1

PHRi
2023

Functional Area 01
Talent Acquisition

Professional in Human Resources – International (PHRi)

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE CERTIFICATION INSTITUTE

IHRCI ® | www.ihrci.org
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Professional in Human Resources – International (PHRi) Workbook

Module One: Talent Acquisition

2023 Edition

Copyright © 2023 by International Human Resource Certification Institute

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
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to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been
taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages
resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

International Human Resource Certification Institute (IHRCI)

Flat/Rm, B, 5/F, Gaylord Commercial Building, 114-118, Lockhart Road.

Hong Kong

www.ihrci.org
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Introduction
As a purchaser of the PHRi certification workbook serials, you have access to the
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a description of the key terms in HR. Also, the system consists of over 900 practice exam
questions and answers with explanations in our database including pre-test, review-test, and
post-test:
Pre-test: It contains the same percentage of questions from each content area. Participants
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This workbook is not a textbook. These materials include workbooks and practice exams are
intended for use as an aid to preparation for the PHRi Certification Exam conducted by the
HR Certification Institute. By using all of the preparation materials, you will be well-versed in
the six key functional areas that make up the HR Certification Institute PHRi body of
knowledge. Studying these materials does not guarantee, however, that you will pass the
exam. These workbooks are not to be considered legal or professional advice.
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Table of Content
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3
Table of Content ......................................................................................................................... 4
Part One: Job Analysis and Design ............................................................................................. 7
1. Job Analysis .................................................................................................................... 7
1.1. Applications of Job Analyses ............................................................................... 8
1.2. Elements of a Job Analysis ................................................................................ 12
1.3. Job Specification ................................................................................................ 16
2. Methods of Job Analysis ............................................................................................... 17
2.1. Self-Reports ....................................................................................................... 17
2.2. Direct Observations ........................................................................................... 18
2.3. Interviews .......................................................................................................... 18
2.4. Document Reviews ............................................................................................ 20
2.5. Questionnaires and Surveys .............................................................................. 21
3. Job Design..................................................................................................................... 23
3.1. Comparative Framework ................................................................................... 25
3.2. Job Design and Technology ............................................................................... 29
3.3. Job Characteristics Enrichment ......................................................................... 30
3.4. Sociotechnical Systems...................................................................................... 35
Part Two: Workforce Planning .................................................................................................. 38
1. Human Resource Planning ........................................................................................... 38
1.1. Business Context ............................................................................................... 39
1.2. Workforce Supply .............................................................................................. 39
1.3. Workforce Demand ........................................................................................... 39
1.4. Workforce Gap .................................................................................................. 40
1.5. Staffing Plan ....................................................................................................... 40
2. Equating Workforce Demand to Supply ....................................................................... 41
2.1. Demand Equals Supply ...................................................................................... 42
2.2. Demand Is Less Than Supply ............................................................................. 42
2.3. Demand Is Greater Than Supply........................................................................ 42
3. Staffing Plan .................................................................................................................. 42
3.1. Demand Forecast............................................................................................... 42
3.2. Supply Forecast ................................................................................................. 43
3.3. Gap Analysis ...................................................................................................... 43
3.4. Strategy Identification ....................................................................................... 43
4. Contingent Staffing ....................................................................................................... 44
4.1. Type of Alternative Staff .................................................................................... 44
4.2. Contingent Workforce Strategy ......................................................................... 45
5. Diversity and Inclusion ................................................................................................. 47
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5.1. Inventory of Action ............................................................................................ 48

5.2. Leadership Accountability ................................................................................. 48
5.3. The Role of HR ................................................................................................... 49
6. Employment Contract .................................................................................................. 49
6.1. Implied Agreement ............................................................................................ 50
6.2. Written Agreement ........................................................................................... 50
6.3. Job offer ............................................................................................................. 50
Part Three: Workforce Recruitment ......................................................................................... 53
1. Recruiting ..................................................................................................................... 53
1.1. The Purpose of Recruitment ............................................................................. 53
1.2. The Recruitment Process................................................................................... 54
1.3. Recruitment Planning ........................................................................................ 55
2. Sources of Recruitment ................................................................................................ 55
2.1. Internal Recruiting ............................................................................................. 55
2.2. External Recruiting ............................................................................................ 58
3. Recruiting Metrics ........................................................................................................ 67
3.1. Quantity of Applicants ....................................................................................... 67
3.2. Quality of Applicants ......................................................................................... 67
3.3. Stakeholders Satisfaction .................................................................................. 67
3.4. Time to Fill ......................................................................................................... 67
3.5. Cost per Hire ...................................................................................................... 67
3.6. Yield ratios ......................................................................................................... 68
3.7. Selection Rate .................................................................................................... 69
3.8. Acceptance Rate ................................................................................................ 69
3.9. Success Base Rate .............................................................................................. 69
4. Increasing Recruiting Efficient and Effective ................................................................ 69
4.1. Résumé Mining .................................................................................................. 69
4.2. Applicant Tracking System (ATS) ........................................................................ 70
4.3. Employer Career Website .................................................................................. 70
4.4. Internal Mobility ................................................................................................ 70
4.5 Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) .............................................................................. 70
4.6. Candidate Management .................................................................................... 70
4.7. Post-Hire Assessment ........................................................................................ 71
Part Four: Workforce Selection ................................................................................................ 73
1. Selection Process .......................................................................................................... 73
1.1. Stage One: Initial Screening .............................................................................. 74
1.2. Stage Two: Secondary Screening ....................................................................... 74
1.3. Stage Three: Candidacy ..................................................................................... 75
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1.4. Stage Four: Verification ..................................................................................... 75

