Knowledge, Skills and Abilities - Essay Example

Job Analysis Part One Dear Supervisor, I received your email in which you highlighted the importance of defining KSAs more broadly for employees. I totally agree to your suggestion to widen the scope and then focus on this list of special qualifications and personal attributes that potential employees should have before they are considered for a position in the company. By defining the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities set distinctly, the candidates can be rated on a scale to be most suitable for the position. Managerial and Human Resource authors also emphasize on the importance of well defined KSA merely because of the fact that employees are ‘assets’ to the company. Once they are hired, resources and funds are spent on them to extract the best out of them as efficiently as possible. Therefore by defining the KSAs more broadly, the qualities of a candidate can be set apart from the others which make the recruiting procedure easier and more beneficial. [4] The knowledge statement makes adequate performance on the job possible while the skill statements refer to the proficient manual, verbal or mental manipulation of data or things. On the other hand the ability statements refer to the power to perform an observable activity at the present time. Integrating these statements can serve as a basis for distinguishing the ‘qualified candidates’ from the ‘unqualified candidates’ for a position. [4] [5] For the upcoming hiring season, I will extract KSAs more broadly and forward them to you. Regards, Assistant Supervisor Part Two The development and selection of job performance tools depends upon the type of job. Not all kinds of performance instruments can be attributed to a person and therefore different tools such as Monitoring, Testing, Observations etc are employed. Because competence is multi-dimensional and individual assessment approaches have limitations, it is unlikely that a single approach to assessment will be adequate. [2] The primary question with any personnel instrument is overall effectiveness. This is considered an extremely important factor in selecting job performance instrument. This includes the feasibility and cost benefit analysis of developing a specific type of instrument. It caters to factors like time and training required to implement the assessment, equipment or technology required, number of assessments required per examinee, financial cost, and the extent to which an assessment has been used. If an instrument that is not practical to be tested upon the candidates, then it is useless and therefore it must be rejected. Similarly if the time and cost incurred to train and test the candidate is more than the value that can be derived from assessing the instrument then again the instrument it useless. Also the assessment should provide new and useful information that facilitates teaching and learning. For instance, the assessment should allow the collection of enough detailed information that it is possible to know what performance improvements or curricular modifications are needed. If this is not provided by the performance instrument then again the instrument must be rejected. [2] Another factor that is equally important to effectiveness is the validity of the data. Valid data provide accurate information about what is being assessed. Different types of evidence may be used to infer validity. It may be inferred when assessment results help to predict performance in actual practice. Validity may be inferred also when it is possible to detect the responsiveness. Data that is invalid is of no use to the company and hence an instrument that extracts invalid data must not be considered for measuring job performance. [2] Apart from the factors mentioned above, job performance instruments must be broad so that they cater to various aspects of an employee. This helps in diminishing any bias that may arise in the instruments. [2] Furthermore the performance instruments must be developed and selected in an audience oriented fashion that is they must be in accordance with the employee characteristics of age, gender, language, and culture. This makes the response clearer and easier for analysis and assessment. [2] Part Three Training is a very important area for any organization. When a person is hired, that person must be instilled with company rules and norms and values. Most of the times these company traits need to be created into these employees so that everybody work in harmony to achieve a common objective. The essential components can be described in a step-by-step process. 1. First the goals need to be set. This is a broad statement that describes what the company hopes to achieve. Goals help in outlining new knowledge or skills that would be gained through training. It further clarifies the mission or vision and therefore acts as a benchmark which in turn acts as a motivating force for the employees. [3] 2. The next step is the orientation of new employees. At this phase the highest level of involvement in the training process occurs that allows the widest range of participation. This phase of the training program gains participant selection and cooperation which is eventually very important for further commitment to training. [1] 3. Next there is a need to identify the competencies and KSAs required for the specific position in the call center. Then these competency needs are compared to the skills and KSAs of the workers. Assessing the needs and skills of your audience is an important step in the process of developing effective training. Measuring trainees’ interests, identifying tasks they need to be able to perform and gauging their abilities will help design curriculum that meets their needs and captures their interest. [3] 4. Thereon a curriculum needs to be developed that identifies the skills the employees must be taught. Since the employees would be from diverse backgrounds they will have a range of skills, so it may be valuable to create a component-based curriculum. This style of curriculum builds on the content using a skill level scale of novice to advanced. This style of design compliments all types of assessment as it provides the trainer with the opportunity to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of the audience. [3] 5. Finally the actual training can begin. This part of the process involves more than just selecting trainers and training them; it encompasses the scheduling of the classes, selling and packaging of the program and individual classes, and the overall logistics of the classroom space. [1] [3] Training doesn’t end at this point, rather it is an on-going process that evolves and improves over time. Training should be evaluated regularly to measure whether or not the goals have been achieved or not. Be it call centers or any other type of a company, training is necessary for all employees. Therefore it is important for the top level managers to realize such a need and take steps to ensure proper training facilities in their companies. [1] [3] Works Cited 1. Buckinger, Carol (1993), “COMPONENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL TRAINING PROGRAM”, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Available at , Accessed on October 7, 2007 2. Lynch, D. C; Swing, S.R; “Key Considerations for Selecting Assessment Instruments and Implementing Assessment Systems”, ACGME, Available at , Accessed on October 7, 2007 3. “Six Components to Consider when Developing a Training Program”, Available at , Accessed on October 7, 2007 4. “The Importance of KSA’s (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) in the Federal Application Process” (2007), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Available at , Accessed on October 7, 2007 5. “What Are KSAs?” (2006), US Department of Veterans Affairs, Available at , Accessed on October 7, 2007 Read More