Job Analysis
Job analysis is the foundation every defensible selection or promotional process rests on. It establishes what the position actually requires, in terms specific enough to build assessment content against and documented well enough to withstand examination.
Without it, an organization can describe what it measures but cannot demonstrate why those things matter for the job. That gap is where most challenges to a selection procedure begin.
How We Conduct It
A job analysis engagement produces a documented, defensible description of the position and its requirements:
Subject Matter Expert Panels
Structured sessions with incumbents and supervisors who perform or oversee the work, facilitated to produce usable data rather than general discussion.
Task Statements
Specific descriptions of what the position does, written to a consistent standard and rated by SMEs on frequency, importance, and criticality.
KSAO Identification
The knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics required to perform the tasks, distinguished by whether they are needed at entry or developed on the job.
Linkage Ratings
Documented judgments connecting each KSAO to the tasks it supports, which is the evidence chain a content validity argument depends on.
Methodology Documentation
A written record of who participated, how sessions were conducted, what instructions were given, and how ratings were collected and analyzed.
What You Get From It
Job analysis produces an asset that supports assessment development, appraisal, and training without repeating the work.
The Evidence Chain
Documentation linking assessment content to job requirements, which is the specific thing a legal challenge tests and the specific thing most organizations lack.
Content You Can Build On
Task and KSAO data that supports test development, structured interviews, performance appraisal, and training needs analysis.
Accurate Position Descriptions
A byproduct that frequently corrects descriptions that had drifted from the actual work.
Defensible Currency
Recent, well-documented analysis that answers the question of whether the requirements reflect the job as it exists now.
Where This Applies
Before Building an Assessment
The starting point for any selection or promotional process intended to be defensible.
Positions That Have Changed
Roles where the work has shifted enough that existing descriptions no longer reflect what people do, which weakens any assessment built on them.
Updating Aging Documentation
Organizations whose job analysis is old enough that its currency would be questioned in a challenge.
Related services & research
Explore related work and the published research behind our methods.
Need the foundation in place first?
We conduct job analyses that support assessment development, validation, and every process built on top of them.
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