AutoGOJA Guidelines Oriented Job Analysis > Benefits of a Job Analysis

What are the Benefits of Performing a Job Analysis?

A job analysis consists of a thorough analysis of the job duties and knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics (KSAPCs) required for success in a certain position. However, a job analysis can sometimes take a substantial amount of time and effort. So why should an organization consider performing a job analysis?

The primary reason an organization will perform a job analysis is to ensure the selection procedures they use to choose between job applicants are valid and defensible. Practically speaking, a valid selection procedure is one that accurately measures the actual requirements of the job in a fair and reliable way. A valid selection procedure should measure only knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics that the job analysis has identified as being required to perform important and/or critical job duties. Essentially, a valid selection procedure should only measure the qualifications that are really needed for the job.

In the legal realm, a selection procedure is valid if it can be proven by an employer in litigation that it is "... job related and consistent with business necessity" (see Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 ,1971), to address the requirements of the various federal Civil Rights Act. This standard is usually met (or not) by arguing how the selection procedure address, (1) the federal Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978); (2) professional testing standards, such as, but not limited to, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures (SIOP Principles, 2003) and the American Psychological Association’s Standards for Education and Psychological Testing (APA Standards, 1999); and three (3) court decisions that have examined the validity of employment testing in various settings.

Academically speaking, the SIOP Principles and APA Standards have adopted the same definition for validity: "The degree to which accumulated evidence and theory support specific interpretations of test scores entailed by proposed uses of a test."

Beyond this overlying benefit, there are several more compelling benefits to performing a job analysis:

• Workforce planning -- An effective job analysis can work in tandem with an organization’s future-casting. By identifying the duties and KSAPCs for various job titles, HR professionals can match the needs of their organization with the talent of their current and future workforce.
  
• Succession planning -- A strategy of workforce planning, HR professionals can use job analysis results to help fill key roles within their organization, now and in the future.
  
• Training -- By basing training procedures on the findings of a job analysis, organizations are better equipped to identify the gaps or distances between the current workforce or a newly-hired workforce and the KSAPCs needed the first day of the job. HR professionals can consequently create job-specific or group/employee-specific training procedures.
  
• Employee development -- Using the results of a job analysis, organizations may identify any gaps on an individual level and assist employees with their career management.
  
• Compensation -- With an effective job analysis, organizations can ensure that job titles requiring similar duties and KSAPCs are being compensated similarly.
  
• ADA compliance -- Biddle Consulting Group’s patented GOJA job analysis (Guidelines-Oriented Job Analysis) process asks specific questions that are outlined by the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to determine whether or not a duty is considered an essential function. Our GOJA process gathers information to assist the organization in deciding whether or not each duty is an essential function. If an employee can perform an essential function with or without reasonable accommodation, the employer must provide such an accommodation (unless it would incur an undue hardship, ADA, 1990).
  
• Performance appraisals -- The results of a job analysis can allow an organization to develop an employee according to the specific needs of their job title. Additionally, organizations may also use the results of a job analysis to groom employees for promotion by training in areas that will contribute to a future position.
  

AutoGOJA Job Analysis Software is a hosted software solution that automates many steps necessary to complete a traditional job analysis.

The GOJA Manual is a manual (paper and pencil) solution that leads that leads an HR practician through the steps necessary to complete a traditional job analysis. Organizations opting to perform a manual job analysis may download our free Guidelines Oriented Job Analysis form. This 99-page job analysis booklet is free to download, print and use (without modification) for any number of job analyses.

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