Notes on Job Design and Role Analysis

What is Job?
Job is group of Tasks.


What is Job Design?
Job design defines what work is to be done and how it is organized and performed.


Not understanding  different fundas in HR. There is job description, job analysis, job design, There is role profile, there is position description,. what is the difference and what should you use? and why should you use?






Job Analysis: Iit is process of developing job description and job specification


Job Description
a written statement of job title, purpose of the job,key responsibilities derived  thru job analysis.




Job Specification

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.

Job Design

Arrangement/rearrangement of Work arrangement (or rearrangement) aimed at reducing  job dissatisfaction and employee alienation arising from repetitive and mechanistic tasks. Through job design, organizations try to raise productivity levels by offering non-monetary rewards such as greater satisfaction from a sense of personal achievement in meeting the increased challenge and responsibility of one's work. Job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, and job simplification are the various techniques used in a job design exercise.

Job design can be done before or after Job analysis to make the job more interesting thru tools such as job enrichment, job enlargement etc..

Now to understand clearly about meaning of Role, Job and Position:


Job is group of positions. For example secretary in an Organization is a Job. Secretary to a Manager in HR Department is position. The expected Functional and Behavioral competencies required to perform the job of secretary is Role.


Therefore Jobs are analyzed. Thereafter, they are designed/redesigned. Then positions are filled. The Job Description and Position description is required to be defined. For example Officer-Information system is Job. The Job description of the same would be

Job Description - XYZ Company Ltd

Title: Officer-Information System

Reports to: Director-Information system.

Job purpose:

To programme various software modules depending on user Requirement. To maintain software packages associated databases and suggest management on section third party softwares after techincal evaluation for purchase.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities:

Full lifecycle application development
Designing, coding and debugging applications in various software languages.
Software analysis, code analysis, requirements analysis, software review, identification of code metrics, system risk analysis, software reliability analysis
Object-oriented Design and Analysis (OOA and OOD)
Software modeling and simulation
Front end graphical user interface design
Software testing and quality assurance
Performance tuning, improvement, balancing, usability, automation.
Support, maintain and document software functionality
Integrate software with existing systems
Evaluate and identify new technologies for implementation



Job Specification
Education:

Educated to degree level (2.1 from a top university preferred) in Computer Science or Computer Systems Engineering

Excellent knowledge of C and C++ programming, HTML, ASP, JAVA

ASP.Net application software  development experience

Detailed knowledge of modern computer architectures

Ability to learn quickly

Good written and verbal communication skills

Excellent time management skills an

Experience:
Possess 5 years of solid experience in application development and programming using various Microsoft development environments like ASP.NET, VB.NET, ADO.NET, WinForms and WCF.

Position Description/Profile would be similar as above but for particular position. Officer-Database Administration

_______________________________________________________________________________________


Notes on Role:

Role is set of behaviors associated with some one occupying position. Recent trend in HR is to define Role profile instead of Job Description as Role Profile is more flexible than Job Description.

Role Profile starts with Role Analysis. Role Analysis is process of determining role description and role specification

Example of Role Profile:






Role title: Database administrator


Department: Information systems


Purpose of role: Responsible for the development and support of databases and their underlying environment. 

Key result areas

➢ Identify database requirements for all projects that require data management in order to meet the
needs of internal customers.
➢ Develop project plans collaboratively with colleagues to deliver against their database needs.
➢ Support underlying database infrastructure.
➢ Liaise with system and software providers to obtain product information and support.
➢ Manage project resources (people and equipment) within predefined budget and criteria, as agreed
with line manager and originating department.
➢ Allocate work to and supervise contractors on day-to-day basis.
➢ Ensure security of the underlying database infrastructure through adherence to established protocols
and to develop additional security protocols where needed.
Need to know
➢ Oracle database administration.
➢ Operation of Designer 2000 and oracle forms SQL/PLSQL, Unix administration, shell programming.
Able to:
➢ Analyse and choose between options where the solution is not always obvious.
➢ Develop project plans and organize own workload on a timescale of 1–2 months.
➢ Adapt to rapidly changing needs and priorities without losing sight of overall plans and priorities.





Need to know
➢ Oracle database administration.
➢ Operation of Designer 2000 and oracle forms SQL/PLSQL, Unix administration, shell programming.
Able to:
➢ Analyse and choose between options where the solution is not always obvious.
➢ Develop project plans and organize own workload on a timescale of 1–2 months.
➢ Adapt to rapidly changing needs and priorities without losing sight of overall plans and priorities.
➢ Interpret budgets in order to manage resources effectively within them.
➢ Negotiate with suppliers.
➢ Keep abreast of technical developments and trends, bring these into day-to-day work when feasible
and build them into new project developments.


