Caterpillar uses a variety of practices when it comes to job analysis. Two of the practices used are interviewing and observing incumbent employees. When conducting interviews for job analysis a company needs to make sure that it has selected a diverse pool of candidates. This pool of candidates should not only include those who perform the job but also those who supervise. Questions asked should focus on basic job duties and task, the current work environment, necessary tools and equipment, relationships including internal and external, and the knowledge and skills needed, since the purpose of the interview is to get a better understanding of current responsibilities and job duties. Observing employees can be accompanied with the interviewing process.
Observing an employee means a professional job analyst or someone from upper management takes the time to obtain first hand knowledge from the employee being observed. They take detail notes of the employee’s activities throughout the day. This observation enables the analyst to experience the work environment, relationships, and skills needed.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The main advantage Caterpillar gets from the interviewing method is the employee may inform the company of duties or tasks being performed that haven’t been observed or noted. Caterpillar can then make sure that it includes these unobserved task in future job descriptions. The company can also get a feel for how the employee thinks of the procedures and policies the company implements. The problem with practicing this method is deciding how valid the information being given is. Did the employee forget to mention a task or responsibility? Did the employee exaggerate a job duty to make themselves look better? These are questions Caterpillar must ask when conducting interviews. One final problem is finding the time to conduct a thorough interview. Interviews not only consume time but also money, so taking in account how much resources Caterpillar is willing to spend is important.
Since interviewing and observing an employee are somewhat related, one main advantage of observation is noticing tasks and duties that the company failed to note. This allows Caterpillar to better communicate job descriptions to not only future job candidates, but also departments in the organization who need this information. One problem with observation is an employee may feel to behave a certain way when being observed. This can cause inconsistencies with what the company expected and what actually takes place in a certain job role. Another problem is observation is best for jobs that are repetitive. These jobs have regular work behaviors that aren’t subject to change on a day to day basis. Jobs such as those who operate machinery are best suited for this method. So using this method for jobs that require more mental effort is useless.
For Caterpillar to fix the problems associated with interviewing and observation they need to use a combination of the two methods. Using one method will yield unsatisfactory results that will not be able to be applied across the broad scope of jobs the company has to offer. Companies who are successful with job analysis typically use several methods because the combination of methods can bring to light any missed information.