Table Of Contents
- Meaning Of Placement Of Staff
- Job Analysis
- Uses Of Job Analysis Information
- The Procedure For The Placement Of Staff
Meaning Of Placement Of Staff
This refers to the duty of the Personnel Officer to draw up a clear distinctive analysis of the job and the qualities of the person to do it. Before placing a staff, the job has to be analyzed; gathering all the necessary information concerning the job, studying it to know the responsibility that goes with the job from the facts studied. Two assessments/job description and specialization are made before job placement.
Meaning Of Job Analysis
Job analysis is the process of determining the relevant information about the operations and responsibilities of a specific job. The immediate products of this analysi are job descriptions and job specification.
Job description and job specification are designed to take some of the uncertainty out of staff recruitment and placement. They establish the exact scope of the post and the likely qualities and skills of the right person to fill such post.
(a) A Job Description is an organized factual statement of the duties and responsibilities of a specific job.
It sets out to provide an analysis and list of the principal aspects that a job entails. These include its purpose and scope, the duties, authority and responsibilities attaching to the job, the tasks to be performed, the levels of skills required, the department concerned, the type of working conditions and any particular hazards or unusual features, any special attributes required such as the ability to operate a word processor or a VDU terminal and so on, and also to whom the worker involved should report to bring, in brief job description should tell;
– What is to be done
– How it is to be done, and
– Why it is to be done
It is a standard of function, in that it defines the appropriate and authorized content of job.
(b) Job Specification A job specification is a statement of the minimum acceptable human qualities necessary to perform a job properly. In contrast to the job description, it is a standard of personnel and designates the qualities required for acceptable performance.
Job specification seeks to describe the requirements of the job in terms of the mental and physical abilities needed, knowledge and training required, aptitudes and attitudes expected etc.
Job description describes the job to be done, while the job specification specifies the kind of person most fitted to do it. The term personnel specification or person specification is now increasingly being used instead of job specification.
The more carefully the tasks of preparing the job description and job specification are performed the greater the likelihood of recruiting a new member of staff who will fill the post satisfactorily and the most likely that the new recruit will find job satisfaction and be motivated to perform at maximum effort.
Uses Of Job Analysis Information
The product of job analysis is job descriptions and specifications. Their uses include:
1. A job specification is the standard of personnel against which job applicants can be compared. The content of the specification provides the basis for the construction of a selection procedure.
2. Training: Description of duties and the equipment used are material importance in developing the content of training programmes.
3. Job Evaluation: Job description, and specifications of human requirements are evaluated in terms of worth, with the ultimate objective of determining the Naira value.
4. Performance Appraisal: Instead of rating an employee on characteristics such as dependability, initiative, and the like, there is now a tendency toward establishing job goals and appraising the work done toward those goals. In this type of appraisal, a job description is useful in defining the areas in which job goals should be established.
5. Promotion And Transfer: Job information helps in charting the channels of promotion and in showing lateral lines of transfer.
6. Organization: Job information obtained by job analysis often reveals instances of poor organization in terms of the factors affecting job design.
7. Induction: For the new trainee, a job description is most helpful for orientation purposes it serves as signposts that aid his understanding of his job and of the organization.
8. Counselling: Job information is very valuable in occupational Counselling. Some firms engage in occupational counselling when an employee does not seem suited to his present position.
9. Labour Relation: A job description is a standard of function. If an employee attempts to add to or subtract from the duties listed therein, he has violated this standard. The labour union as well as the management is interested in this matter. Controversies often result, and a written record of the standard job juridiction is valuable in resolving such disputes.
10. Job Re-engineering: Job analysis provides information that will enable the changing of jobs in order to permit their being manned by personnel with special characteristics. For example, female employees or physically handicapped.
The Procedure For The Placement Of Staff
Job Evaluation
Job evaluation is the process of analyzing and assessing the content of jobs, in order to place them in an acceptable rank order, which can then be used for deciding on wages payable. Job evaluation tries to rationalize the variations in pay rates and status within an organization.
Once a job has been described, any of the systems of job evaluation may be used in grading. The four main systems of job evaluation/job grading are:
1. Ranking systems
2. Job classification
3. Points Rating system
4. Factor comparison
1. Ranking System: This system assigns measurable points/values to jobs, establishes salary scales and determines the relative positions of jobs. Ranking system generally include, to a varying degree, some broad qualities which are characteristic of all jobs; each job is treated as a whole and not broken into factors.
2. Job Classification: This involves preparing a specification for each main class of job bearing in mind the responsibility and duties involved in each job. Based on this, salary scale may be alloted to each class and job grade. All jobs are fitted into these classes.
3. Points Rating System: In this method; the significant elements upon which each job is to be rated is set out in a manual including the yardstick by which each job element is to be valued. The job elements are described and weighed. Each job is given a points-value by totaling the weighted points. The job elements which are usually given points weighting include:
1. Skill: This includes education, experience, initiative, dexterity and integrity.
2. Efforts: This includes physical, mental, visual demand etc.
3. Responsibility: This includes responsibility for equipment, process, material or product, safety or the welfare of others.
4. Job Condition: This includes working environment, working conditions, monotony and avoidable hazards.
A minimum points rating is placed on each of the job elements. Each job element is assessed for every individual and the total points noted. A job classification may be allotted, for example:
A = 100 points
B = 150
C = 200
Therefore, a person that had 130 points would be classified under B. A remuneration structure could be determined from the above example by allowing a rate per hour for:
Class A – $30
Class B – $50
Class C – $60
4. Factor Comparison: In this method, each job is analyzed into factors that are common to all types of jobs. Like the points rating system, the factors considered are usually mental, physical effort, skill, responsibility and working conditions. A survey is conducted from which the wage structure and the number of key jobs are selected which represent, the various wage levels. Then an analysis is made to determine the proposition of the total wage paid for each factor against which the other jobs under review may be compared factor by factor, placing them in their relative position of importance on the scales.