Behavioural competencies
➢ Aim to get things done well and set and meet challenging goals, create own measures of excellence
and constantly seek ways of improving performance.
➢ Analyse information from range of sources and develop effective solutions/recommendations.
➢ Communicate clearly and persuasively, orally or in writing, dealing with technical issues in a nontechnical
manner.
➢ Work participatively on projects with technical and non-technical colleagues.
➢ Develop positive relationships with colleagues as the supplier of an internal service.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Now after busting the jargon now we have to understand what we should use Role Profile or Job Description.


It is suggested to use Role Profiles instead of Job description as Role Profile bring in more clarity on the specif behavioral and technical competencies required by the job holder.

Role Analysis

What is Role?
 A set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit. Like roles of police officer, lawyer, doctor etc..

 What is Role Identity? 

Certain attitudes and behaviors consistent with a role.

 Nursers should be empathetic, defense personnel should be brave etc.

 What is Role Perception? 

An individual’s view of how he or she is supposed to act in a given situation.

What is Role Expectation? 

How others believe a person should act in a given situation.

What is Role Analysis?
Role Analysis is process of finding out  the role expectation and  skills required to achive the expectation.

What is Role Profile?

The Result of role analysis are role profiles.

What is difference between role and job?


Roles are flexible and jobs are inflexible.  Therefore, role profiles are being used instead of job description.

What role profile consists of?


Role title

To whom to report to:

Who are reporting to role:

Key Result Areas:

Technical Competencies required:

Behavioral Competencies:

How to analyse behavioral competencies?

Five methods to analyse behavioral competencies:
1. Expert Opinion:
    Listing the attributes elicited by the experts working in the same department about the role.

2. structured Interview
Listing the attributes elicited by the experts and interviewing the Role holders on positive and negative    behaviors . Then behavioral competencies are ascertained thru responses.

3.Workshop:
Step 1:Experts and role holders come to an understanding on Key result area.

Step 2: Decide the positive and negative behaviors of the Job

Step3; Distill the competencies from the list of positive and negative behaviors

Work shop uses two methods two obtain information on positive &negative behaviors:
A.Critical Incident:

Each KRA is identified and shared with experts. Then participants are asked to tell the particular incident pertaining to the area and what they have done and what is the outcome.

Thereafter, each incident is rated on a scale of 1 to 5. The list of critical behaviors are distilled

B. Repertory Grid

Repertory grid uses Personal Contruct as tool to analyze Positive and Negative behaviors if a role.

Notes on Knowledge Management

What is Knowledge?

Data represents a fact or statement of event without relation to other things.

Ex: Apple fell from the tree

Information: when there is a relation ship in data like casue and effect then it is Information.

Ex: Apple is ripen therefore it fell on the ground.

Knowledge represents a pattern that connects and generally provides a high level of predictability as to what is described or what will happen next.

Ex: Since apple is ripe and earth has gravitational force apple fell on the ground.

Wisdom embodies more of an understanding of fundamental principles embodied within the knowledge that are essentially the basis for the knowledge being what it is. Wisdom is essentially systemic.

Ex: Apple fell on the ground. The wisdom embodies what is gravitational force, why gravitational force, etc.


what is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge Management is process of managing wisdom of operations, techniques available in the organization.

Why knowledge Management is required?
As per resource based view theory of management, knowledge is one of the competitive advantage a firm has.

What are types of Knowledge?

Intellectual capital theory suggests that there are three types of knowledge in an Organization.

1.Human capital: Knowledge possessed by Individual

2.Social capital: Knowledge possessed thru social Interactions

3.Organizational capital: Knowledge in the manuals, procedures



What are the concepts of Knowledge reside in an organization?

Explicit Knowledge: It is the Knowledge which is available in Manuals, Document Libraries etc.

Tacit Knowledge: It is the knowledge which is acquired through experience.


what companies do on Knowledge Management?
A company can follow two strategies for Knowledge Management

Strategy1:Codification strategy

It is codifying or document in the knowledge available in the Organization. This done throug
1.Document Libraries/Data ware Houses
2.Intranet
3.Operating Manuals
4.Decision supporting systems
It improves the Human capital and Organizational Capital

Strategy 2:Personalisation strategy

knowledge is closely tied to the person who has developed it and is shared mainly through direct person-to-person contacts.

1. Communities of Practice Ex: professional forums such as cite hr
2. Using of Group wares, emails
3.Mapping sources of internal expertise by, for example, producing ‘expert yellow
pages’ and directories of communities.

Competencey Based HRM

What is Competency based HRM?

It is the use of Competency analysis to improve Performance Management, Reward management, Recruitment and Selection.

What is Competency?
Competency = Skill+Attitude+Knowledge

What is Competency Framework?
It contains definition of all the behavioral competencies such as Team Orientation, Commitment, result Orientation, Customer Focus. etc.

What are types of Competencies?

1) Behavioral competencies: Specific behaviors required to perform a Job
2) Technical Competencies: Specific Techical skills required to perform a Job

Where competency frame work is used?

1.Recruitment
2.Performance Management
3.Reward Management
4.Training

What is Strategic HRM?

What is strategy?
It is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. Strategy is long term in nature.


To launch a new Product, we require a strategy

What is a plan?
A detailed proposal for doing or achieving something.



What is difference between Strategy and Plan?
Strategy is combination of various plans and is flexible.

Plan is inflexible.

Example of Strategy:

Suppose a Computer Manufacturing Unit has Goal goal to increase production of of out put by 25o more computers a day in 1 year"

Strategy1: Putin Place automated machines
Plan:Plan for what budget is required, where to purchase, etc

Strategy2: Increase Manpower;

Plan for the number, plan for recruitment, plan for their induction etc.


What is Strategic HRM?
It is linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and obtain competitive advantage.

Example:

A XYZ Petroleum Refining Company wants to venture in to Petroleum Products Marketing Bussiness. Then as SHRM Professional what we are required to do

1. Asses the existing talent pool
2.recommend for Recruit Manpower or Train the existing Manpower to get the skills required for new business

3.Implement the Policies/Procedures so that existing talent pool acquires skills for new business.

4. Devise HR Policies to attract and Retain manpower for new Business.

Why SHRM is important?
Resource-based view (RBV) is a business management tool used to determine the strategic resources available to a company to achieve Competitive Advantage (Competitive advantage is the advantage attained by one company becoz of resources/capability it has which can not be copied by competetiors. For example, Microsoft has competitive advantage of windows operating system thru which it is selling office products).

The fundamental principle of the RBV is that the basis for a competitive advantage of a firm lies primarily in the application of the bundle of valuable resources at the firm's disposal.

RBV uses SHRM as tool to assess the valuable Human Resources for Competitive Advantage.


How can SHRM used in Business to achieve Competitive advantage?

The Human Resource competitive advantage can be achieved by adopting the following approaches:


Approach 1:The high-performance management approach is set of interrelated HR practices to make Human capital a competitive advantage. Usually High performance work system comprise of self managed teams, learning organization, Pay for Performance system, Involvement of employees in decision making.

Approach 2: High Involvement/Commitment Management Model:
It is a form of Management which is aimed at eliciting a commitment so that behaviour is
primarily self-regulated rather than controlled by sanctions and pressures external to the
individual, and relations within the organization are based on high levels of trust.

Tools for Achieving High Involvement/Commitment are


High Involvement Practices
Work Organization
Flexible job descriptions
Team-working
Quality circles
Production workers are responsible for their own quality
Skill and Knowledge Acquisition
Team briefing
Training budgets
Formal assessment
Work Enrichment
Explicit policy of designing fulfilling jobs
Motivational Practices
Trainability as a major selection criteria
Commitment as a major selection criteria
Career ladders and progression
No compulsory redundancy
Single status
Merit pay of production workers
Profit-sharing for production workers

From this document u can more details http://www.niesr.ac.uk/pdf/280808_140035.pdf

What is HR Strategy?

HR Strategy is deciding a strategic objective and plan/deploy resources to achieve them. They are end results of Strategic HRM Process.

How to choose HR strategy?

There are three approaches to choosing a HR strategy.

Approach 1: Best Practices strategy.
It believes that there are set of best HR practices which if implemented would result in superior performance.

Approach 2: Best Fit strategy

This involves choosing strategy out of the practices which would best fit in terms of Business alignment as well as culturally in an Organization.

Approach 3: Bundling

It using interrelated and interactive HR Practices which are Horizontally and vertically.
Examples:
Calculative practices
1. Training
2. Share-options
3. Evaluation of HR

4. Profit-sharing
5. Group-bonus

6. Merit-pay

Collaborative practices
7. Joint HR-Mgt

8. Communication on strategy

9. Communication on finance

10. Communication on change
-
11. Communication on organisation of work

12. Communication to management

13. Wider-jobs

Intermediary practices
14. Career
15. RIFs

Types of International Organizational Models

1. Decentralized Federations:

National Units had more operating independence and strategic freedoms from HQ, and were managed more as a portfolio of offshore investments rather than a single international business.