1.5. Stage Five: Final Decision .................................................................................. 75
2. Criteria, Predictors, and Performance .......................................................................... 75
2.1. Validity ............................................................................................................... 76
2.2. Reliability ........................................................................................................... 77
2.3. Combining Predictors ........................................................................................ 77
2.4. Person-Environment Fit ..................................................................................... 78
3. Initial Screening ............................................................................................................ 79
3.1. Electronic Assessment Screening ...................................................................... 80
3.2. Application Forms.............................................................................................. 81
3.3. Résumés as Applications ................................................................................... 82
3.4. AI-powered assessment .................................................................................... 82
4. Secondary Screening .................................................................................................... 83
4.1. Cognitive Aptitude Tests .................................................................................... 84
4.2. Psychomotor / Physical Abilities........................................................................ 84
4.3. Job Knowledge Tests .......................................................................................... 85
4.4. Work Sample Tests ............................................................................................ 85
4.5. Vocational Interest Tests ................................................................................... 85
4.6. Personality Tests ................................................................................................ 86
4.7. Integrity Test ...................................................................................................... 87
4.8. Substance Abuse Tests ...................................................................................... 87
4.9. Assessment Center (AC) .................................................................................... 87
5. Job Interview ................................................................................................................ 88
5.1. Structured vs. Unstructured Interviews ............................................................ 89
5.2. Situational Interview ......................................................................................... 90
5.3. Behavioral Interview.......................................................................................... 90
5.4. STAR technique .................................................................................................. 90
5.5. Other Types of Interviews ................................................................................. 91
5.6. Interview Procedure .......................................................................................... 92
6. Reference Check ........................................................................................................... 92
6.1. Process of Reference Check............................................................................... 93
6.2. Background Check ............................................................................................. 94
6.3. Legal Constraints on Background Investigations ............................................... 95
6.4. Medical Examinations and Inquiries ................................................................. 95
6.5. References ......................................................................................................... 96
6.6. Making the Job Offer ......................................................................................... 96
Reference.......................................................................................................................... 99
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Part One: Job Analysis and Design

1. Job Analysis
Human resource management in organizations virtually always requires an in-depth
understanding of the work that people do in that organization. The process by which this
understanding is developed is a job analysis; a job description is the documentation of the
results of that analysis. While these two terms are often used interchangeably, we strongly
recommend against such usage, as job analysis is a process and a job description is a
product of that process. Simply put, a job analysis is a systematic process for collecting and
analyzing information about a job.
In a more comprehensive and detailed definition, Scholars defined job analysis as ‘‘the
collection of data on (a)‘job-oriented’ behavior, such as job tasks and work procedures;
(b) more abstract ‘worker-oriented’ behavior, such as decision making, supervision, and
information processing; (c) behaviors involved in interactions with machines, materials,
and tools; (d) methods of evaluating performance, such as productivity and error rates; (e)
job context, such as working conditions and type of compensation systems; and (f)
personnel requirements, such as skills, physical ability, and personality traits’’ This
definition of job analysis focuses on the systematic collection of data on the observable job
behaviors of employees and what is accomplished by these behaviors and what
technologies are required to do so.

Brannick, M.T., Levine, E.L., & Morgeson, F.P. (2014). Job and Work Analysis: Methods,
Research, and Applications for Human Resource Management (2nd edition). Thousand
Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Given the importance that job analyses play in the management of human capital, it is
surprising that job analyses are not regarded as a more critical tool in the field of human
8

resources. Over three decades ago, a researcher observed, ‘Although job analysis is an
essential feature of every activity engaged in by industrial-organizational psychologists, the
subject is treated in most textbooks in a manner which suggests that any fool can do it and
thus is a task which can be delegated to the lowest level technician’. Unfortunately, the
situation has not much changed, and this important function is not given the proper
degree of attention and respect either by psychologists or HR professionals.
1.1. Applications of Job Analyses
A variety of important reasons support conducting job analyses in the workplace.
These include recruitment, candidate selection, employee training and development,
performance management, organizational management and planning, and litigation
protection. Each of these will be briefly reviewed.
1.1.1. Recruitment
The first external application of job analysis is in recruitment, when the job description
becomes the basis for recruiting applicants. In beginning to fill a vacant job, the
recruiter needs to know the job responsibilities as well as the skills and other
characteristics required of candidates. Not only is it necessary for the recruiter to know
these things, but candidates need to know the kind of job for which they are applying.
The need for a job description should be obvious to all.
1.1.2. Candidate Selection
In our experience, candidate selection accounts for most job analyses. Employers need
to know in some detail the work activities involved in each job vacancy and, most
importantly, the knowledge, skills, and abilities— the competencies— required to fill
that job successfully. While most employers maintain files of job descriptions, there is
widespread understanding that many, if not most, of these job descriptions are dated
and need to be redone, especially for jobs deemed to be critically important.
The work activities of a job change over time, as do the requirements for successfully
carrying out those activities. As an example, consider the impact that the computer has
had on the work activities both in the office and on the shop floor. Administrative
positions that once had a heavy dose of taking shorthand and transcription are now
given over to a very different set of activities, ones that require a rather different set of
requirements. Similarly, the introduction of the computer onto the shop floor and into
the warehouse has produced an equally large impact on the work activities. The
tightening of bolts on the assembly line is now done by a computer-driven robot, the
contents of the warehouse are all bar coded, and most jobs require computer skills for
success. Such changes are ongoing and have enormous impact on the competency
requirements for hiring. And these changes can be specified only by a careful job
analysis.
Further, it is important to recognize that many skills are specific to a given occupation
and that these occupationally specific skills are only be identified by a job analysis.
One use of job analyses is in developing behavioral interviewing protocols for candidate
screening. The job description that is the end-product of the job analysis should
provide a clear picture of the work and activities and the requirements. These then
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should provide the basis on which to develop a behavioral interviewing protocol—

questions inquiring into a candidate’s experience in such work activities and seeking to
establish the degree to which the candidate has the necessary requirements to
perform the important work activities. This is a method for developing a behavioral
interview much preferred to the more generic approach that lacks a specific job-
relevant focus.
Another important use of job analyses is as the criteria for validity studies of any pre-
employment selection procedure, especially psychological tests. The Standards for
Educational and Psychological Testing specify that the job requirements involved in
studies of predictor-criteria relationships should be ‘‘determined by a job analysis’’. In
other words, the validity of a psychological test or any procedure for selecting job
candidates must be determined by the correlation of that procedure with an important
aspect of job performance as identified by a job analysis.
1.1.3. Employee Training and Development
Once a current job analysis becomes available, the competency of current employees
in that job becomes apparent. Employees without a high level of the identified
necessary competencies will be less productive than they otherwise should be. For
example, if a new applicant tracking system is introduced in the HR function, someone
has to be hired to manage that system. But, implicit in that decision, is the question of
the competency of the existing HR staff to use that new system. Without knowing the
answer to that question, the positive impact of the introduction of this new system will
be less than intended. Thus, the job analysis used for the new hire should lead to an
analysis of the competencies of the existing staff, and a training and development
program should be instituted to produce the necessary competencies.
The job analysis can impact on the individual training and development level as well. It
is rare that even those candidates who are the best fit developed through the job
analysis are a perfect fit. The selection process should have identified both the
candidate’s strengths— those that led to the selection—and weaknesses— those that
need to be addressed by some training and development process. This might be part of
a supervisory or mentoring process or by some actual training, either on the job or
somewhere else. In a somewhat dated example, a very experienced travel agent with
an established clientele was hired by a large travel agency. The agent, despite her
considerable experience, has little experience using the computer booking system that
had been identified as an important requirement in the job analysis. Her experience
and list of clients were sufficient to outweigh her lack of skill with the system, a lack
that could be remedied by taking a week-long training course, which was an acceptable
solution to both parties. Clearly in this case, as in all training decisions, the job analysis
is the starting point.
1.1.4. Performance Management
Another important use of job analysis is in performance management. Job analyses
play an important role in developing or modifying compensation systems and in
performance appraisal. Determining the various levels of performance on a given job is
an essential aspect of every job analysis. The knowledge of what constitutes an
outstanding level of performance, an average level, and a borderline level is a critical
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aspect of performance management and should be the basis for setting pay and
bonuses, the need for training and development, and for virtually all other aspects of
the HR function.
Job analyses have been used not only to set pay levels but also to help determine
whether different jobs require different requirements or effort, or involve different
working conditions. In either case, such differences merit different pay scales. Jobs that
involve equivalent factors, however, should lead to equal pay.
The pay level a job warrants is also important, and the job characteristics as
determined by the job analysis are frequently used to determine the level of pay.
Among the factors included in such decisions are
⚫ Level of education, training, or experience required
⚫ Degree of creativity involved
⚫ Strength or stamina necessary
⚫ Amount of responsibility
⚫ Degree of independence of action
⚫ Scope of influence
⚫ Intellectual demands, including problem solving
⚫ Risk of death, injury, or sickness
Presumably the level of each of these factors can be identified by a job analysis and
then combined in some meaningful way to determine the level of the job among the
various jobs in that organization. The job description and the combined evaluation of
these various factors provide the basis for establishing a compensation system that is
then priced according to the data produced by a salary survey of similar jobs in the
local job market.
Since such comparisons are fraught with uncertainties, they have become the basis of a
considerable amount of litigation about the equality of pay for different jobs. As just
one example of the ambiguities involved, consider the difficulties inherent in
attempting to use job analysis to justify equal pay of elementary school teachers and
truck drivers. While there is some evidence that sophisticated statistical analysis of the
results of job analyses can be used successfully to predict market compensation rates,
this can be done only for blue-collar jobs. Further, it is often argued that such an
approach captures only existing discriminatory pay polices and does little to advance
the cause of equal pay for equal work. It is safe to conclude that setting compensation
systems on the basis of job analysis is a complex and difficult process.
Job analyses are also used in the performance appraisal process. For this process, job
analyses should highlight the various work activities involved in performing a job and
the relative importance of each activity. A rational performance appraisal system would
evaluate the quality of the work performed by the individual being appraised according
to the various importance ratings. It should be far more critical for that employee being
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rated to perform the important tasks more competently than for him or her to perform
those of lesser importance competently. Unfortunately, this does not always seem to
be the case, and often employees feel that they are downgraded for not attending to
rather trivial tasks, ones not critical to fulfilling the organization’s mission. This leads to
a feeling on the part of employees that the performance appraisal process is an
unimportant managerial task, so they often discount the entire process.
1.1.5. Organizational Management and Planning
As we noted above, the appropriateness of job descriptions tends to decay over time.
Changes in the marketplace require new behaviors, technology changes jobs with warp
speed, and incumbents begin to do their jobs in idiosyncratic ways. As a result of these
and other changes, job descriptions become obsolete. Further, mergers and
acquisitions lead to a need to integrate different human resources management
systems. And a new CEO comes in and decides to rationalize the HR function, to update
the job descriptions, create a new compensation system, one based on equal pay for
equal work, none of which can be accomplished without starting with a job analysis.
When one of us became the CEO of a large professional association, he quickly learned
about employee discontent over what appeared to be favoritism in assigning job titles,
compensation, and a variety of other benefits. It appeared that the only way to deal
with this unrest was through an organization-wide review and rationalization,
beginning with job analyses. To win employee acceptance of the process, the staff was
promised that no one would suffer financially or in status.
The organization had almost five hundred employees, and the HR function was
inadequate to perform the required work. A national HR consulting firm was engaged
to create an organization-wide series of job analyses, draft current job descriptions
based on these analyses, create a uniform set of job titles, and recommend a
compensation system based on the job content involved and a regional salary survey.
This was done over a period of several months and was widely accepted by both rank-
and-file employees and the organization’s board of directors. Moreover, this work
enabled the organization to identify where additional resources were needed and
where redundancy would provide some resources to fill those gaps. But all of this
depended on the first step— the job analyses.
1.1.6. Litigation Protection
Still another use of job analyses is to reduce an organization’s exposure to litigation
based on allegations of discriminatory hiring practices. In order to ensure that all
individuals are treated fairly in the workplace, including in hiring, pay, training, and
other conditions of employment, we need to base all of our decisions on job-related
qualifications. The only way to be able to do this is through the use of job analyses. For
example, if we wish to hire a plumber, we need to ascertain that applicants can run
pipe and have a license to do so, requirements based on the job analysis. Simply stated,
if we are to hire people based on the qualifications to perform a job, we first must
determine what those requirements for doing that job are—and conducting a job
analysis is the only legal way to do this.
As we noted above, the Uniform Guidelines are quite explicit in requiring ‘‘an analysis
12

