic job analysis and competency modeling

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Chapter 4 • Strategic Job Analysis and Competency Modeling

JOB ANALYSIS

the systematic process of identifying and describing the important aspects of a job and the characteristics a worker needs to do it well

JOB FAMILY

a grouping of jobs that either call for similar worker characteristics or contain parallel work tasks

When CitiFinancial conducted a job analysis of its loan officer position, it identified three different levels associated with the job as well as the top 10 skills and abilities needed for each of the three. This allowed CitiFinancial to hire based on the specific skills and specific abilities needed for each level.6

Jobs performed in a consistent, predictable manner can be readily analyzed. However, this doesn't work as well for organizations that are structured around networks, teams, and roles rather than around individuals performing well-defined jobs.7 Because the roles in the groups change and are unique to each employee, a job analysis often cannot adequately define them.

Thus, evaluating the broader roles played by people in these positions rather than specific jobs can better capture the responsibilities and requirements of flexible, team-based work.8 One procedure that looks at roles rather than jobs is competency modeling, which analyzes the broader competencies needed to perform well in roles as opposed to jobs. For example, Nordstrom's customer service strategy means that it needs to hire people with the competencies of having a customer focus and good interpersonal skills as well as good sales skills. Walmart's low-cost strategy means that it needs to hire people who are efficiency oriented. It is important to consider how the job can best contribute to strategy execution, not just what tasks need to be done. Because competency modeling identifies these "extra" behaviors and characteristics, it often augments job analysis, even when a job is well defined.

Job analysis can enhance the execution of strategy. General Electric (GE) performed a job analysis on its sales force and found that salespeople were spending 80 percent of their time on bureaucratic duties, not directly toward activities driving sales. This insight allowed GE to reorganize the functions of its sales representatives to better align their activities with the mission of the organization.

In this chapter, you will learn the fundamentals of doing both job analysis and competency modeling. After reading this chapter, you should have a good understanding of how to identify the essential elements of a job and determine what employees need to do to execute the firm's business strategy and to give the company a competitive advantage.

JOB ANALYSIS AND THE STRATEGY BEHIND IT Types of Job Analyses

A job analysis is the systematic process of identifying and describing the important aspects of a job and the characteristics a worker needs to do it well. It identifies the job's important tasks and working conditions as well as the tools and technologies people doing the job use. It also involves making judgments about what an employee needs to do to perform a job well given the specific business strategy and culture of an organization. It does not necessarily mean profiling the job incumbent to hire someone similar. The goal is to define the ideal individual for a job from the perspective of the company, its strategy, and the employees with whom the new hire will work.

Job analyses are used for multiple purposes throughout human resource management, including:

· Determining a job's entry requirements

· Developing a strategic recruiting plan for the firm

· Selecting individuals for employment

· Developing employee training plans

· Designing employee compensation systems

· Developing performance evaluation measures

Doing a job analysis also helps HR professionals categorize jobs into job families, or groupings of jobs that either call for similar worker characteristics or contain parallel work tasks. Job families enhance an organization's flexibility by allowing workers to perform more than just one official job. Grouping jobs into families can also help streamline the staffing process by enabling firms to hire people for different jobs from the same pool of candidates, apply the same selection procedures to them, and provide a systematic procedure for promoting employees. Table 4-1 presents an example of grouping jobs into job families.

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Job Family

to Job Families

Examples of Jobs Within Job Family

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Personnel Recruiters

Secretaries

Chemical Engineers

Recruiter

Executive Recruiter

Human Resources Specialist

Employment Coordinator

Secretary

Clerk Typist

Department Secretary

Administrative Support Assistant

Project Engineer

Chemical Engineer

Engineering Scientist

Scientist

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Different purposes require different job analysis techniques. The techniques of interest to us are those used for staffing-related purposes. A staffing-oriented job analysis ultimately aids in the development of valid, or job-related, recruiting plans and selection devices that identify the best candidates for a job. A job analysis that produces a valid selection system identifies characteristics in candidates that

· distinguish superior from average and unacceptable workers;

· are not easily learned on the job; and

· exist to at least a moderate extent in the applicant pool.

