INDEX

SR NO.

TOPIC

PAGE NO.

1.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

2.

WHAT ARE HUMAN RESOURCES?

3.

INTRODUCTION TO HRM

4.

EVOLUTION OF HRM

5.

WHAT MAKES HRM DIFFERENT

10

6.

WHAT IS FOCUS OF HRM

DEPARTMENT

11

7.

ACTIVITIES OF HRM

12

8.

THE GREATEST CHALLENGES OF HRM

13

9.

MAJOR TREND AFFECTING HRM

13

10.

IMPORTANCE OF HRM

14

11.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES AND HRM

15

12.

HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING

16

13.

FUNCTION OF HRM

20

14.

JOB ANALYSIS

21

15.

THE INTERVIEW

29

16.

CONCLUSION

31

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

BOOKS:
H John Bernardin, Human Resource Management, Fourth Edition, McGraw Hill, 2007
Review notes for all chapters of the book
Full Chapters of the Book Human Resource Management by Laura Dias

WEBSITES:
www.wikipedia.org
http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/search/label/Human%20resource%20management

WHAT ARE HUMAN RESOURCES?

Human resources are the set of individuals who make up the workforce of
an organization, business sector or an economy. "Human capital" is sometimes used
synonymously with human resources, although human capital typically refers to a more
narrow view; i.e., the knowledge the individuals embody and can contribute to an
organization. Likewise, other terms sometimes used include "manpower", "talent",
"labor" or simply "people".
The professional discipline and business function that oversees an organization's
human resources is called human resource management.

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.

During the first four hundred years of industrialization, it was all about machines, which
gradually replaced the human labour. They were so important that humans were not
even considered a resource. Not anymore. With information revolution, internet
connectivity and the age of customized services, humans are the greatest resource.
That makes human resource management, by far, the most important stream of the art
of managing business.
Human resources are by far the most important resources for any organization.
Needless to say then that making the best possible use of these resources is crucial to
the fate of organization, and hence once of the most important priority for the managers
of that organization.
The human resources of an organization consist of all people who perform its activities.
Human resource management (HRM) is concerned with the personnel policies and

managerial practices and systems that influence the workforce. In broader terms, all
decisions that affect the workforce of the organization concern the HRM function .
The human resources of an organization consist of all people who perform its activities.
Human resource management (HRM) is concerned with the personnel policies and
managerial practices and systems that influence the workforce. In broader terms, all
decisions that affect the workforce of the organization concern the HRM function.
Human resource management (HRM or simply HR) is the management of
an organization's workforce, or human resources. It is responsible for
the attraction, selection, training, assessment, and rewarding of employees, while also
overseeing organizational leadership and culture, and ensuring compliance
with employment and labor laws. In circumstances where employees desire and are
legally authorized to hold a collective bargaining agreement, HR will typically also serve
as the company's primary liaison with the employees' representatives (usually a labor
union).
HR is a product of the human relations movement of the early 20th century, when
researchers began documenting ways of creating business value through the strategic
management of the workforce. The function was initially dominated by transactional
work such as payroll and benefits administration, but due to globalization, company
consolidation, technological advancement, and further research, HR now focuses on
strategic initiatives like mergers and acquisitions, talent management, succession
planning, industrial and labor relations, and diversity and inclusion.
In startup companies, HR's duties may be performed by a handful of trained
professionals or even by non-HR personnel. In larger companies, an entire functional
group is typically dedicated to the discipline, with staff specializing in various HR tasks
and functional leadership engaging in strategic decision making across the business. To
train practitioners for the profession, institutions of higher education, professional
associations, and companies themselves have created programs of study dedicated
explicitly to the duties of the function. Academic and practitioner organizations likewise

seek to engage and further the field of HR, as evidenced by several field-specific
publications.

