JOB ANANLYSIS AND HIRING

DECISIONS AT OVANIA
CHEMICALS

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 SYNOPSIS OF THE CASE STUDY

 Ovania Chemical Corporation – one of the smallest,

 successful chemical producers.

 Core product - PET(Polyethylene terephthalate) thermoplastic resins.

 Due to technological advances, Ovania is modernizing its facilities.

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 The company decided to redesign it’s employees jobs.

 E.g. Boucherville Plant

 The plant needed new System Analysers to monitor the individual steps

and the processes of the processes.

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 Pneumatics Job
 Hydraulics Specification
 IT

 Programming

 Electrical Wiring

 Finger Dexterity

 Mechanical Compensation

 Numerical Ability,

 Spatial Ability

 Visual Pursuit,
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 Detection.
Three men currently working and three new men were to be recruited.

 The consultants did job analysis and found out the job description.

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 Job
Description

 Maintaining spares and supplies

 Handling revisions and new installations

 Trouble Shooting

 Record Keeping

 Routing Maintenance

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 The panel will qualify a candidate only if he/she had all the above qualities

mandatory.

 The committee decided to recruit the new blood as well as promote within

the organization.

 Current System Analysers – encouraged to reapply for the job.

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 For next two years, no change in positions.

 For the recruitment, only ability and aptitude factors are considered and not

the achievement tests.

 Some of the committee members doubt if women and the minority members

have the credentials to compete for the position.

 The panel adopted new strategy to encourage minorities and women,

ignoring past employment history.

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 A concern that Ovania will be accused of prejudices if women or members

of minority are hired.

 Managers are committed to make fair and objective decisions.

 56 employees applied; women-21, visible minorities- 15, current system

analyzers-2/3.

 Selection criteria: Cut off of 800 in twelve tests, resulted in 20 primary

candidate.

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 For the specific job of system analyzer, no normative or validity data.

 Test battery could be defended based on the content validity.

 Selection committee is having a difficult time to combine the multiple predictors

to reach the final cut-off scores.

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 SOLUTIONS
 As two of the three existing System Analysts are re-applying for the job,

it shows they are interested to work with the new technologies. So, the

organization must motivate them by training them for the new job and

allow them to continue in the same field of work. And also since they

have been working for so long in the same field, they already must be

having basic knowledge about the field even though new technologies

are coming-in.

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 The organization could collaborate with a consultancy to carry on

and understand the recruitment process better and also the same

consultancy might have better knowledge about how the other

organizations are conducting their recruitment processes. Also one

female, minority member could be present in the panel to avoid

prejudice charges.

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 The company can also consider other System Analysts working in

other organizations by offering them attractive Salary packages.

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 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. How would you go about conducting a job analysis for a

job that does not yet exist?

“A future oriented approach to job analysis”

analysis

Strategic analysis

Clear idea of how job should be restructured meeting organizational needs.

Identifying “TDR” of job that satisfy the organizational requirement.

Identify the key “KSAs”

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Take the subject matter experts, managers, supervisors , etc…

opinion and if possible assemble them in a workshop to understand

how future issues are likely to affect the job.

Knowledgeable individuals are consulted for the expected job

changes in future and the KSA’s that they have

Differences between the present and future job changes are

identified and tasks and KSA’s having greatest changes are isolated

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 2. Do you think the abilities chosen for selection are content valid?

What other predictors might be generally useful for employee

selection?

 Yes , the abilities chosen for selection are content valid as the abilities

match the skills required for the job of a systems analyzer. The other

predictors include motivation, team work, adaptability because of

changing environment, the mentality to take up initiatives.

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 3. What reasons did the selection committee have for selecting only those

factors which could be acquired through a two- year training program?

 The company was ready to take up candidates with the skills that could

be developed in a period if two years to satisfy the job requirements. As

the requirement of the job was not immediate, they wanted to hire

candidates with the skills that could be developed by training.

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 4. Should the concern for women getting down into the dirty treatment tanks

have been a selection issue ? How might you include this factor in a

selection battery?

 Yes, the concern for women getting down into the dirty treatment tanks

have been a selection issue . The management feels that women might not

find it comfortable to perform such jobs.

 This factor could be resolved by asking for the approval of the women

candidates during the time of their selection for the system analyst position.

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5. For the abilities termed critical what score should someone receive in order to

be considered scoring “well” on that test? How should the test scores be

combined( ex. Compensatory, multiple hurdle, combination)?

 For abilities termed critical , a score of 75 can be considered as doing well on

the test.

 Test score should be combined in a multiple hurdle method because we need

people who are good in each of these critical areas. If we used a compensatory

or combination method, candidate who are very good in one field and

average or below average in another might also get selected, which would

hinder the performance of the company.

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 6. Which three candidates seem most qualified? What are your reservations ,
if any , about this recommendation?

 The three candidates who qualify the most are Sara E, Sherman A, and

Lesko.B.J. Some reservations we might have for these recommendations are

 All are female

 2 W &1 B

 Two of them are internal employees

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 7. Would this test battery and selection procedure be defensible in
court?

 Yes, they can be defensible because the candidates are selected based on the

scores given here. Hence the factual data provided supports our selection .

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IMPLICATIONS

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THANK YOU

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