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JOB DESCRIPTION minus JOB ANALYSIS Written by Paul Navaratnam Published in the New Straits Times Sept 2, 1998

Is it possible to write a job description without undertaking a job analysis?

Most human resource management text books will advice a student of human resource management that a job analysis will generate the needed information to write a job description. Any human resource management consultant will tell you that without a job analysis, it may not be possible to write an accurate job description.

To a human resource management consultant conducting a job analysis assignment, depending on the number of jobs to analysed, is not only lucrative but opens the avenue for a number of other assignments. Some of the many uses of job analysis are: job description, job specification, organisational reengineering, human resource planning, etc.

The basic question, however, is whether a job description can be written without conducting a job analysis?

Recently, a client posed this question due to financial and time constraints, that the job description was necessary as a matter of urgency in order to assess whether certain positions in the company were adequately compensated based on the employees' job functions.

What the client had in mind was to train their staff to write their own job descriptions, which were later to be assessed by their immediate superior and then submitted to a committee for final endorsement.

With fine-tuning by the employee's immediate superior, it was remarkable that employees could write their own job descriptions after one day's training. In essence this would mean that an organisation could write job descriptions, fairly accurately without the tedious, and often expensive process of conducting a job analysis.

To initiate the exercise of training employees to write their own job description, a standard format was devised. The job description form was divided into three sections: Section A asked for employee details (name, location, department, date and approving authority), Section B required details of the job (which is discussed in detail later) and Section C which identified tasks, not currently done but the employee was capable of doing.
 
 

SECTION B was divided into eight sub-sections as follows:
(I)	REPORTS TO:
	Which position does this job report to administratively? Functionally? Operationally?
(II)	JOB SUMMARY:
	Why does this job exist? What is its purpose?
(III)	DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
	What are the essentials of this job? What makes or breaks the job? Explain the functions in terms of when, what, how and why?
(IV)	RELATIONSHIPS:
	How many positions/people report to this position? What are their job titles? What positions within the organisation does this job require most contact with? What sort of people (if any) does this position require external contact with?
(V)	KNOW-HOW:
	What type of experience is needed to do this job? What is the minimum experience needed to do this job? What are the minimum formal qualifications or training required? Are there any special skills, knowledge or abilities required?
(VI)	PROBLEM SOLVING:
	What type of problems are faced in this job--repetitive, routine, simple, unique, complex, etc.?
(VII)	AUTHORITY:
	What sort of decisions can be made without reference to a Manager/Executive? What sort of decisions must be referred to a Manager/Executive? Does this position have the right to hire or fire? What specific monetary limitations exist on decision-making authority?
(VIII)	ACCOUNTABILITY:
	What assets are controlled? What is the payroll responsibility? What is the sales volumes? etc.

In Section C the job holder was required to identify those tasks which he thought he was capable of performing and/or those tasks which he would like to do. The job incumbent was also requested to state whether he was prepared to be promoted to a higher grade or was satisfied to remain in the existing grade.

 After the job description form was written and completed by the job holder, it was vetted by the immediate superior. Certain functions had to be re-written for clarity or additions made to answer the basic question of why the job exists. The next was to present the job description to the departmental manager who confirmed the accuracy of the job description.

The next step was to differentiate the core functions of the job and the commonalities of the position. This was probably the most tedious aspect of this assignment, as there were very many overlaps as to what were the core function as opposed to commonalities of the position. Finally, the process of skills/competencies centred on the technicalities of the job: a technician for example was more concerned with the technical aspects of performing the job rather than supervising his subordinates (e.g. mechanics) or submitting (written) daily or weekly reports. The end result was that the skills/competencies were identified with the job and the support functions were identified with the position.

Final approval of the job description came from a select committee appointed by the chief executive officer who was also the chairman. It came as a surprise, that without conducting a job analysis the accuracy of the job description was near perfect, with minor or minimal amendments that the immediate superior of the job holder had recommended.

Based on the approved job description, the committee was able to:
 
 

The entire assignment, including the submission of the job descriptions of five jobs with ninety-nine positions were completed in less than 12 days, given the necessary time constraints. Moreover, it was observed that the job holders were motivated in being empowered by their job functions and understanding why their job existed. In undertaking this assignment it was possible to transfer the techniques/skills to employees in writing their own job descriptions with hands on experience in being able to analyse the tasks they performed.

The client company is now contemplating to write the job description of their executives and other management staff using the same method of training them to write their job descriptions.

It only cost the company a quarter of the cost of a job analysis exercise, which could have taken at least three to four weeks.
 

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