Occupational Qualification - Essay Example

Occupational Qualification Assignment I What makes an employment practice a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ)? One of the factors that make employment practise a Bona fide occupational qualification is the necessity of the skill in performing one’s responsibilities. Every occupation has one or more employment practise that if it is not there, an individual cannot be able to perform his duties according to the expectations. For instance, as a human resource representative, the job description requires one to interact with the employees in a bid to solve the problems and challenges that they face (Villiers, 2011). As such, this practise cannot be wished away as it would mean that a human resource representative would not be able to contact the people whom he is supposed to be serving Another issue that makes a certain employment practise a bona fide occupational qualification is the legality of the practise. In almost all professions, a holder of a position is required by law to perform some certain duties and responsibilities, these responsibilities cannot be separated from the profession since that would be breaking the law. Provide an example of what would be and what would not be one for the job you described in last week's exercises As human resource representative reviewing of the human resource statistics can be considered a bona fide occupational qualification, this is because it is a necessity of the job description to review information that involves human resource in the company. In addition, interacting with the employees in order to understand the challenges that they face in their jobs is also a bona fide occupational qualification since it will determine how accurate the information about the workers will be and as a result how effective the policies that will be implemented will be in fulfilling their purpose. On the other side, some of the job qualifications cannot be considered as bona fide qualifications since they are not crucial in performing responsibilities that are assigned for a certain office. For instance, as a human resource representative, collaborating with other colleagues may not be a necessity since one can perform the duties of the position comfortably without the assistance of colleagues. Discuss the standards for establishing a valid, fair and legal one for your job In coming up with bona fide occupational qualifications for the position of human resource representative, the validity, fairness and legality of the qualification should be considered (MyMajor. 2013). In establishing the validity of the qualification, one should consider the effectiveness of the requirement in performing the duties that are associated with the position. For instance, in human resource representative, ability to interact with employees is a key requirement, in determining the validity of this qualification one should consider how effective are the interactions in the performance of duties assigned to human resource representatives. The fairness of the bona fide qualification lies in the ability of the human resource representative to perform his duties, this means that for an occupational practise to be considered fair, the employee must be able to perform the responsibility without straining and it should have been in the job description from the onset. The legality of an occupational practise is measured by the regulations that have been set by the government or other professional bodies regarding the position. References MyMajor. (2013). Human resources representative. Retrieved on September 13, 2013 from: http://www.mymajors.com/skills-and-knowledge/Human-Resources-Representative Villiers, A. D. (2011). How to write and talk to selection criteria: Improving your chances of winning a job. Hawker, A.C.T: Mental Nutrition. Question 2 Differentiate the concepts of validity and reliability in establishing selection criteria Validity in the selection criteria refers to the ability of the tools that are used in the selection criteria to measure what they are designed to measure, this means that the tools should be able to look for the skills and knowledge that are required to perform the responsibilities that are assigned to a certain job (Knapp, 2011). On the other hand, reliability in the selection criteria refers to the ability of the tools that are used in the selection criteria to measure consistently the same characteristics that are required for a certain job. For instance, the ability of the selection mechanism to measure the skills and knowledge in all potential employees that have applied to fill a certain position would mean it is reliable. Use examples from the job you considered last week and discuss how you would establish valid and reliable selection criteria for that job In the selection process of human resource representatives, the selection criteria would be considered valid if the in measuring the skills that human resource representatives posses, it is able to determine how each applicant is performs in critical thinking, active listening, communication and problem solving and rank them accordingly. In addition, the criteria should be able to determine how the applicants appreciate diversity and fairness among the employees. In ensuring the criteria used for selection is reliable in measuring the skills that the applicants have, the results that it produces should be consistent in all the applicants; this means that if an individual posses certain knowledge and skills, then his abilities and characteristics should be consistent with other applicants who possess the same qualities. If the criterion shows some inconsistencies in the measurements, then it will be considered as not a reliable selection criterion Discuss the role of establishing utility for job selection criteria, referring to the text and/or outside literature Establishing utility for job selection criteria involves looking at the importance of the job selection criteria to the hiring organisation. One of the key roles of the job selection criteria is to ensure that the job that a person selects is best suited for him with reference to the knowledge, skills and the abilities that he possesses and therefore he is able to perform optimally (Mader-Clark 2013). Secondly, job selection criteria enable the employer to have a clear view of the kind of a person that he requires in order to fill the vacant position. The job selection criteria also helps define the position for the organisation, the potential employees and also legally, this helps in resolving disputes that may arise regarding whether it is the responsibility of a certain employees to perform certain duties. In addition, a job description helps an employer to write an advertisement for the vacant position and makes it easy for the interviewer to look for the necessary skills among the applicants of the position. References Knapp, D. J. (2011). Exploring the limits of personnel selection and classification. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis. Mader-Clark, M. (2013). The job description handbook. Berkeley, CA: Nolo. Read More