Job Analysis at the Speed of Reality

Headnote

Take this job analysis and speed it up.

In the spirit of staying aligned with the editorial calendar, this month's column is on Training Fundamentals. In particular, this piece is going to cover job analysis. I will define "job analysis," identify some common training terms that are lumped together as job analysis, share an extremely streamlined methodology I use to make this happen (Job Analysis at the Speed of Reality, JASR), and discuss ways to use technology to enable job analyses to occur virtually.

What does job analysis mean?

Job analysis is the process used to break a job into its component duty or functional areas and the task statements associated with those duty areas. The key deliverable of the job analysis is a validated task list. This task list is a critical deliverable because it can be used as the foundation to create multiple derivative products, including curriculum design, behavioral interview guides, self-assessment tools, organizational assessments, job descriptions, and competency models. Competency models should always be based on job analyses, but often they are not. Many organizations pull competencies from ad hoc discussions of HR staff and their perceptions of what competencies should be.

Job task analysis, or JTA, is another term used interchangeably with job analysis although the two are not synonymous. When a JTA is conducted, the analyst is going a step further and breaking each task from the task list into its component steps or elements. That's an important step when you get into specific task-based courseware or intervention development. It seems like a trivial difference, but it's key if you're trying to get a sense of the amount of effort required to get the information you need regarding a job. The job analysis in many cases can provide key information to get products to your clients.

Job analysis at the speed of reality

When I had been at Dell about three months in early 1996,1 had a dose of reality smack me like a two-by-four across my face. I was asked to do some job analyses for inside sales...