of important work behaviors required for successful performance’’ as the basis for any
hiring action. Any selection process should begin with such a job analysis that
establishes the criteria against which applicants should be compared. Further, the job
analysis establishes the criteria for establishing the validity of any assessment measure
to be used in the selection process. Scholars provide a more detailed discussion of the
use of criteria to establish the validity of psychological tests and a catalogue of
commonly used tests.
While there is no absolute or certain shield against litigation, basing selection decisions
on a careful, thorough, and current job analysis and using only well-validated selection
procedures based on those job analyses will go a long way to deter frivolous filings.
One additional point is the critical importance of a careful, contemporaneous record
documenting what was done and why it was done. In our experience, one of the major
problems that our clients experience in defending themselves in HR litigation is the
failure to document properly what was done.
This catalogue of the uses of job analyses is far from complete, as we have not included
the use of job analyses in research on the nature of work and how work is changing,
studies of the structure of work, and so on. But the focus of this book is on providing
useful tools for the practicing HR professional and such conceptually focused research
is of little practical use to this audience.
1.2. Elements of a Job Analysis
1.2.1. Terms and Definition of Job Analysis
Various authors use terms such as job, position, and task to men different things.
Position: The duties and tasks carried out by one person. A position may exist even
where no incumbent fills it; it may be an open position. There are at least as many
positions in an organization as there are people.
Job: A group of positions with the same major duties or tasks: if the positions are not
identical, the similarity is great enough to justify grouping them. A job is a set of tasks
within a single organization or organizational unit.
Occupation: An occupation is a class of roughly similar jobs found in many
organizations and even in different industries. Examples include attorney, computer
programmer. Mechanic, and Gardener.
Job family: A group of jobs similar in specifiable ways, such as patterns of purposes,
behaviors, or worker attributes. An example of a job family might he clerical and
technical,” which could include receptionists, accounting clerks, secretaries, and data
entry specialists.
Element: The smallest feasible part of an activity or broader category of behavior or
work done. It might be an elemental motion, a part of a task, or a broader behavioral
category; there is little consistency in meanings of this term.
Task: A step or component in (lie performance of a duty. A task has a clear beginning
and ending; it can usually be described with a brief statement consisting of an action
verb and a further phrase.
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Duty: A relatively large part of the work done in a position or job. It consists of several
tasks related in time, sequence, outcome, or objective. A clerical duty might be “sorting
correspondence.” One task in correspondence sorting might be ‘identify letters
requiring immediate response.’
Job Description (JD): A written report of the results of job analysis. JD is a list or form
of a job’s duties, responsibilities, reporting relationships, working conditions,
performance criteria, and supervisory responsibilities. JD is the result and one product
of a job analysis.
Job Specification: A list of a job’s “human requirements”: the requisite education,
skills, knowledge, and so on – another product of a job analysis. Job Specification
should address what knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) do
job holders need to perform these tasks effectively.
Traditional job analysis has four typical components:
⚫ A description of the work activity (WA) or tasks involved in doing the job;
⚫ The knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) or competencies necessary to perform
the job;
⚫ Data on the range of job performance; and
⚫ The characteristics of the workplace.
The data contained in these four components provide the basis for drafting the job
description, which should provide an integrated narrative picture of the job and what is
required to fill that job successfully.
1.2.2. Work Activity (WA)
The process of a job analysis typically begins with a description of the major job
functions, the activities in which a job incumbent regularly engages— the reasons why
the job exists. One inherent problem in describing work activities is the level at which
the activity is described. At the most basic level are the job elements, “the smallest unit
into which work can be divided without analyzing separate motions, movement, and
mental processes’’.
A more useful approach is that of Functional Job Analysis, which specifies an action
verb, which describes the action performed in observable terms; (2) the outcomes or
results of that action; (3) the tools or other equipment used; and (4) the amount of
discretion allowed the worker in that action. Two examples should serve to clarify
some of the issues in this approach to WA. In the first, ‘‘The assembler takes one end of
the red wire and one end of the green wire and joins them together with a screw nut.’’
In the second, “The surgeon takes the scalpel and makes a long incision into the chest
of the comatose patient.’’ In both examples, the action is described clearly, the tools
involved are specified, the outcomes are clear, and the level of discretion is implicit and
very different. These examples represent both the approach and content of the
approach, sometimes referred to as major job requirements, to describing the WA that
we advocate.
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There two aspects to the WA process: one is the importance of the action to the
success of performing the job and the other is the frequency with which that action is
performed. Obviously, important and frequent actions constitute the bulk of the WA.
But important but infrequent actions often need to be included. For example, while
most police officers never draw and fire their handguns in the course of their careers,
when such action is required it is critical to the success of that job. Thus, descriptions
of WA should identify both the importance and frequency of actions, especially when
highly important WA occur infrequently.
1.2.3. Knowledge, Skills, and Ability (KSA)
The second question that every job analysis must address concerns the knowledge,
skills, and abilities (KSA) or competencies necessary to perform these WA.
Knowledge is defined as an organized body of information, usually of a factual or
procedural nature, that, when applied, makes the successful performance of a job
action possible. Knowledge is usually not demonstrated in the action itself but rather
by prior education, training, or testing. In observing the action, the knowledge base is
assumed and inferred rather than directly observed.
In the above example of the assembler, he or she would need to have sufficient
knowledge of the English language to follow directions, know the difference between
red and green, and know how to use a screw nut to join the two ends together. The
knowledge needed by a surgeon is far more complex and would include an intimate
understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the human body, how to monitor the
patient’s vital signs, choosing the correct scalpel for the procedure, and so on. In both
cases, however, each set of knowledge forms the basis of the success of executing the
job action.
Skill, the second necessary component for the successful execution of the job action, is
defined as the proficiency in the manual, verbal, or mental manipulation of people,
ideas, or things. A skill is always directly observable and a certain level of skill is
typically set as a standard or baseline for the successful performance of the action.
In our continuing example, the assembler must have sufficient eye-hand coordination
to pick up the two ends of the wire and the screw nut and adequate finger dexterity to
twist the wires together either by hand or mechanically and insert the twisted ends
into the wire nut. The skill set of the surgeon includes a high level of eye-hand
coordination, sufficient hand steadiness to manipulate the scalpel without untoward
injury to the patient, sufficient finger dexterity to suture major bleeding, and so on.
Thus, every job action involves an identification of the required skills and the necessary
level of those skills.
Ability is defined as the present capacity to execute a job action, to perform a job
function by applying an underlying knowledge base and the necessary skills
simultaneously. Knowledge, like ability, is not observable directly but rather is an
inferred, higher-order construct, such as problem solving, spatial ability, intelligence,
and so on. For lower-level jobs, it is relatively easy to describe the KSA required in
terms of just K and S. Abilities are typically invoked in describing higher-level technical,
professional, and managerial jobs as the WAs become more conceptual, abstract, and
 15

