Purpose of Role Analysis

Role analysis aims to produce the following information about a role for use in recruitment, performance management and learning and development evaluation:

● Overall purpose – why the role exists and, in essence, what the role holder is expected to contribute. 

● Organization– to whom the role holder reports and who reports to the role holder. 

● Key result areas or accountabilities – what the role holder is required to achieve in each of the main elements of the role. 

● Competency requirements – the specific technical competencies attached to the role; what the role holder is expected to know and to be able to do.

For job evaluation purposes, the role will also be analysed in terms of the factors used in the job evaluation scheme.

Role analysis may be carried out by HR or other trained people acting as role analysts. But line managers can also carry out role analysis in conjunction with individual members of their teams as an important part of their performance management responsibilities (see Chapter 33).

Approach to role analysis by specialized role analysts 

The essence of role analysis is the application of systematic methods to the collection of the information required to produce a role profile under the headings set out above. The steps required to collect this information are:

1. Obtain documents such as the organization structure, existing job descriptions (treat these with caution, they are likely to be out of date), and procedure or training manuals that give information about the job. 

2. Ask managers for fundamental information concerning the overall purpose of the role, the key result areas and the technical competencies required. 

3. Ask the role holders similar questions about their roles.

The methods that can be used are interviews, questionnaires or observation.