PSY 3630 Module 1 Job Analysis Paper: Defining the Member Service Representative Role Example

Before We Hire Anyone: A Job Analysis of the Member Service Representative

Student Name

B.S.B.A. in Human Resources/Organizational Management, Thomas Edison State University

PSY-3630: Industrial Psychology

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

Before We Hire Anyone: A Job Analysis of the Member Service Representative

Introduction

The credit union has 210 employees, 64 of them member service representatives who open accounts, process loans up to a set limit, solve problems with cards and online banking and refer members to specialists. Turnover in the role reached 38 percent last year, and branch managers complain that new hires either lack the patience for upset members or cannot learn the core banking system quickly. The human resources director asked for a job analysis before redesigning hiring and training. This paper describes the method, the results and the steps taken to make the data accurate.

Why Start With Job Analysis

Every staffing and development decision rests on knowing what a job requires. A selection test is valid only if it measures something the job needs, training can only target skills that have been identified and appraisal forms rate dimensions that should come from the work itself. Without a job analysis, an organization hires on impressions and trains on habit. A documented job analysis also helps an employer show that its hiring methods are job related if they are ever challenged.

The O*NET Content Model

Peterson et al. (2001) described the Occupational Information Network, the U.S. Department of Labor's replacement for the older Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Its content model organizes information about work into domains that describe both the worker and the job: worker characteristics such as abilities, interests and work styles; worker requirements such as skills and knowledge; experience requirements; occupational requirements such as generalized work activities and work context; and occupation-specific tasks. The model uses a common language across occupations, so that a skill like active listening means the same thing for a bank teller and a nurse.

O*NET's profile for related occupations, such as tellers and customer service representatives, gave the analysis a starting point. It listed tasks, rated the importance of skills such as active listening and service orientation and described work context such as frequent contact with the public and dealing with unpleasant people. The credit union's role, however, combines teller, loan and service work, so local data were needed.

A Broader View of Work

Sanchez and Levine (2012) argued that traditional job analysis, which treats a job as a fixed set of tasks, fits poorly with modern work, where roles change quickly and employees move across teams. They proposed work analysis, which studies the work itself, including the competencies, contexts and changes that a role involves, and which judges the method by the quality of the decisions it supports rather than by the accuracy of a task list alone. For this credit union, the shift to digital banking is changing the role every year, so the analysis included questions about tasks that are growing and shrinking.

Method

The analysis combined four sources. First, the O*NET profiles provided a draft task list. Second, a human resources analyst observed six representatives in three branches for a full shift each. Third, two focus groups of experienced representatives and supervisors edited the task list and named the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics, often called KSAOs, needed for each task. Fourth, all 64 representatives and 14 branch managers completed a survey rating each task for frequency and importance and each KSAO for whether it is needed on the first day.

Guarding Against Error

Morgeson and Campion (1997) listed sixteen ways job analysis data can go wrong, sorted into social and cognitive sources. Social sources include conformity pressure in groups, impression management, where people doing the job overstate how much their own tasks matter, and social desirability. Cognitive sources include information overload when raters face long lists, carelessness, extraneous information and biases in how people categorize work.

The analysis took several steps in response. Focus groups mixed newer and longer-tenured representatives and used anonymous written ratings before discussion, reducing conformity. Survey ratings were collected from both representatives and managers, so that self-inflation could be detected by comparison. The survey was split into two shorter forms to reduce overload, and two bogus tasks, not part of the job, were included to flag careless raters. Responses from eleven raters who endorsed the bogus tasks were removed.

Results

The final analysis identified 42 tasks in six clusters: account opening and maintenance, consumer loan processing, card and digital banking support, cash handling, problem resolution and referral. Problem resolution was rated most important and most frequent, ahead of cash handling, which has declined as members bank online. Ten KSAOs were rated as needed on the first day, including active listening, emotional control when members are upset, accuracy with numbers, reading complex policy and basic computer skills. Knowledge of the core banking system and loan rules was rated as learnable in training.

Implications

The results point the later modules in clear directions. Selection should measure the first-day KSAOs, especially emotional control, listening and accuracy, rather than banking knowledge, which training can supply. Training should concentrate on the core system, loan rules and the growing digital support tasks. Appraisal should weight problem resolution heavily.

Who Uses the Results

The job analysis report goes to three audiences. Recruiters use the first-day KSAOs to write job postings that describe the real work, including difficult member conversations, which may reduce early turnover by helping applicants judge their own fit. The training team uses the trainable skills list. Branch managers receive the task clusters, which become the dimensions for appraisal in module six.

Limits

Ratings reflect the views of current staff and managers at one point in time. The digital shift means the analysis will need updating within two years. The credit union is invented, and its numbers illustrate the method.

Conclusion

Peterson and colleagues' O*NET model gave the analysis a common language, Sanchez and Levine's work analysis view kept it focused on a changing role and Morgeson and Campion's catalog of errors shaped the safeguards. The result is a defensible description of what member service representatives do and what they must bring on their first day.

References

Morgeson, F. P., & Campion, M. A. (1997). Social and cognitive sources of potential inaccuracy in job analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(5), 627-655. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.82.5.627

Peterson, N. G., Mumford, M. D., Borman, W. C., Jeanneret, P. R., Fleishman, E. A., Levin, K. Y., Campion, M. A., Mayfield, M. S., Morgeson, F. P., Pearlman, K., Gowing, M. K., Lancaster, A. R., Silver, M. B., & Dye, D. M. (2001). Understanding work using the Occupational Information Network (O*NET): Implications for practice and research. Personnel Psychology, 54(2), 451-492. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2001.tb00100.x

Sanchez, J. I., & Levine, E. L. (2012). The rise and fall of job analysis and the future of work analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 397-425. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100401