7. What is occupational analysis?

The identification of the contents of occupations derived in attempts to achieve job classifications, with the purpose of establishing different remuneration levels. The first antecedents to the identification of labour contents resulted in the classification categories used in collective bargaining. In those years, early 20th century, the most descriptive differentiations would not go beyond referring to categories such as “worker”, “employer”, “foreman”, “supervisor”, “manager”, thus reflecting the degree of work organisation. Later on, descriptions appeared to be much linked to the logic of the described job positions; they seemed to stick to an exhaustive description but they also included a high hierarchical ingredient and they made a distinction between work at the plant, office work; “doing” work and “thinking” work.(1)

With time, classifications began to be more complex; their growing importance in wages bargaining led to State’s intervention in order to define them. More and more, new production fields were subject to classification and the larger amount of definitions available led to the improvement of job analysis techniques. A number of methods were designed and set to consider the influence of factors that aimed at establishing the complexity and depth of a job position, so that educational characteristics, capacities, skills and even physical condition of candidates could be specified. Analysis techniques on job positions were also used to design scales of wages, by taking into account aspects such as responsibility, physical effort, mental effort, working environment, etc.

Changes in occupational contents and the ways of organising work, as well as the new demands of competent performance for workers, have exposed the obsolescence of the “scientific” methods of job analysis. The high specification of such analysis collides with the flexibility required for efficient performance. Job analysis activity fragmentation does not go along with the polyvalence and the further participation required. The traditional distinction between those who do and those who decide becomes blurred in the new ways of organisation in autonomous working teams and in the decrease of intermediate levels, which is characteristic of organisational levelling strategies.

Nowadays, several occupational analysis methodologies have been improved. They seek to identify occupational contents and facilitate the description of the competencies required by a certain occupation. From that description, support has been given to many activities related to human resources management (selection, promotion, remuneration, training, certification, assessment).

Some definitions of occupational analysis made by Cinterfor/ILO, INEM of Spain, the Secretary of Labour and Social Security of Mexico, SENA of Colombia, SENAI of Brazil and the American College Testing (ACT) are quoted below:

Cinterfor/ILO: Identification process of the activities and requirements of workers and the technical and environmental factors of the occupation through observation, interview and study. It comprises identifying the tasks involved in the occupation together with the skills, knowledge, aptitudes and responsibilities that are required from the worker for the correct performance of the occupation, which facilitates its differentiation among the rest. (2)

Pujol (1980) also defined it as follows: “the process of gathering, putting in order and appreciating information concerning occupations, both in terms of the characteristics of the work done and the requirements they impose on workers to achieve a satisfactory performance”.(3)

Occupational analysis was widely used during the eighties and it is still being applied today in some cases. Its basic formula lies in defining labour’s initial motto: What does the worker do, what for and how? It also includes the statement of the necessary capacities and skills, as well as of the applied knowledge. A well-known aspect is the inclusion of physical characteristics such as coordination, skill and the different kinds of physical effort or movement involved in a certain task.

ILO’s glossary of terms(4) defines occupational analysis as the “action that consists in identifying, through observation and study, the activities and technical factors that make up an occupation. This process involves describing the tasks to be fulfilled as well as the knowledge and qualifications required to perform a certain occupation efficiently and successfully”.

National Employment Institute of Spain (INEM): The process of occupational analysis focuses on reviewing different sources (classification of occupations, sectoral economic information, training needs analyses) and is developed along two main phases: the first one is establishing the occupational structure of the professional family and the second one is determining the vocational profiles of such occupations. It makes use of functional analysis as it regards it as an instrument which surpasses task analysis. Occupations are seen as a group of professional activities belonging to different job positions that share some characteristics. Their tasks are carried out with similar standards, techniques and means and they respond to the same level of qualification.

The vocational profile, which results from the second phase, is the description of the competencies and skills required for performing an occupation, as well as the conditions for professional development. It is formed by the statement of general competency, the description of competency units, the identification of vocational accomplishments, the description and grouping of tasks and the specification of execution criteria.(5)

The Secretary of Labour and Social Security of Mexico defines occupational analysis as a “methodology geared to attain, order and appreciate data concerning job positions, the characteristic technical and environmental factors in their development and the skills, knowledge, responsibilities and demands required from workers to improve their performance. Therefore, information is gathered at the workplace, related jobs are classified into occupations and then they are added to a catalogue”.(6)

SENA of Colombia defines the concept of “occupational study” as: “the systematic gathering, processing and appreciation of information concerning the entrepreneurial, economic, labour, technological and educational context of a certain occupational sector, the activities carried out by the enterprises of that sector to achieve their goals, the occupational structures and the labour competencies associated to each occupational area”.(7)

The process that this institution is advancing in the field of competency-based training facilitates the definition of the associated occupational study, not only in terms of identifying the characteristics of the occupational sector, but also regarding the identification of the productive functions and the creation of standards of labour competency and certifications required by the sector.

For the American College Testing (ACT), it is the “systematic and analytical gathering of information concerning the actions carried out by employees to perform the tasks related to their job”.

This organisation developed a methodology of occupational analysis in 1993 to identify the competencies and skills shared by all occupations within a certain work setting.(9) Once the common behaviours are obtained, some groups of workers are asked to classify such behaviours in terms of the importance they have for their occupation and the frequency with which they practise them. Once classified and considered, behaviours give an idea of the type of competencies that need to be strengthened in workers in order for them to show a mainstream improvement in their employability. In this way, educational and training programmes may focus on the development of transferable competencies and achieve stronger effects on worker employability.

 

 

 

 

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1 Jobert, Annette, “Las grillas de clasificación profesional, algunas referencias históricas”, in: Formación Profesional: Calificaciones y clasificaciones profesionales, Buenos Aires, Piette-Humanitas, 1990.
2 Agudelo, Santiago, Certificación ocupacional. Manual didáctico, Montevideo, Cinterfor/ILO, 1993.
3 Pujol, Jaime, Análisis Ocupacional. Manual de aplicación para instituciones de formación, Montevideo, Cinterfor/ILO, 1980.
4 ILO, Vocational training. Glossary of selected terms, Geneva, 1993.
5 5 INEM, Metodología para la ordenación de la formación profesional ocupacional, Madrid, 1995.
6 Secretary of Labour and Social Security, Catálogo Nacional de Ocupaciones, Mexico, 1986.
7 SENA, Guía para la elaboración de estudios ocupacionales, Dirección de empleo, Bogotá, 1998.
8 SENAI, Metodología de elaboración de perfiles profesionales, Brasilia, 2002.
9 ACT, Fundamentos básicos para el desarrollo de las competencias de trabajo, Iowa City, 1998.

 

 

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