In many organisations Competency Profiling has replaced 
Traditional Job Analysis as a means to find a framework for many human resource practices.
Traditional Job analysis is a time consuming process that is often focused more on the past and less on the behaviours we want to encourage today in employees.
Sanchez & Levine (2009) outline the differences between Traditional Job Analysis and Competency Modelling and this is summarised below.
Dimension |
Traditional Job Analysis |
Competency Modelling |
Purpose |
Describe behaviour |
Influence behaviour |
View of the Job |
An external object to be described |
A role to be enacted |
Focus |
Job |
Organisation |
Time Orientation |
Past |
Future |
Performance Level |
Typical |
Maximum |
Measurement Approach |
Latent trait |
Clinical Judgement |
At Niche we concur with the above research and believe both Competency Profiling and Job Analysis have their place within organisations and they can compliment each other.
A thorough Job Analysis identifies:
- The job’s context
- The job’s duties
- The job’s tasks
- The job’s responsibilities
- The knowledge required to do the job
- The skills required to do the job
Once a job analysis is complete then a role profile (position description) can be created which outlines:
- A description of the role
- The main responsibility areas
- Key relationships
- Role dimensions
- The performance standards and key performance indicators (KPIs)
The emphasis on role profiles or position descriptions should be on outcomes and results, rather than on tasks or processes.
The Niche team has assisted many clients to do thorough job analysis and develop position descriptions for each role.
Once each role’s scope and responsibilities are defined, we can then identify the competencies - read more...
CLICK HERE to download a pdf of this page
