Compensation / Wage and Salary

Compensation / Wage and Salary

Compensation and salary

Information sufficiency in the day diary

The day diary contains detailed information on the activities developed by customer service agent Bill Ryan. His day starts at 8 AM and ends at 4 PM, during which time he mostly answers emails from Half.com customers, but also sometimes answers the telephone to manage such concerns or completes actions to ensure that fraud is not present at the firm.

The day diary is relevant in the construction of a job analysis, yet it is insufficient. The day diary is a personal piece of writing, based on the sole experience of Bill Ryan. More than the job itself, the diary is influenced by the customer service agent's personal preferences, personality and other individual traits. In order to complete the job analysis, it is important for the day diary to be used in combination with more detailed and specific pieces of data.

Information of major use

As mentioned throughout the previous section, the day diary is a useful piece of information, yet it is insufficient to create a solid job description or job analysis. Nonetheless, despite the need for additional data, the day diary does provide some important information. This refers to the following:

The organization of the work days

The approximate number of emails answered in one day

The work processes of Bill, namely the downloading of a batch of 120 emails, their resolution and the continuation with the download of another batch of 10 emails to address

The complementary activities completed by the customer service agent, namely the supervision of situation in which fraud could occur

The personal vision of the customer service agent over the job. Bill for instance argues that he does not mind the emails and does not perceive them as tedious, but that the most stress is generated by the phone calls. Then, he also argues that the more pleasant questions are the ones which require deep digging and research, and that the regular questions are dull and tiresome. To the employer, this insight could indicate the need to avoid routine and maybe to enrich the tasks of customer service agents (Smith and Salvendy, 2007).

3. Additional information needs and usefulness

The job analysis process is highly complex and it cannot be simply based on the day diary of one customer service agent. The job analysis is expected to identify the main features of the job to be performed, of the tasks, as well as the skills required from the occupant of the respective position. In this order of ideas, additional information is required in the completion of a job analysis. The lines below reveal some of the more relevant data that would be required:

The day diaries of more customer service agents in order to collect insights from several employees and as such reduce the risks of subjectivity

The identification of the previous educational attainment levels of the occupants of the positions in order for the employer to be able to better select the candidates for the respective positions

The identification of the previous professional expertise of the customer service agents so that the employer can better understand the job, select for it and compensate the employees.

The identification of the personal traits and skills needed from the customer service agent in order for the employer to better select the candidates for the position