Week 4 Blog Topic – Job Descriptions and Their Importance 

In this week’s material for Human Resources Management, we learned about the importance of job analysis and job descriptions. It wasn’t until this week that I learned the true importance of these descriptions even after holding a wide variety of job positions in my life thus far. Put plainly, job analysis is the analysis of the work and the employee characteristics needed to perform the work successfully, an essential human resources function. Job analysis forms the basis for all other Human Resources functions down the line.

One interesting thing (at least in my opinion) that came up in this weeks learning material was the idea of KSAOs. This acronym, standing for knowledge, skill, ability, and other characteristics, is used to describe the attributes workers need to carry out their work effectively. Looking back, earlier in my college career, I help a position with the Clackamas County Surveyors office as an Engineer Technician where I would assist other professional surveyors in land mark corner restoration. In order to obtain the position after being extended an offer by the lead engineer I was required to take a physical abilities test which included simple tasks such as carrying a heavy sand bag, a stair climbing machine, and a finger dexterity test involving the screwing and unscrewing of wooden pegs in a board. Without knowing, I was engaging in the “ability” aspect of KSAO analysis through physical demand testing!

As a Construction Engineering Management major who will be entering the industry in a permanent position this coming summer even I don’t have a solid understanding of everything that my position will entail. This is partly due to the sheer volume of tasks that every member of a construction management has to take on every day/week/month/year, but also the ever changing work environment. For a long time now the construction industry has been lagging in the technology and environmental sectors. That failure is now coming back to bite us and is resulting in more tasks being thrown around and confusion about who should be taking on what. Hopefully after taking this class I’ll be able to enter the industry with a solid plan to combat this!