Job Analysis: Skills for Trainers, Recruiters, and Managers

Job analysis identifies the knowledge and skills for a job, guiding selection, hiring, and performance-based training. It targets duty areas and tasks to deliver training that matters.

Explore the main types of job analysis, including job analysis, job task analysis, function analysis, and job analysis of the field, plus task inventory and steps to standard.

Define job, duty, task, subtask, elements, knowledge, skills, and abilities, and learn to differentiate these terms through a duty area that groups tasks and subtasks with steps.

Outline steps of a job analysis, from choosing the analysis type to collecting data, constructing the task inventory, administering the difficulty, importance, and frequency survey, and writing the final report.

Conduct a needs analysis by observing current on-the-job performance, documenting what actually happens, and identifying performance gaps from the desired standard to guide standards, training, and evaluations.

Explore data integrity in job analysis by examining accuracy, reliability, and objectivity. Learn to ensure data reflects the job accurately and remains consistent, with practical methods you can use today.

Explore data collection methods to ensure data integrity, including observations, document reviews, interviews, and focus groups, plus a practical card sort to organize duties by task and duty areas.

Identify duty areas as logical groupings of tasks, build a six-step task inventory with six to fifteen tasks per area, and use clear naming with three by five cards.

Craft task statements that accurately reflect jobs by documenting what happens on the job with precise wording, guiding objective writing, and standardizing the job analysis.

Explore the characteristics of good task statements, emphasizing action verbs, definite beginnings and ends, two or more concrete steps, concise wording, and current job terminology to distinguish good from poor.

Sequence duties and tasks in a logical order, consulting experts, then encode each duty, task, and subtask with a unique code using the first letters of words as initials.

Review the task inventory with expert performers and focus groups to confirm tasks are actually performed and described clearly and in logical sequence. Validate the complete inventory for final reporting.

Learn how the DIF survey differentiates critical from noncritical tasks by collecting expert-rated difficulty, consequences, and frequency on each task, using a yes/no task check and defined 1–5 scales.

Design and deploy a task-focused survey, compute performance rates and averages in Excel, then apply a decision tree to determine training needs and job description inclusion.

Run survey-derived averages for difficulty, impact, and frequency through the decision tree to set training priority for tasks like graphic design and Photoshop.

Tabletop analysis offers a fast, collaborative alternative to traditional job analysis, using three-by-five cards or sticky notes to map duty areas, sequence tasks, and set training priorities with peer review.

Execute a JTA by reviewing tasks, defining subtasks and steps, identifying the knowledge and skills for each element, prioritize training, validate with experts, and document for job descriptions.

Build the TTM from survey results and JTA findings, identify priority courses, align objectives with test statements, analyze and document findings across five steps.

Develop a training matrix (ttm) from steps 1–3, detailing task codes, names, training recommendations, course names, and objectives to prove task coverage or acquire needed training.

Complete steps 4 and 5 of the training needs analysis by confirming which tasks require training and refining recommendations, then document findings in the TTN template for final review.

Encourage active engagement by asking questions in the course, access useful templates, and receive prompt support to advance job analysis for trainers, recruiters, and managers.