Element 1: Determine Job Descriptions
Who Do We Need? The first stage of determining the human resource requirements for any organisation (whether it is a small business or a multinational corporation) is to assess the requirements of the position so you are able to determine the competence, skills and capabilities of your existing staff. This can often be achieved by creating a three column table, which you can fill in.
Components: List all the job components in one column. You may find it useful to list these in decreasing level of importance, for example the most critical component should be listed first, and the less important components listed below that. This will allow you to ensure that those job-critical components are dealt with first. The second column is where you match the attributes with the components. You will need to put some thought into this task. The more detail you are able to provide the easier the next step will be. Your job analysis interviews and direct observation will also be of assistance here (as well as work participation if you used this method). We will discuss these techniques in a later section, as the questions you asked of the individuals should have provided some links between their skills, knowledge and attributes with the tasks they perform. Each of the types of requirements will be discussed in detail below. Skills: Skills are generally the easiest requirements to attach to job components, as they can be directly attributed to the ability to perform a certain task. For example if your staff don’t have skills in negotiation, and the job component involves negotiation, this component cannot be performed to the required standard. Knowledge: Knowledge cannot be easily seen during a direct observation session, so it is more difficult to match knowledge with a particular task which needs to be performed. But during your job analysis you will have prepared a list of the requisite knowledge required - and in most cases, when looking through the job components, there are obvious matches (for example a knowledge of consumer protection legislation is required for a job component such as ‘solve problems of customers’). Others may not be so obvious, but attempt to find all of the knowledge required for each critical job component. Personal Attributes: These are the most difficult requirements to attach to specific components. There is a need to attach required standards of performance to each job to make it easier to attach personal attributes to its components. Often the ability to perform a task well is due to personal attributes such as ability to work in a team, attention to detail, or empathy with people. You will need to think about just what requirements are necessary, as often these are not obvious. It is at this stage you may also find that there are requirements that you had not thought of previously. Add all these into your table, to get the best view of all of the requirements necessary for the successful completion of the tasks. The final column in your table should give a general indication of the level of performance required in each job component. This is important in that it gives you some measure of what ability is required to show the necessary competence. It may be as simple as stating whether the individual is:
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Trainer Manual BSBHRM402A Recruit, Select and Induct Staff © Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd