Today's Fashion Ltd.

Q1: Job analysis conducted by Mary for Today’s Fashion ltd is inefficient. This is because a typical analysis of any job requires a combination of more than one method and/or approach in analyzing tasks to arrive at quality outcome. Employing a sngle method in analyzing any given tasks requirements in most instances brings inaccurate results owing to the perceived weaknesses of such a method. Such weaknesses have a dire impact on task and skills analysis procedures. Additionally, job analysis should be carried out by a professional with relevant specialization in hiring/recruitment procedures in order to ensure credible results of the entire analysis. As evidenced from the case study, Mary who is the pacific region sale manager has no formal education on job analysis or in particular personnel management training. Any job analysis carried by individuals with no formal training is likely to be inefficient. Training is paramount to the quality of output for any given task and/or activity. Therefore, Mary’s experience alone does not qualify her to institute effective job analysis schedule.

The method used by Mary is appropriate. However, the weakness of the overall analysis is brought by relying on one method to come up with the analysis. Additionally, relying on experience may be subjective and thus may not actually reflect the task requirements. Nevertheless, there are various strengths of the sales manager efforts. First, during the interviews, the interviewer can effectively describe himself to the people he is interviewing compared to other methods like questionnaires. Proper description of the task requirements will enable the interviewer to come up with proper conclusions regarding the job analysis. Interviews will help the interviewers to clarify issues which are not clear to the people being interviewed. Clarification of issues will enable the people being interviewed to give reliable answers to the interviewer.

Also, interviews allow immediate response and interaction environment between the recruit and the employer, as compared to other methods like questionnaires. This boosts firm’s effort in driving needed conclusions for job analysis Just-in-Time. Interviews are also useful for complex questions that require intensive discussion which could not have otherwise be achieved through other method of job analysis. Interviews may also be modified to gather extra information needed to make conclusions as compared to other methods such as online recruiting which are static. However, Mary’s efforts have various weaknesses. First, interviews may lead to biased conclusions as the outcome of the entire procedure is pegged on subjective opinions such first-impression effects of the interviewer. Biased conclusion may affect the company’s efficiency in selection and recruitment of human resources if the selection is based on the biased job analysis.

Additionally, interviewing as well as employee skill scrutiny requires an interviewer with relevant skills and relevance for quality results, which Mary is devoid of. Therefore, the efforts employed by the sales manager may not yield the desired results. Moreover, interviews are time consuming and expensive. Also due to the large size of Today’s fashions, interview carried out on the sample outlet may not represent the views of the 35 outlets that Mary is managing.

Q2: Some of the factors that Mary ought to considered with more weight to improve her job analysis includes the frequency of specific tasks, skills, complexity and efforts exerted in performing various falling the assistant manager’s position, so as to effectively evaluate the competence and skills to sought during hiring. Also, in order to improver the quality of her analysis, Mary should consider the environment and job market dynamics in which the business is operating. Environment in most instances has a major impact on requirements in carrying out a given task. Work environment may include such as aggressive and hostile customers and extreme temperaments, among others. Consideration of work environment by the sales manager in job analysis for Today’s fashion is crucial as it will help select store managers with good customer relations skills.

Valuable customer relation is necessary for today’s fashion ltd because some customers are aggressive and hostile, and therefore dealing with these types of customers requires high level of customer relations capacity. To improve the quality of analysis, Mary should also consider the equipment and tools needed to perform various tasks. For instance, if the stores records are to be maintained using a computerized system, the selection should include a manager with relevant information technology skills. Additionally, the sales manager should consider organization culture and strategy to improve her quality of analysis. An analysis that is consistent with the culture and laid down procedures usually yields positive returns for any given firm.

Q3: Job description and specification prepared by Mary does not appear to be thorough. This is because the description fails to substantively spell out the role of the assistant manager in a given store department. An assistant manager has a significant degree of authority in making strategic decisions on store departmental issues under delegated authority from general stores manager. Additionally, under job specification, to effectively manage human capital in a given store Mary ought to posses some level of management skills. This is because the efficiency of management is directly proportional to the company’s profitability and/or performance. In my opinion, the job specification and description criterion outlined by Mary does not form a substantive ground to form a basis of new selection criteria. This is because of the loopholes noted in the specification and job description schedule. For instance, the qualifications desired for the assistant store manager are inadequate, and no consideration has been made to include authority issues and duties scope. The documents prepared by Mary will work against firm’s goal attainment standards if sued for discrimination in recruitment of employees. This is because she restricts appointment to the people who have previously worked with the Today’s fashion to some degree.