Evolution of Human Resource Management

Literature on Human resources management is fairly rich in terms of academic theories.
Success of Henry Ford and his Ford Motors in early twentieth century gave rise to the
term 'Fordism' consisting of the theory that high corporate profitability can be achieved
by high wages to the employees. Even before Ford, Fredrick Winslow Taylor had
propagated the 'scientific management theory' or 'Taylorism' wherein scientific studies of
processes were believed to lead to optimum human resource utilization. These
'modernistic' theories suffered from one grave drawback - they treated human beings as
homogeneous, ignoring the individual differences in them. Later academic theories,
often referred to as 'post-modernism' attempted to correct this folly by admitting that
human beings are complex and solutions to their problems cannot be obtained by
simple thumb rules.
In recent times, the academic theory has given place to practical applications and HRM
experts today specialize in resolving individual problems of the organization in a stepby-step pattern. This means focusing on one of the several human resource
management processes enumerated above, beginning from recruitment and ending
with performance appraisal. These days, one of their greatest challenges is managing
the process of collective bargaining, or the 'contract' between employee and the
organization in a way that ensures commitment of the individual towards organizational
goals. Another focus of modern HRM practices is to provide the employees a clear
understanding of these organizational goals.

What makes Human Resource Management different?

What makes it different from other streams of management is the fact that Human
resources management or HRM cannot be defined by simple thumb rules, nor can it be
taught or explained by simple theories, without a grave risk of oversimplification. It
requires keen observation of human traits, sensitivity arising from emotional intelligence,
and understanding of human nature like a psychologist .
Different sub-streams of Human Resource Management.
Human resources management originally began as personnel management, but today it
encompasses many well defined sub-streams of functions that can be listed as under:
(1) Workforce planning
(2) Recruitment
(3) Job analysis
(4) Personnel administration & compensation
(5) Training and development
(6) Selection
(7) Performance appraisal
Each of these sub-streams is a more or less specialized function, yet one can say that
HRM itself is more than these entire put together.
The activities involved in HRM function are pervasive throughout the organization. Line
managers, typically spend more than 50 percent of their time for human resource
activities such hiring, evaluating, disciplining, and scheduling employees. Human
resource management specialists in the HRM department help organizations with all
activities related to staffing and maintaining an effective workforce. Major HRM
responsibilities include work design and job analysis, training and development,
recruiting, compensation, team-building, performance management and appraisal,
worker health and safety issues, as well as identifying or developing valid methods for

selecting staff. HRM department provides the tools, data and processes that are used
by line managers in their human resource management component of their job.

WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF HRM DEPARTMENT?

The HRM focus should always be maintaining and, ideally, expanding the customer
base while maintaining, and ideally, maximizing profit. HRM has a whole lot to do with
this focus regardless of the size of the business, or the products or services you are
trying to sell. (Dr. James Spina, former head of Executive Development at the Tribune
Company). HRM is involved in managing the human resources with a focus on
expanding customer base that gives profit to the company. The bottom line of the
company is the focus of the HRM department as well as the function.
CONTRIBUTING TO THE BOTTOM-LINE OF THE COMPANY THROUGH HR TOPLINE ACTIVITIES
A growing body research shows that progressive HRM practices have a significant
effect on corporate bottom-line and middle-line performance. The positive effect on
financial performance, productivity, product and service quality, and cost control are
documented by researchers.
High-performance work systems (HPWS) is a term used to describe a collection of HR
practices or characteristics of HR systems designed to enhance employees
competencies so that employees can be a reliable source of competitive advantage. A
summary of the research on HPWS indicated that a one standard deviation of improved
assessment on a HPWS measurement tool increased sales per employee in excess of
$15,000 per employee, an 8 percent gain in labor productivity.

THE ACTIVITIES OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

The activities performed by HRM professionals fall under five major domains:
(1) Organizational design,

(2) Staffing,
(3) Performance Management and Appraisal,
(4) Employee and Organizational Development, and
(5) Reward Systems, Benefits and Compliance
Acquiring human resource capability should begin with organizational design and
analysis. Organizational design involves the arrangement of work tasks based on the
interaction of people, technology and the tasks to be performed in the context of the
objectives, goals and the strategic plan of the organization. HRM activities such as
human resources planning, job and work analysis, organizational restructuring, job
design, team building, computerization, and worker-machine interfaces fall under this
domain.
Recruitment, employee orientation, selection, promotion, and termination are among the
activities that fit into the staffing domain. The performance management domain
includes assessments of individuals and teams to measure, and to improve work
performance. Employee training and development programs are concerned with
establishing, fostering, and maintaining employee skills base don organizational and
employee needs.
Reward systems, benefits and compliance have to do with any type of reward or benefit
that may be available to employees. Labor law, health and safety issues and
unemployment policy fall under compliance component.

THE GREATEST CHALLENGES OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Unlike managing other resources like machines, real estate and finance, managing
human beings is a totally different ball game, simply because unlike other assets, each
employee has his own goal and will work first to attain that goal, even if it is at the cost
8

of the goals of the organization. Thus, no employee can ever be made to provide his
optimum output for the organization unless the goals of the organization are closely
aligned with his own goals. This, in short, is the greatest challenge for all HRM experts,
and in every organization, the need is to go about it in a way which is unique and
specific for that organization.
Science Vs Art
While technology threatens to take over most functions of business management away
from the experts, HRM is one field which is unlikely to be faced with this threat. It was, is
and will always be an expertise that is as much of a skill as an art, and hence beyond
the intelligence that our computers possess.

MAJOR TRENDS AFFECTING HRM

The following trends have an effect on human resource management function and
department. The importance of HRM increases due to some of them and the practices
of HRM are affected to some extent due to some of them.
1. Increased globalization of the economy.
2. Technological changes and environmental changes.
3. The need to be flexible in response to business changes.
4. Increase in litigation related to HRM.
5. Changing characteristics of the workforce.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

MEASUREMENT
Many HRM systems and activities are not subjected to systematic measurement. Many
organizations do not assess either the short- or long-term consequences of their HRM
9

programs or activities. A recurring theme of the book is that measurement and

accountability are key components to organizational effectiveness and competitive
advantage. Good measurement, allied with business strategies, will help organizations
select and improve all of their HRM activities and provide a much stronger connection
between HRM activities and organizational effectiveness.
Stanford University professor Jeffrey Pfeffer considers measurement to be one of the
keys to competitive advantage. His book Competitive Advantage Through People cites
measurement as one of the 16 HRM practices that contribute the most to competitive
advantage.
A new book entitled The Workforce Scorecard by Professors Mark Huselid, Brian
Becker, and Dick Beatty extends research on the "balanced scorecard" to a
comprehensive management and measurement system to maximize workforce
potential.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND HRM

Competitive Advantage refers to the ability of an organization to formulate strategies
that place it at favorable position relative to other companies in the industry. Two major
principles, namely customer value and uniqueness, are relevant for gaining competitive
advantage.
10

Competitive advantage occurs if customers perceive that they receive more value form
their transaction or relationship with an organization than from its competitors. HRM
needs to make efforts to ensure that all employees are focused on understanding
customer needs and expectations.
The second principle of competitive advantage derives from offering a product or
service that your competitor cannot easily imitate or copy.
The status of HRM is improving relative to other potential sources of competitive
advantage for an organization. Professor Pfeffer notes that "traditional sources of
success (e.g., speed to market, financial, technological) can still provide competitive
leverage, but to a lesser degree now than in the past, leaving organizational culture and
capabilities, derived from how people are managed, as comparatively more vital."
For success in 21st century, HRM activities must be (1) responsive to a highly
competitive marketplace and global business structures, (2) closely linked to business
strategic plans, (3) jointly conceived and implemented by line and HR managers, and
(4) focused on quality, customer service, productivity, employee involvement, teamwork,
and workforce flexibility.

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

Human resources planning is a process that identifies current and future human
resources needs for an organization to achieve it goals. Human resources planning
should serve as a link between human resources management and the overall strategic
plan of an organization. Ageing worker populations in most western countries and
growing demands for qualified workers in developing economies have underscored the
importance of effective Human Resources Planning.
11

DEFINITION
The ongoing process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an
organization's most valuable asset - its human resources. The objective of human
resource (HR) planning is to ensure the best fit between employees and jobs, while
avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses. The three key elements of the HR planning
process are forecasting labor demand, analyzing present labor supply, and balancing
projected labor demand and supply.
The HR plan needs to be flexible enough to meet short-term staffing challenges, while
adapting to changing conditions in the business and environment over the longer term.
Human resource planning is also a continuous process. Many business owners prepare
a business plan before starting their business. However, small business owners often
do not include human resource planning as part of their over-all business plan. They
may start out with only a few employees or none at all. Over time, it is important to
properly forecast employment needs. Just as failing to address potential threats in the
marketplace can jeopardize the viability of your business, failing to anticipate personnel
needs can impact on overall business success. The success of a business is directly
linked to the performance of those who work for that business. Underachievement can
be a result of workplace failures. Because hiring the wrong people or failing to
anticipate fluctuations in hiring needs can be costly, it is important that you put effort
into human resource planning. Planning for HR needs will help to ensure your
employees have the skills and competencies your business needs to succeed. An HR
plan works hand in hand with your business plan to determine the resources you need
to achieve the businesss goals. It will better prepare you for staff turnover, recruitment,
and strategic hiring and alleviate stress when you have emergency/last-minute hiring
needs. This module provides a detailed outline of how small business owners can
develop a human resource plan. There is also a discussion of issues to consider when
developing a succession plan, the plan that is needed to consider how to carry on the
business, or sell the business, when the current management/ownership leaves.
Tips for creating a personnel policy manual are also included.

12

PLANNING A BUSINESS STRATEGY

There are numerous considerations that the human resources professionals must take
into account. For instance: Inconsistencies between culture and strategy can severely
impair the successful pursuit of a given course of action. Often the political aspects of
producing a viable plan are insurmountable obstacles to overcome; as are other primary
factors such as the process itself or the plan measurements. Only the most seasoned
corporate politician often has enough sensitivity and negotiating skill to achieve the preplanning buy-in of the critical powers. The concept of planning boiled down is that in
order to determine the direction for human resource plans you must have a series of
questions that your organization needs to answer in order to predict and perhaps control
some of the major change areas for the future. This means that you begin by asking
the right questions the questions which, if asked regularly and systematically, will
force you to produce answers of maximum value in shaping your future human
resources.
It is also important to look at the planning activity from an activity standpoint. From an
operational view human resources planning is the analysis of human resource
requirements of organizations and the related needs for management policies,
programs and resources to satisfy these requirements. As is shown by Figure A, human
resources planning is critically interdependent with all aspects of the business. A
human resource strategy is a critical component of the firms corporate and business
strategies, comprising a set of well-coordinated objectives and action programs aimed
at securing a long-term, sustainable advantage over the firms competitors. A human
resource strategy should be consistent with the firms corporate and business
strategies, as well as with the other managerial functional strategies.
The primary objective of people responsible for doing human resources planning is to
acquire, develop and implement the technology, tools, expertise and resources
necessary to effectively do Human Resource Planning and Development as an integral
part of the business planning processes. It must not be done in a vacuum. Human
resource strategies should be developed within a companys strategic business
planning process.
13

The strategy that is often the basis for the planning process is to build networks of
internal human resources professionals and external human resources professionals
that will promote the sharing of information, technology and tools to be applied to the
Human Resource Planning and Development activities; Collect, evaluate and implement
tools, processes and resources; integrate tools and resources into a consistent strategy
which uses existing resources whenever possible. Again and again it is important to
make sure that the process is a legitimate piece of the company plan. Human resource
strategic planning takes place within the overall corporate / total organization strategic
planning model.
They will consult with and to human resource managers and line management to
achieve a high utilization of tools and resources to achieve functional goals. Those
goals include creating and implementing a workforce inventory and forecasting tool
customized for Line Organizations; and creating and consulting on custom management
planning tools and strategies for line Organizations. Figure A is an overview of human
resource planning from a strategic planning viewpoint. The model shows the
relationship of internal factors and external factors as they relate to the human
resources issues. They are factors that not only create; but also shape and change the
issues. The business plan usually establishes the basic environment within which other
variables impact in order to determine those issues. Out of those issues grow the
human resources strategies and plans that are most often developed and implemented
by and with the assistance of the human resources department.
Human resource planning is probably one of the most critical elements in linking the
work of the human resources function to the business goals of the company. It is
important to recognize that certain aspects of human resource management tend to
have potentially high strategic consequences.
Especially in the areas of policy development and implementation it is obvious and
difficult to refute advice that effective human resource policies require human resource
planning, which in turn, requires effective integration with an organizations strategic
planning process.

14

It is evident that human resources planning is becoming more and more important in
business circles. Because business profits are squeezed by inflation and a weakened
economy, management is also concerned with personnel costs and is seeking to
achieve increased output with the same or fewer staff.
Productivity concerns and material constraints also add to the emphasis on the ability to
plan and fully utilize all of a companys resources. The human resources are right on
the top of the list in most enterprises. The current demands on the worlds material
resources and their spiraling cost are building pressure to increase the productivity of
human resource.
Government at all levels both nationally and internationally (Federal, state, local, etc.) is
interested in how employers treat their employees. They, therefore, add factors that
must be considered in any human resource plan(work and wage laws, labor laws, etc.).
The net impact of the expanding government intervention has been an increase in the
attention given to human resource planning in all of the problem areas.
So, while the principles and processes of planning have not changed much, the
complexity and timeliness have. Information technology enables the collection and
analysis of more data than was even dreamed of in the1980s. The complexity of
planning across countries, cultures, economies, and new technologies is almost infinite.
This makes the art, the gut feeling, the best guess, that much more important. The best
that can be accomplished is to predict the probability of multiple successful solutions .

FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Following are the various functions of Human Resource Management that are essential
for the effective functioning of the organization:
1.

JOB ANALYSIS

2.

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

15

3.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

4.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT.

JOB ANALYSIS
Job analysis is a systematic approach to defining the job role, description, requirements,
responsibilities, evaluation, etc. it helps in finding out required level of education, skills,
knowledge, training, etc for the job position. It also depicts the job worth I,e
measureable effectiveness of the job and contribution of job to the organization. Thus, it
effectively contributes to setting up the compensation package for the job positon.

NATURE OF JOB ANALYSIS

Organisations consist of positions that have to be staffed. Job Analysis is the procedure
through which we determine the task, duties and responsibilities of these positions and
the characteristics of the people to hire for the positions. Job analysis produces
information used for writing, job description (a list of what the job entails) and job
specifications (what kind of people to hire for the job).

There are two outcomes of job analysis:

Job description
Job specification
16

The information collected under job analysis is:

Nature of jobs required in a concern.

Nature/ size of organizational structure.
Type of people required to fit that structure.
The relationship of the job with other jobs in the concern.
Kind of qualifications and academic background required for jobs.
Provision of physical condition to support the activities of the concern.

For example- separate cabins for managers, special cabins for the supervisors, healthy
condition for workers, and adequate store room for store keeper.

17

COMPONENTS OF JOB ANALYSIS

Job analysis is a systematic procedure to analyze the requirements for the job role and
jobprofile. Job analysis can be further categorized into following sub components.

Job Position:
Job position refers to the designation of the job and employee in the organization. Job
position forms an important part of the compensation strategy as it determines the level
of the job in the organization. For example management level employees receive
18

greater pay scale than non-managerial employees. The non-monetary benefits offered
to two different levels in the organization also vary.

Job Description:
Job description refers the requirements an organization looks for a particular job
position. It states the key skill requirements, the level of experience needed, level of
education required, etc.It also describes the roles and responsibilities attached with the
job position. The roles and responsibilities are key determinant factor in estimating the
level of experience, education, skill, etc required for the job. It also helps in
benchmarking the performance standards.

Job Worth:
Job Worth refers to estimating the job worthiness i.e. how much the job contributes to
the organization. It is also known as job evaluation. Job description is used to analyze
the job worthiness. It is also known as job evaluation. Roles and responsibilities helps
in determining the outcome from the job profile. Once it is determined that how much
the job is worth, it becomes easy to define the compensation strategy for the position.

19

USES OF JOB ANALYSIS:

Recruitment & Selection:

Job Analysis provides information about what the
jobentails and what human characteristics are required to perform the job. Thisinformati
on, in the form of job description and specifications, helps management decide what
sort of people to recruit and hire.
Compensation:
Job analysis is crucial for estimating the value of each job & itsappropriate
compensation. Compensation (such as salary and bonus) usually dependsupon the
jobs required skill and education level, safety hazards, degree of responsibility and so
on - all the factors we can assess through job analysis.
Performance Appraisal:
A performance appraisal compares each employees actual performance with his or
her performance standards. Managers use job analysis to determine the jobs specific
activities and performance standards.
Training:
The job description should show the activities and skills and therefore the training that job requires.

20

 Discovering unassigned duties:

Job analysis can also help reveal unassigned duties. For example, a companys
production manager says Mr. X is responsible for a dozen or so duties, such as
production scheduling and raw material purchasing. However any reference of raw
material inventory management was missing. On further study, the manager finds that
none of the other manufacturing people are responsible of inventory management. Thus
a manger has uncovered an essential unassigned duty with regards to job analysis

Steps in Job Analysis:

There are six steps in doing a job analysis.
(1) Decide how youll use the information, since this will determine the data you collect
and how you collect them. Some data collection techniques - like interviewing the
employee and asking what the job entails are good for writing job
description and selecting employees for the job. Other technique like the position
analysis & questionnaire do not provide qualitative information for job description.
Instead, they provide numerical ratings for each job; these can be used to compare jobs
for compensation purpose.
(2) Review relevant background information such as organization charts, process charts
and job description.

Organization charts show the organization wide division of work, how the job
in question relates to other jobs, and where the job fits in the overall
organization. The chart should show the title of each position and by means
of interconnecting lines, who reports to whom and with whom the job incumbent

communicates.
A process chart provide more detailed picture of the work flow. In its simplest
form a process chart shows the flow of inputs to and the outputs from the job you
are analyzing. Finally, the existing job description, if there is one, usually provides
a starting point for building the revised job description.
21

(3) Select representative positions. Why? Because there may be too many similar jobs
to analyze. For example, it is usually necessary to analyze the jobs of 200 assembly
workers when a sample of 10 jobs will do.
(4) Actually analyse the job by collecting data on job activities, required
employee behaviors, working condition, and human traits & abilities needed to perform
the job. For this step, use one or more of the job analysis methods.
(5) Verify the job analysis information with the worker performing the job & with his or
her immediate supervisor. This will help confirm that the information is factually correct
and complete. This review can also help gain the employees acceptance of the job
analysis data and conclusions by giving that person a
chance to review and modify your description of the job activities.
6) Develop a job description and job specification. These are two tangible products of
the job analysis. The job description is a written statement that describes the activities
and responsibilities of the job, as well as its important features, such as working
conditions and safety hazards. The job specification summarizes the personal
qualities, traits, skill and background required for getting job done. In maybe in a
separate document or in the same document as the job description.
Methods of collecting Job Analysis Information:
There are various ways to collect information on the duties, responsibilities and
activities of the job. In practice, we can use anyone of them, or we can combine the
techniques that best fit our purpose. Thus, an interview might be appropriate for
creating a job description, whereas the position analysis questionnaire maybe more
appropriate for quantifying the worth of a job for compensation purposes. Conducting
the job analysis usually involves a joint effort by an HR specialist, the worker, &
the workers supervisor. The HR specialist might observe and analyze the job and then
develop a job description and specification. The supervisor and worker may fill out
questionnaires listing the subordinates activities. The supervisor and worker may then
review and verify the job analyzed conclusions regarding the jobs activities and duties.
In practice, firm usually collects jobs analysis data from multiple subject matter experts
22

