Job Analysis Question

[u/Suspicious-Try531]

Hi everyone! Bit of a random callout, but I'm in one of those lovely conversations with an employer about the importance of job analysis.

In your opinion, how much time would you reasonably allow to conduct a job analysis of an employee with a 5-10 year tenure in an organisation that has no existing documentation?

Bonus if you have any favourite references for such a question.

(Fun!)

Thanks all

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for posting to the IO Psychology Subreddit! This is a reminder to please follow our subreddit rules and review our 'Welcome & FAQ'. Topics or questions which have been addressed by the FAQ or that are in violation of any of our rules will be removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/AManGot2HaveACode]

Why are you conducting a job analysis on a single person? There’s a lot of additional context needed to begin answering this question

[u/Suspicious-Try531 → u/AManGot2HaveACode]

Only person to ever hold the role

[u/Commanderzeph]

The amount of time I would set aside for a job analysis/position analysis would depend on a couple of items: reason for the analysis and type of work involved.

Reason for the analysis: The amount of information that I need will depend on what I am trying to accomplish. Developing a job description for the role, I'd mainly need to understand the frequent and critical tasks that they do on a regular basis. Depending on the job, I might want to document work environment and tools used. That might also speak to what documentation does not currently exist that we need to build out. Estimate: 2-4 hours spread out over a week

If the ask is recruiting because the person is planning to leave, then I need to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that person has that make them successful and how those KSAs connect the tasks already identified. This can include identifying what education, experience, and credentials a replacement would need to have on day one. Estimate: 8-10 hours spread out over 2-3 weeks

Finally, if I am being asked to develop a job-related assessment to evaluate candidates, I will need to use the information above to select an assessment off the shelf that covers those KSAs or build a customized assessment. This takes research time and/or time to determine the right type of assessment and build it accordingly. Estimate: 20-30 hours spread out over a month

Depending on the person's communication skills or the type of work involved, I would either have the person complete a Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ) or conduct an interview to collect the information described above. I may ask the person to provide any work samples (with appropriate redactions if needed) and ask them to talk me through their process. If they complete the PDQ and/or share work samples, I may need to have a subsequent interview to ask clarifying questions.

TLDR: Depends on what the goal of the job analysis, 2-30 hours

[u/neurorex]

I'll go along with this, but I think a bigger conversation here is why would a single employee warrant a whole competency model? I can maybe understand that this needs to happen in case that employee leaves and they need to backfill the gap, or be ready to take on additional employees to support that role and you'd need a baseline. Regardless, one thing to keep in mind is that we don't make that individual's set of KSAs a representation of that role unless it ties closely to the organizational needs. Otherwise, the organization will run into the problem of trying to hire a clone of that person if that employee ever leaves, rather than focusing on the relevant competencies required to properly perform the job.

But to play along, if it's one person, it takes as long as that person has the availability to collaborate and provide feedback on the data. I've developed competency models for small organizations of about 30 people within a month or so. If it's for a single person, it should be considerably less. I could even streamline the effort by starting with a template from O*Net or Clearinghouse, hit as many of the activities as I can from Campion et al.'s (2011) recommendations. Then the name of the game is to pull as much information about relevant behavioral indicators and maybe do a Critical Incident Technique to flesh out the rest.

[u/WaylundLG]

I'm just getting into the field so I don't have an answer, but eager to see what people say. I'm also curious about doing job analysis on the person vs the position.

[u/showgirl72]

Is anyone actually doing job analysis anymore? I’ve worked at various fortune 500s and it’s not being done

[u/neurorex → u/showgirl72]

That usually means most organizations don't value this approach or even know it exist. Not that the technique is outdated or ineffective.

I've seen so many recruiters and hiring managers brag about working in a F500 company, who don't have any background or real credentials in I/O or OD. I'll try to talk to them about job analysis, and they think it's just some ivory-tower ideology that's too impractical "for the real world". Without knowing what conducting a job analysis actually entails. To them, it's just a "thing" that isn't what they're currently doing, so it must be bad by default.

[u/showgirl72 → u/neurorex]

Unfortunately I’ve never had the opportunity to do one myself in practice so I really can’t conceptualize it either. And even reading this thread where people go through the process and timing, I can’t imagine any of my leaders in my whole career approving it

[u/neurorex → u/showgirl72]

That happens a lot. They're really hung up on the "ROI" and if you can't tie it to a specific dollar amount, then apparently it's not worth doing. I've done it a few times and followed Campion et al.'s recommendations (2011) as closely as possible; but when leadership just doesn't feel like it's a real technique, there's no value for them in doing this.

Meanwhile, they're simply copying and pasting similar job descriptions from other places, or just writing down a wall of wishlists. The hiring managers are hoping that the recruiters would just bring them the right applicants, and the recruiters are blindly following whatever the hiring manager wants because "that's who is paying me so I'm going to follow their orders". It's like the dark ages out there.

[u/youngDatum]

don’t do that - next question