complex, despite the fact that they do not meet the requirements of the Uniform
Guidelines of being observable.
Thus, the assembler job could be described readily in terms of the limited knowledge
and skill required, while we might invoke such characteristics as systems-orientation,
decisiveness, meticulousness, and awareness of the operating room environment as
necessary characteristics of a successful surgeon. While most observers would agree
that these characteristics are important to surgical success, a number would question
whether these characteristics are best understood as abilities.
As a result of such questions, many experts in job analysis add a fourth factor, O for
Other, to the KSA paradigm, leading to a KSAO approach to job requirements. We
believe that both the KSA and the KSAO labels are rather awkward and difficult to
apply. Rather, we have chosen to use the term competencies as a substitute for these
other labels.
1.2.4. Levels of Job Performance
After developing clarity of the WA involved in a job and the necessary competencies, a
job analysis must identify the necessary range of adequate job performance. Most job
analyses focus on identifying what constitutes a high level of job performance in order
to identify the competencies that separate stars from the rest of the pack. When we
are trying to understand these factors to meet promotion or training and development
requirements, this is an appropriate approach; but what if we intend to use the job
analysis for candidate selection?
Here, a very different dynamic is in play. When we examine the job performance of
incumbents, we typically learn what an experienced job holder can accomplish. But
few, if any, new hires are likely to be as productive or as competent as the typical
incumbent. Thus, in establishing the job performance requirements, we must set more
modest initial levels for new hires, a process that requires a fair degree of judgment.
One additional point, in selecting supervisors and managers from an existing
workforce, it is often the case that a top performer is chosen without recognizing that
supervisory and managerial tasks require different skills than performing the tasks
being supervised do, so such selections often do not work out satisfactorily. From this
discussion it should be clear that job performance levels need to be set as a function of
the use to which they are to be put, and that there is no substitute for common sense
in setting those limits.
1.2.5. Workplace Characteristics
Workplaces vary enormously in their norms, climate, and culture, in the level of
discomfort that workers can experience, the inherent risks posed by working there, and
other noteworthy factors. A competent and thorough job analysis identifies the
important workplace characteristics. Many approaches to job analyses pay scant
attention to describing the workplace setting unless it varies significantly from the
typical factory, office, or warehouse. We, on the other hand, strongly believe that an in-
depth understanding of the characteristics of the workplace should be an integral part
of a competent job analysis.
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Once the four elements of the job analysis— the work activities (WA), the job
competencies (previously KSAs), the range of job performance, and the workplace
characteristics— have been identified, they can be combined in a thematic fashion into
a job description. We now turn our attention to the various methods of actually
conducting a job analysis.
1.3. Job Specification
Job specification is a statement of employee characteristics and qualifications required
for satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job or
function. Job specification is derived from job analysis. In other word, Job specification
as a statement of minimum qualification that person must possess to perform a given
job successfully.
While the job description describes activities to be done, it is job specifications that list
the knowledge, skills, and abilities an individual needs to perform a job satisfactorily.
Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) include education, experience, work skill
requirements, personal abilities, and mental and physical requirements. Job
specifications for a data entry operator might include a required educational level, a
certain number of months of experience, a typing ability of 60 words per minute, a
high degree of visual concentration, and ability to work under time pressure. It is
important to note that accurate job specifications identify what KSAs a person needs to
do the job, not necessarily what qualifications the current employee possesses.
Usually, the information of a job specification includes
1.3.1. Experience:
Number of years of experience in the job you are seeking to fill. Number of years of
work experience required for the selected candidate. Note whether the position
requires progressively more complex and responsible experience, and supervisory or
managerial experience.
1.3.2. Education:
State what degrees, training, or certifications are required for the position.
1.3.3. Required Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Characteristics (KSAOs):
State the skills, knowledge, and personal characteristics of individuals who have
successfully performed this job. Or, use the job analysis data to determine the
attributes you need from your “ideal” candidate. Your recruiting planning meeting or
email participants can also help determine these requirements for the job
specification.
Job specifications information must be converted into employee specification
information in order to know what kind of person is needed to fill a job. Employee
specification is a like a brand name which spells that the candidate with a particular
employee specification generally possess the qualities specified under job specification.
Employee specification is useful to find out the suitability of particular class of
candidates to a particular job. Thus, employee specification is useful to find out
prospective employees (target group) whereas job specification is useful to select the
 17

right candidate for a job.

