Case Study: Goodearth Financial Services

Goodearth Financial Services Limited has grown considerably during the last 5 years. Mr Jashpal Bhatti started the company with two employees and business for ` 6,00,000/- in gross sales. The company now employs 200 people and is expected to have business for ` 6,00,00,000/- this year. During the early years, it was always clear what was expected from each employee. Everyone knew how to do everything and was often called upon to do exactly that. This is no longer true and it is apparent to Mr Jashpal Bhatti that each employee must be given a clear set of general guidelines as to what duties the employee must perform.

A number of new players are now in financial services who are the arch competitors for Mr Bhatti's company. The service-mix for Goodearth also has significantly changed to keep pace with the changing customers' expectation. The company, therefore, had to change its operation strategy.

In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire employees without having a clear understanding of exactly what the individual will be doing. Applicants seem reluctant to join the firm without some information about their probable job profile and it is difficult to know exactly what skills, the prospective applicants should have without knowing in some detail what they will be doing.

Mr Jashpal Bhatti decided to write job descriptions and job specifications for his employees. It is his belief that such documents will clear any misunderstandings among employees regarding responsibilities, help to organize better the work that must be done, inform prospective employees about their probable job duties, orient new employees and help to make better selection decisions.

You have been retained by Mr Bhatti to determine whose responsibility it will be to gather the data and write the descriptions and specifications, how the data will be gathered (observation, questionnaire or interview) and how detailed descriptions and specifications should be.

Mr Bhatti is currently considering these job analysis issues but has a number of questions about how each will affect the final results.