There are many ways of conducting ajob analysis, but most involve a job analyst managing the process and collecting information from job experts—typically people who already hold the job and their supervisors—via interviews and written surveys. The job analyst then compiles and summarizes this information, and the job experts check their work for accuracy and thoroughness. Before staffing can be done strategically, it is critical that the contributions of the position to the organization as well as the characteristics and requirements of the job be thoroughly understood. Companies like Oral-B Laboratories and Equistar Chemicals conduct thorough job analyses before deciding how to staff key positions.

Research has shown that firms that engage in effective job analysis financially outperform their competitors in a variety of ways.10 Unless the way a position contributes to the execution of the business strategy is understood, it is impossible to consistently hire people able to do the job in the manner it needs to be done to reinforce the firm's strategy. For example, a manufacturing company pursuing a specialist business strategy is likely to require sales representatives with advanced degrees or with specific educational and experiential backgrounds—backgrounds that make them best suited to contribute to the organization's market niche. But a manufacturing company pursuing a low-cost strategy may focus on hiring efficiency-minded people who can do their jobs well but are willing to work for lower wages to keep the company's costs down.

A future-oriented job analysis11 is a technique for analyzing new jobs or how jobs will look in the future. Whereas a traditional job analysis focuses on describing jobs as they exist today, a future-oriented job analysis focuses on identifying the skills the company also anticipates needing in the future. Think about the typical administrative assistant job in the 1990s as computers began entering the workplace: Administrative assistants were selected based upon their Dictaphone and shorthand skills. The scenario is clearly different today. In future years, with the increasing use of speech recognition technology, the scenario will be different too: firms might need secretaries who can speak rapidly and articulate clearly. Sometimes the speed at

FUTURE-ORIENTED JOB ANALYSIS

a technique for analyzing new jobs or how jobs will look in the future

Current and future job tasks and responsibilities

match

The employee's characteristics, knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies

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Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

match

The employee's needs, motivations, and values

FIGURE 4-1 Components of the Job-Worker Match

which jobs change can make it difficult to maintain current job profiles cost-effectively. In this case, organizations should focus on key jobs or on jobs they need to fill frequently to maximize the return on their investment.

Figure 4-1 illustrates the need for staffing to match the job's current and future tasks and responsibilities with the characteristics and competencies of the worker, and the job's intrinsic and extrinsic rewards with the needs and motivations of the worker. To supplement the job analysis, some organizations also perform an organizational analysis to identify personality attributes that best fit the organizational culture. This approach is best used in organizations that give employees sufficient freedom to use their unique characteristics when performing the job.12

The Legal and Practical Reasons for Doing a Job Analysis

As we have explained, the job analysis process enables firms to hire the people best able to contribute to the company's organizational effectiveness and performance. However, there are legal reasons for conducting a job analysis as well. The legal reasons relate to the organization's ability to show that its hiring methods are job related. A job analysis helps create an accurate and current list of the essential functions of a job and the required and desired qualifications employees that do it should have. Because an applicant must meet the stated job-related requirements, crafting a job description based on objective standards is a critical step for avoiding and defending future failure to hire and wrongful discharge lawsuits.

Companies are not required by law to conduct job analyses, but they do increase a firm's ability to make staffing decisions based solely on job requirements. For example, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as long as disabled applicants can perform the essential functions of a job with reasonable accommodation, they have to be considered for the position.

Doing a job analysis helps staffing specialists systematically identify a position's essential functions, as well as the corresponding knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) an employee needs to perform those functions. For example, if a job requires climbing stairs, stating this in the job description will help protect an employer from a claim from someone confined to a wheelchair that he or she was discriminated against based on his or her

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS inability to do so.13 Essential functions are defined by the ADA as the fundamental duties or

the fundamental duties or tasks of a tasks of a position. According to the ADA, a job function may be deemed essential for a number position of reasons, including, but not limited to, the following: