Question

Critical Incident 2- Job analysis

At the last meeting of managers and supervisors, a major topic of discussion pertained to employee confusion regarding their job duties. Some employees refuse to do any work outside their usual routine, exclaiming, “That’s not my job!” This is somewhat understandable since the company has no written job descriptions. Job duties have been informal understandings, originating when the company began only a few years ago (when the company had few employees), and no one had the time or inclination to rectify the situation.

As HR manager, you have investigated the various methods and costs of doing a job analysis for the company. Any job analysis program includes writing a job description for each job in the company. You have discovered that job descriptions have many uses, including: recruitment, interviewing, orientation, training, job evaluation, wage compensation survey, performance appraisal, and outplacement. Although there are no dangerous jobs in your operation, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requirements state that a company must specify “elements of the job that endanger health, or are to be considered unsatisfactory or distasteful to the majority of the population.” Providing a job description to employees is a good defense against possible legal actions. Since you do not have the personnel or in-house expertise to do the work, you have received bids from various companies to do the work.

Proposals below are from the best-qualified and most reasonably priced company you could locate. Make one selection from the following options; the one-time cost will automatically be charged against your budget.

1. Analyze all jobs, including managerial. (Cost: $20,000)- Option chosen

2. Analyze production/operations jobs. (Cost: $15,000)-

3. Categorize production/operations jobs, and do a job analysis for each category. (Cost: $10,000)

4. Hire a consultant to make a plan for doing job analysis in-house. (Cost: $5,000)

5. Put the project on hold. (Cost: none)

I am needing help finding the pros and cons for options 2 and 4. Options 1,3, and 5 have already been taken care of.

My question is: Why would option 2 and 4 not be good options for this assignment. Also, would there be any positive points for the options?  

Answer 1

Option 2 is not good as it is costing way too much for analyzing only the production or operation jobs. Moreover option 1 already takes care of all the categories at a comparitively low cost.In comparison to option 1 and 3 option 2 is not relevant.

option 4 on the other hand just looks into the planning of the job analysis rather than actually analyzing it. The planning is already on point so as to analyse the various jobs. Option 4 will act as a additional cost as other options are already taking care of the analysis.

The advantages of option2 will be that it would look into the matter in much depth as compared to option 1. It would look into the requirement of the particular jobs and assign who is perfect for the respective job.

Option 4 wpould help in reducing the burden already prevailing in the company and may assist the manager in assigning the right person on the right job.