The employees you hire are absolutely critical to your company’s success. With so much at stake, it is important to develop a job analysis and job description for each position in your company to ensure you are hiring and retaining the best possible people.

Job Analysis

The job analysis covers such key areas as the purpose or reason the job exists, job location or setting, and qualifications in terms of skills and knowledge necessary to complete the tasks. Once you have completed your job analysis, you are ready to develop your job description, which outlines a position’s responsibilities and requirements.

Job Description

A well-developed job description will be a key resource to help you review employee performance, select employees, develop recruitment advertising, and make sure your compensation is competitive so you can attract the best talent. Be sure in developing your analysis and description that you have adhered to all federal equal employment opportunity laws and applicable state discrimination laws. For more on writing a disability-compliant job description, please click here. If you have any questions, please consult an employment law attorney who knows your state laws.

The following are benefits associated with developing the job analysis and job description:

• Providing essential job-related information necessary to make decisions on whether to hire additional staff.
• Providing an opportunity to clearly communicate a job’s responsibilities and functions to employees and management.
• Sharpening the focus on job functions, responsibilities, and skills needed to meet the company’s business goals.
• Playing a key role in performance reviews.
• Helping evaluate compensation levels based on job requirements.
• Establishing standards and requirements necessary to the selection process.
• Identifying job functions that will require additional training.
• Identifying health and safety risks and working conditions that may require special training.