Human Resource Management

“Job Description implies objective listing of the job title, tasks, and responsibilities involved in a job.”

Job description is a word picture in writing of the duties, responsibilities and organizational relationships that constitutes a given job or position. It defines continuing work assignment and a scope of responsibility that are sufficiently different from those of the other jobs to warrant a specific title. Job description is a broad statement of purpose, scope, duties and responsibilities of a particular job.

Contents of Job Description

1. Job Identification
2. Job Summary
3. Job Duties and Responsibilities
4. Supervision specification
5. Machines, tools and materials
6. Work conditions
7. Work hazards
8. Definition of unusual terms

Format of Job Description

• Job Title
• Region/Location
• Department
• Reporting to (Operational and Managerial)
• Objective
• Principal duties and responsibilities

Features of Good Job Description

1. Up to date
2. Proper Job Title
3. Comprehensive Job Summary
4. Clear duties and responsibilities
5. Easily understandable
6. State job requirements
7. Specify reporting relationships
8. Showcase degrees of difficulties
9. Indicates opportunities for career development
10. Offer bird’s-eye-view of primary responsibilities

Job Specifications

“Job Specification involves listing of employee qualifications, skills and abilities required to meet the job description. These specifications are needed to do job satisfactorily.”

In other words it is a statement of minimum and acceptable human qualities necessary to perform job properly. Job specifications seeks to indicate what kind of persons may be expected to most closely approximate the role requirements and thus it is basically concerned with matters of selection, screening and placement and is intended to serve as a guide in hiring.

Contents of Job Specifications

1. Physical Characteristics
2. Psychological characteristics
3. Personal characteristics
4. Responsibilities
5. Demographic features

Further the job specifications can be divided into three broad categories

Essential Attributes

Desirable Attributes

Contra-Indicators – indicators hampering the success of job

Job Evaluation

Job Evaluation involves determination of relative worth of each job for the purpose of establishing wage and salary differentials. Relative worth is determined mainly on the basis of job description and job specification only. Job Evaluation helps to determine wages and salary grades for all jobs. Employees need to be compensated depending on the grades of jobs which they occupy. Remuneration also involves fringe benefits, bonus and other benefits. Clearly remuneration must be based on the relative worth of each job. Ignoring this basic principle results in inequitable compensation. A perception of inequity is a sure way of de-motivating an employee.

Job evaluation is a process of analyzing and assessing the various jobs systematically to ascertain their relative worth in an organization.

Jobs are evaluated on the basis of content, placed in order of importance. This establishes Job Hierarchies, which is a purpose of fixation of satisfactory wage differentials among various jobs.

Jobs are ranked (not jobholders)

Scope of Job Evaluation

The job evaluation is done for the purpose of wage and salary differentials, demand for and supply of labor, ability to pay, industrial parity, collective bargaining and the like.

Process of Job Evaluation:

1. Defining objectives of job evaluation
2. Identify jobs to be evaluated (Benchmark jobs or all jobs)
3. Who should evaluate job?
4. What training do the evaluators need?
5. How much time involved?
6. What are the criteria for evaluation?
7. Methods of evaluation to be used
8. Wage Survey
9. Employee Classification
10. 4.    Establishing wage and salary differentials.

Methods of Job Evaluation

Analytical Methods

• Point Ranking Methods: Different factors are selected for different jobs with accompanying differences in degrees and points. Factor Comparison Method: The important factors are selected which can be assumed to be common to all jobs. Each of these factors are then ranked with other jobs. The worth of the job is then taken by adding together all the point values.

Non-Analytical Methods

• Ranking Method: Jobs are ranked on the basis of its title or contents. Job is not broken down into factors etc.
• Job Grading Method: It is based on the job as a whole and the differentiation is made on the basis of job classes and grades. In this method it is important to form a grade description to cover discernible differences in skills, responsibilities and other characteristics.

Pitfalls of Job Evaluation:

• Encourages employees on how to advance in position when there may be limited opportunities for enhancement as a result of downsizing.
• It promotes internal focus instead of customer orientation
• Not suitable for forward looking organizations, which has trimmed multiple job titles into two or three broad jobs.

Job Design

The Logical Sequence to Job Analysis is Job Design.

Definition 1: Integration of work, rewards and qualification

“Job Design integrates work content (tasks, functions, relationships), the rewards and qualifications required including skills, knowledge and abilities for each job in a way that meets the needs of employees and the organization.”

Steps in Job Design: -

1. Specification of Individual Tasks
2. Specification of Methods of Tasks Performance
3. Combination of Tasks into Specific Jobs to be assigned to individuals

Factors affecting Job Design: -

Organizational factors:

• Characteristics of Tasks (Planning, Execution and Controlling of Task)
• Work Flow (Process Sequences)
• Ergonomics (Time & Motion Study)
• Work Practices (Set of ways of performing tasks)

Environmental Factors:

• Employee Abilities and Availability
• Social and Cultural Expectations

Behavioral Elements:

• Feedback
• Autonomy
• Use of Abilities
• Variety