using questionnaires and interviews. They then average data from several employees
from different departments to determine how much time a typical employee spends on
each of several specific tasks. The problem is that employees who have the same
job title but work
in differentdepartments may experience very different pressures. Therefore, simply addi
ng up andaveraging the amount of time that, say, HR assistance need to devote
interviewing candidates could end in misleading results. The point is that we must
understand the jobs departmental context the way someone with a particular job title
spends his or her time is not necessarily the same from department to department.

QUANTITATIVE JOB ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES

Qualitative approaches like interviews and questionnaires are not always suitable. For
example, if your aim is to compare jobs for pay purposes, you may want to be able to
assign quantitative values to each job. The position analysis questionnaire, the
Department of Labour approach and functional job analysis are three popular
quantitative methods.

23

THE INTERVIEW
Managers use three types of interview to collect job analysis data individual interview
with each employee, group interview with groups of employees who have the
same jobs & the supervisor interviews with one or more supervisor who know the job.
They use group interviews when a large number of employees are performing similar or
identical work, since it can be a quick and inexpensive way to gather
information. Whichever kind of interviews we use, we need to be sure the interviewee
fully understands the reason for the interview since there is a tendency for such
interviews to be viewed, rightly or wrongly, as efficiency evaluation. If
so, interviewees may hesitate to describe their jobs accurately.

Pros & Cons

The interview is probably the most widely used method for identifying the jobs
duties &responsibilities and its wide use reflects its advantages. It is relatively simple
and quick way tocollect information, including information that might
never appear on a written form. The interview also provides an opportunity to explain
the need for and function of the job analysis. And the employee can vent frustration that
might otherwise go unnoticed by the management. Distortion of the information is the
main problem whether due to outright falsification or
honest misunderstanding. Job analysis is often a prelude to changing a jobs pay rate.E
mployees therefore may legitimately view the interview as the efficiency evaluation that
may affect their pay. They may then tend to exaggerate certain responsibilities while
minimizing others.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS.

What is the job being performed?

What are the major duties of your position? What exactly do you do?
What physical location do you work in?
What are the education, experience, skill and (where applicable) certification an

d Licensing requirements?
In what activities do you participate?
24

What are the job responsibilities and duties?

What are the basic accountabilities or performance that typifies your work?
What are your responsibilities? What is the environmental and working condition

involved?
What are the jobs physical demands? The emotional and mental demands?
What are the health and safety condition?
Are you exposed to any hazards or any unusual working conditions?

Questionnaires
Having employees fill out questionnaires to describe their job-related duties &
responsibilities is another good way to obtain job analysis information. We have to
decide how structured the questionnaire should be and what question to include. Some
questionnaires are very structured checklists. Each employee gets an inventory of
perhaps hundreds of specific duties or tasks (such as change and splice via). He or
she is asked to indicate whether or not he/she performs each tasks and, it so, how
much time is normally spent on each. At the other extreme, the questionnaire can
be open-ended and simply ask the employee to describe the major duties of your job.
In practice, the best questionnaire often falls between these two extremes.
Whether structured or unstructured, questionnaires have both pros & cons. A
questionnaire is a quick and efficient way to obtain information from a large number of
employees, its less costly than interviewing hundreds of workers, for instance. However,
developing any questionnaire and testing it can be expensive and time-consuming.

CONCLUSION
From Job Analysis, specific details of what is being done and the skills utilized in the job
areobtained. Job Analysis enables the managers to understand jobs and job structures
to improve work flow or develop techniques to improve productivity.

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