Job Design
IBM reported that design changes due to task analysis work resulted in an average reduction of 9.6 minutes per task, with projected internal savings at IBM of $6.8 Million in 1991 alone.
Pressman, R. (2005) Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach
Achieving a good fit between people and the jobs they perform is at the heart of human factors.
Analysing the tasks of the job is therefore vital to understand the needs of the worker, the skills and resources required for the job, and the factors affecting the worker's performance.
Task analysis is therefore useful for:
- Personnel Selection: identifying competencies and skills that are necessary to perform the job.
- Task Design: ensuring the job is carried out in the most efficient and effective way.
- Job Resources: identifying what resources, job aids and technological support workers require for performing tasks.
- Training Design: ensuring that training programmes are tailored to the needs of workers and the content accurately reflects how tasks are carried out in practice.
- Team Design: allocating roles and tasks within a team based upon skills and compentencies. Factors affecting team cohesion or multidisciplinary working can be evaluated, such as the safety culture and safety-critical communication.