2. Methods of Job Analysis
The end-product of a job analysis is a job description, a written statement that describes:
(1) the important tasks that need to be performed to successfully hold this job; (2) the
requirements necessary to perform these tasks; (3) the levels of job performance that can
be expected at various levels of experience and expertise; and (4) those characteristics of
the work setting that impact work performance. The job description in all cases must be
data-based, and clearly the creation of such a document is a time-consuming and labor-
intensive process. This chapter provides a road map for creating such a data-based job
description.
Generally speaking, it is possible to collect data on the first three components of the job
analysis simultaneously, while data on the characteristics of the work setting requires a
separate, independent assessment. Those doing job analyses should always remember the
purpose for which the information is to be used, as this purpose provides the context for
both collecting the data and for writing the job description. This is especially true, for
example, when collecting job performance data to be used for selection of job applicants.
These levels obviously would be different for entry-level or trainee positions than it would
be for selecting experienced, high-level operators. There are five different methods of
collecting job analysis data. They are (1) self-reports; (2) direct observations; (3)
interviews; (4) document reviews: and (5) questionnaires and surveys. Each of these is
discussed in some detail below. It should be noted that any of these methods can be used
either by internal HR staff members or by external consultants with expertise in conducting
job analyses who have been engaged for this specific purpose.

Self-reports

Questionnaires Direct
and Surveys Observations

Combination

Document
Interviews
Reviews

Prien, E.P., Goodstein, L.D., Goodstein, J., & Gamble Jr., L.G. (2009). A Practical Guide to Job
Analysis. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

2.1. Self-Reports
The most obvious and readily available sources of information about a job are the
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incumbents currently holding that job. All too often, however, incumbent reports are
the only source used to analyze a job, because this approach is subject to attempts to
inflate the importance of one’s job and a variety of other contaminating influences.
This is especially the case when incumbents are asked to prepare in writing their own
job description with few guidelines and little supervision.
One variation on the self-report approach is to have the job analyst, typically an HR
specialist, attempt to fill the job for a brief period and report on his or her experience
in filling the job. Obviously, this approach is only appropriate for rather simple jobs that
do not require a set of specific skills or much training, and there is always a question of
how useful these self-reports are in understanding the job.
2.2. Direct Observations
Many jobs can be studied by observing an incumbent actually performing the job. In
order to reduce the ‘‘audience effect’’ of having an intrusive observer involved, a video
camera can be used to record an incumbent doing the job. Using a camera over a
period of time both eliminates the observer effect and provides an opportunity to
observe the job over a longer period of time and to take time samples of job behavior
from the recording as the database.
Direct observation, however, is most useful with jobs that involve obvious physical
activity, activities that are the core of the job. For jobs that are primarily cognitive in
nature, direct observation provides little useful data. Observing a market analyst or a
theoretical physicist at work would provide us with little information about the nature
of their work. Further, neither self-reports nor direct observations provide much
information about the requirements necessary to perform these jobs nor about the
level of job performance.
2.3. Interviews
The limitations of self-report and direct observation have led to the use of interviews
as the most widely used approach to job analysis. These interviews must be conducted
by a skilled, trained interviewer who has both some understanding of the job being
analyzed and the nature of work in general, as these provide the necessary background
for asking questions and probing answers for more detailed and complete answers
from those being interviewed.
2.3.1. Individual Interviews.
There are several sources of information about a job, all of whom can be interviewed,
either singly or in small groups. These include current incumbents of the job,
supervisors of the job, and others who are often referred to as subject-matter experts
(SMEs). SMEs are those individuals, other than incumbents, who have knowledge
about the job being analyzed, such as former incumbents, managers with oversight of
the job, academic specialists, and anyone in the organization who has any specialized
knowledge of the job in question. One useful way of identifying SMEs about a
particular job is to ask incumbents, “If you’re stuck with a job problem that you’re
having trouble with, who are you most likely to ask for help?’’ These are the true SMEs,
the ones who help those on the job get out of trouble.
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In the early, exploratory phase of the job analysis, the initial interviews, which usually
should be one-on-one, can be rather unstructured and open-ended as the interviewer
starts to learn about the job, the tasks involved, the necessary requirements, and the
levels of job performance. As the interviewer gains an understanding of the job and its
requirements, he or she should develop an interview protocol that provides a structure
for the ensuing interviews, one that enables the interviewer to obtain information
about specific aspects of the job under scrutiny and compare the data obtained from
different sources.
2.3.2. Group Interviews.
These follow-up interviews, usually using the focus group method, are best conducted
in a group setting with a mixed group of five or six individuals, incumbents, supervisors,
and SMEs. It is imperative that at least two of the group be incumbents—individuals
who know the job best—and more than one to ensure surfacing differing points of
view. In conducting a focus group, the facilitator should not attempt to push for
unanimity of viewpoints, but rather should understand that jobs, even what appear to
be simple jobs, are seen and performed differently and that these differences need to
be woven into the final job description.
The way these group interviews are introduced to the organization, the manner in
which individuals are invited to participate, and the way in which the interviews are
initiated and conducted are critical to the quality of the information collected. It must
be made clear that the purpose of these group interview(s) is to gain a better
understanding of a particular job or class of jobs, that no one will lose his or her job as
a result of this process, and that what is said in the interview is confidential in that no
statement will be attributed to a particular participant. The interviewer must be non-
judgmental, listen carefully, play back what was heard, ask questions to clarify points,
and take notes on a flip chart in the front of the room.
In conducting these groups, the HR professional should initiate the process with a
description of its purpose, together with some discussion about how the results will be
used when the process is complete. Next, the group should be prompted to begin
discussion of the job or job family to define the tasks involved— the content of the job.
It is good practice to have either a flip chart on which this data can be recorded, with
the HR professional continuing to probe until the content and structure of the job are
adequately addressed. In developing an understanding of the work involved, the
interviewer can ask incumbents to describe a typical day, what needs to be done on a
regular basis, and what the occasional exceptional requirements are. An alternative
approach is to focus attention on either the work flow or organization of individual
workers and how their tasks overlap and flow to produce work products. These
approaches typically are sufficient to produce a description of the content of the job.
The intent here is to generate content while the group has its ideas clearly in mind and
then go back and edit that content to conform to acceptable standards.
Having developed an in-depth understanding of the various tasks involved in the job,
the next step to identify the necessary requirements to perform the work and then to
describe the various levels of job performance. To identify the requirements, the
interviewer should ask about what people doing this job need to know and when they
20

need to know it; for example, what tools or equipment are ordinarily used on this job
and how skillful does the worker need to be in using them. Further, the interview
needs to facilitate the group to identify the requirements for success on this job.
Similarly, the group needs to establish in fairly concrete terms the various levels of job
performance that can be expected in this job. How many widgets should an expert be
able to produce in a typical day, and how many should a relative newcomer to the job
be expected to produce. At the end of an interview procedure, the interviewers should
feel confident that he or she has gained an understanding of the job being analyzed
and can now describe the typical tasks involved in the job, the requirements to perform
that job, and the various levels of job performance.
One useful technique to use in the group interview is the critical incident technique in
which the group is asked to describe critical incidents that have occurred on this job
that have involved either highly effective or highly ineffective performance. This
process has three parts: (1) describe the circumstances in which the job behavior
occurred; (2) describe in detail the job behavior itself; and (3) identify the positive or
negative consequences of that behavior. These reports of critical incidents often
highlight instances of poor judgment, of safety hazards, and of outstanding
performance, as well as the role of a variety of personal characteristics on job
performance. Inquiring about critical incidents is especially useful when the job seems
routine and many of the elements of the job seem obscure to others. Our experience
has informed us that SMEs and managers are the most useful sources of critical
incident data, which is why including them in these interviews is so important.
2.4. Document Reviews
The archives of most organizations contain a variety of documents that are useful in
conducting job analyses. These include analyses of output, performance appraisals,
reports by both internal auditors and external consultants about workplace issues, and
prior job descriptions. Customer complaint records are another highly useful source
about employee job behaviors that are of particular importance to customers. Internal
memoranda about unusual events, difficulties encountered by workers on a job, or
problems in recruiting applicants for a particular job, among many such issues, can
provide worthwhile insights into a job. Reports of accidents and medical records are
useful in identifying health and safety issues in jobs. Time and attendance records are
important sources of information about the importance that workers place on doing
that job.
For many years the U.S. military has used a procedure called after-action reports, a
process for debriefing participants in any important incident to determine what went
well and what went poorly, in order to improve future performance in similar
situations. The value of such a process in identifying how to improve performance is
obvious and thus has been adopted by many non-military organizations as a way to
identify issues that need to be addressed in order to improve the organization’s
performance. The records of such after-action reports, when they exist, are a unique
and extraordinary source of information about important elements of job behavior and
their impact on organizational outcomes. The employee records every activity he/she
engages in, in a diary or work log along with the amount of time to perform each
activity to produce a complete picture of the job. Pocket dictating machines can help