Job Analysis: The Step Most Hiring Processes Skip

Most hiring processes start with a job description. That is the wrong starting point.

A job description describes a role as it exists on paper. Job analysis describes the work as it is actually performed. The difference matters because validity, one of the core requirements of any defensible selection system, depends on demonstrating that your assessments measure what the job actually requires.

If you skip job analysis, everything downstream is built on assumption.

What job analysis actually is

Job analysis is a systematic process for identifying the tasks, knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) required for effective job performance. It produces documentation that connects the demands of the work to the criteria used to evaluate candidates.

There are several established methods:

• Task analysis: Identifying the discrete tasks performed on the job and their relative frequency, importance, and difficulty
• Critical incident technique: Collecting examples of effective and ineffective performance from supervisors and incumbents
• O*NET: The Department of Labor’s occupational database, which provides KSAO profiles for hundreds of occupations
• SME interviews and surveys: Structured input from subject matter experts, people who do the job or directly supervise it

In practice, a thorough job analysis uses more than one of these methods.

Why it matters for selection

The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP) require that selection procedures be job-related. Job-relatedness is established through validity evidence, and validity evidence starts with job analysis.

If a candidate challenges your hiring process, one of the first questions is: what is this assessment measuring, and how do you know it’s related to the job? Job analysis is how you answer that question.

The common shortcuts that create problems

Using the job description as a substitute. Job descriptions are written for recruiting. They describe the role, not the work. A job description says “strong communication skills required.” Job analysis tells you what communication looks like at different performance levels in this specific role.

Pulling KSAOs from O*NET without validation. O*NET is a useful starting point, not a finished product. The ratings represent national averages across many settings. Your job may require different emphases.

Relying on the previous incumbent. Using one person’s performance as the definition of the job conflates the role with the individual. What made the last person successful may not map onto what the job actually requires.

What job analysis produces

A completed job analysis produces:

1. A list of critical tasks and their relative weights
2. A KSAO profile, including which KSAOs are required at hire vs. trainable on the job
3. Performance standards that can anchor scoring rubrics
4. Documentation that connects every assessment component to a job requirement

That documentation is the foundation for a structured interview, a valid skills assessment, and a defensible hiring decision.

The other 62% are guessing. They may hire well on occasion, but they cannot demonstrate that they hire well.