2.Coordinated federation :
HQ develops sophisticated management systems enabling it to maintain overall control, although scope is given to local management to adopt practices that recognize local market conditions

3.Centralized Hub:
The focus is on the global market rather than on local markets.HQ maintaining tight, simple controls in key strategic decisions made centrally, and subsidiaries mainly managed the flow of goods.

4.Integrated Network Model/Transnational:

The corporation develops multi-dimensional strategic capabilities directed towards competing globally but also allows local responsiveness to market requirements


The above models with examples are explained at this blog:
http://angelinajao.wordpress.com/2003/03/02/organizational-structures-of-multinational-corporations/

What is Role of HR

I liked becasuse of its specificity in clarifying role of HR.






The approaches to role of HR:
1. The in-house agency:
In which the HR department is seen as a cost centre and the
activities are cross-charged to other departments or divisions.

2. The internal consultancy:
In which the HR department sells its services to internal
customers (line managers), the implication being that managers have some
freedom to go elsewhere if they are not happy with the service that is being
provided.
3. The business within a business:
In which some of the activities of the function are
formed into a quasi-independent organization that may trade not only with organizational units but also externally.

4. External consultancy:
In which the organizational units go outside to completely
independent businesses for help and advice.

Human Capital Managment

What is Human Capital?

The stock of accumulated knowledge, skills, experience, creativity

and other relevant workforce attribute

What is Human Capital Management (HCM)?

It is metrics to measure the value of knowledge, skills, experience, creativity of the workforce and using that knowledge to effectively manage the organization

What is difference between HRM and HCM?

What are concepts of HCM?

Individuals generate, retain and use knowledge and skill (human capital) and create intellectual capital. Their knowledge is enhanced by the interactions between them (social capital) and generates the institutionalized knowledge possessed by an organization(organizational capital).

What is Intellectual Capital?

Intellectual Capital= Market value of Company - value of Tangible Assets of Company

or

Intellectual Capital= Human capital+Social capital+ Organizational or Structural capital

What are the tools to measure HCM?

Tool:1

The human capital index – Watson Wyatt

It's propitiatory tool of watson wytt. Watson Wyatt (2001) identified four major categories of practice viz, total rewards and accountability (16.5),collegial, flexible workforce(9.0)recruiting and retention excellence(7.9)communication integrity (7.1)that could be linked to a 30 per cent increase in shareholder value

creation

More information at http://www.watsonwyatt.com/render.asp?catid=1&id=9047

Too2:

The Organizational Performance Model developed by Mercer HR Consulting is based on the following elements: people, work processes, management structure, information and knowledge, decision-making and rewards.

More information at http://www.mercer.com/articles/1315745

Tool3:

The human capital monitor – Andrew Mayo

Mayo (2001) has developed the ‘human capital monitor’ to identify the human value

of the enterprise or ‘human asset worth’, which is equal to ‘employment cost × individual asset multiplier’. The latter is a weighted average assessment of capability,potential to grow, personal performance (contribution) and alignment to the organization’s values set in the context of the workforce environment (ie how leadership, culture, motivation and learning are driving success).

http://www.mayolearning.com/human-capital-measurement/

Too 4

The Sears Roebuck model

The Sears Roebuck model (Rucci et al, 1998) defines the employee-customer-profit chain. It is sometimes called the ‘engagement model’. It explains that if you keep employees satisfied in terms of their attitude to the company and their job you will create a ‘compelling place to work’, which will encourage retention and lead to service helpfulness and merchandize value, which leads to customer satisfaction, retention and recommendations, thus creating ‘a compelling place to shop’. This in turn creates ‘a compelling place to invest’, because of its impact on return on assets, operating margins and revenue growth.

More details at http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/measuring/toolkit/sears.pdf

Tool 5

The Balanced Score Card.

4 Keys to creating success

Hi
Today I have read the Book "4 Keys to Success. The Key ideas of the book is as follows:
1.Success comes by making successful habits
2.First we need to Identify the successful habits and then prioritize them
3."Why" the habit is really required needs to be written down in order to convince ourselves to make the habit.
4. To make a habit start with small steps. i.e., If you want to wake up ealry at 5.30 am instead of your regular waking up time of 6.30am, try to wake up % minutes early each day so that in a span of 30 days you would reach your goal and your body would be habituated.

The above book can be downloaded at the following address.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1GT1ri8AIEmMTJjN2YyYzUtOTFhMS00ZGJlLThlZDItMjg2NzI3MTJkNzlh

If you have spare time of 15 mints it is a good read.