Abstract:

During recruitment, finding a potential candidate who is the best fit for an organization can be a very difficult and challenging task for the recruiting team.Itdemands insight into an organization’s cultures and strategic plan as well as both short-term and long-term organizational objectives. It also demands keen observation of the potential candidate’s work style, personality and abilities. By proactively remodeling a list of the idyllic fit characteristics that transcend the job description and job specification, and maximizing opportunities to learn more about candidates through both informal and formal assessments, an organization can have greater confidence in finding the right office manager for a health organization.

Introduction

This paper presents a job analysis for the position of office manager for a health organization. It presents the employee requirements for the position of office manager in terms of knowledge requirements, skills and abilities needs. The paper further provides an outline of different approaches for assessing potential candidates for the position, pivoting the assessment on various formal assessment instruments as well as other specific requirements that are beyond the technical abilities of the candidate.

Job Analysis for the Position of Office Manager

Job analysis is explained as a systematic means for describing what constitutes a job (Leonard & Cardy, 2011, p. 40).  According to Hernandez,(2009, p. 155) it is the systematic process through which job descriptions, job specifications, and performance standards are produced. Job descriptions identify task requirements, responsibilities, qualifications, and physical work environment, whereas job specification explicitly state the individual attributes required to achieve the task (Hernandez, 2009, p. 156). These results from the analysis lay a foundation for all human resource management activities. According to Caple and Buckley(2009, p. 76)job analysis is used for a number of different purpose such as personnel selection, job evaluation and training.

Even though various methods are available for conducting a job analysis, these methods are classified into two major categories: work-oriented and worker-oriented (Hernandez, 2009, p. 156). Work-oriented techniques encompass different components related to the job context, including the task, sequence of steps towards completing the tasks, and machines or tools used in the operation. Some of the common work oriented methods are time-and-motion studies, functional job analysis, and critical incident technique. Conversely, worker-oriented methods focus on individual specifications and qualifications needed to accomplish the tasks. These attributes may include, but are not limited to knowledge, skills, abilities, licensure, and experience. Some of the worker-oriented approaches are position analysis, questionnaires and cognitive task analysis. However, whichever method is employed, the goal is the same: to capture the dimensions of the job.

According to Hernandez(2009, p. 156), a general guideline for conducting a job analysis involves six steps. These are: familiarizing yourself with the organization and the type of work performed within it; identification of the jobs to be analyzed; collection of pertinent  job information; writing a job description; detailing the job specifications; and identifying the performance standards. However, the author notes that these steps may vary from one organization to another as pertheir suitability to the job, their characteristics and requirement, and the environment.

Job Analysis

The legal system does not require organizations to conduct job analyses. However, conducting thorough job analyses increases the likelihood that employment decisions are based on job-related criteria, resulting in a reduction in the organizations exposure to employment-related lawsuits(Hernandez, 2009, p. 155).Job analysis can assist organizations in avoiding lawsuits in connection with several laws. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (1938) delineates the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees; essentially, nonexempt employees must be paid overtime for work performed outside of usual work hours. Job analysis provides indispensable information that is used in the determination of which jobs are classified in each particular category. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal to discriminate in employment practices based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. Therefore, if an employment practice disproportionately and negatively affects any of theseprotected groups, it is discrimination unless it is job-related. As a result, job analysis is a large factor in determining the job-relatedness of various employment requirements. Job descriptions are crucial to demonstrate the existence of substantive differences between jobs(Hernandez, 2009, p. 155).

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) are charged with theimplementation of equal employment opportunity laws in the United States. In 1978, the EEOC published the uniform guideline on employment selection procedure. It states that a thorough job analysis is a necessary support for a selection procedure. A selection procedure should be validated and the validation process includes a job analysis. The guideline also notes that:

“There should be job analysis, which includes an analysis of the important work behavior(s) required for successful performance and their relative importance, if the behavior  results in work product(s), and any job analysis should focus on the work behaviour(s) and the tasks associated with them. Of work behavior(s) are not observable; the job analysis should identify and analyze those aspects of the behaviour(s) that can be observed and the observed work products. The work behaviour(s) selected for measurement should be critical work behaviour(s) constituting most of the jobs” (Equal Opportunity Employment, 1978)

Employee Requirements for the Position of Office Manager

For a candidate to effectively fulfil the job description and job specification for the position of an office manager, he or she needs to fulfill a number of requirements that will guide him and the organization in achieving the strategic objectives of the organization. These requirements can broadly be categorized into knowledge requirements, skills requirements and abilities employee requirements.

1. Knowledge Requirements

According to O*Net Online(2014), an office manager should possess knowledge on the following key areas in order to be in a position to better meet the job description of the position. These include:

• Knowledge of Administration and Management in order to assist in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resource modelling, leadership and coordination of people and resources;
• Knowledge of Personnel and Human Resources principles and procedures for recruitment, selection, training, benefits and compensation, negotiations and labor relations as well as personnel information systems.
• Knowledge of Government and Law,government regulations, court procedures, legal codes, agency rules, government regulations and the democratic political process
• Knowledge on Human Behaviour and Psychological skills such as learning and motivation, individual differences in ability, psychological research methods and how to handle behavioral and affective disorders.
• Mathematics knowledge such as arithmetic, statistics, calculus and their applications in the context of the health organization.
• Knowledge on Customer and Personal Service to ensure provision of services to customers, meeting quality standards for service, evaluation of customer satisfaction and conducting consumer needs assessment.
• Knowledge on Accounting and Economic principles such as reporting of financial data and banking.
• Knowledge of the English language in terms of structure and content, meaning and spelling of words as well as rules of grammar and composition.

2. Skills Employee Requirements

O*Net Online(2014), further states that an office manager should possess certain skills necessary to perform the duties of an office manager. These pertinent skills include:

• Speaking skills which are necessary to facilitate conversation and conveyance of information effectively.
• Reading and comprehension skills to allow for easy understanding of written and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Critical thinking skills, this involves the use of logic and reasoning to allow for the identification of key organizational strengths and weaknesses and the analysis of possible alternate solutions, conclusions and approaches to problems.
• Good judgment and decision making skills to enable the office manager to objectively analyze comparative benefits and costs of probable actions to decide on the most appropriate option.
• Excellent management of personnel resources skills which will enable the office manager to direct people as they work, develop and motivate as well as identify the best candidates for a particular job.
• Excellent coordination skills
• Other keys skills desirable in a candidate for the position of office manager include social perceptiveness skills, active listening skills and good coordination skills. A candidate should also possessgood time management skills and writing skills which will facilitate effective communication in writing.

3. Abilities Employee Requirements

The position of office manager also requires a candidate to possess certain abilities. These abilities have been identified to include:

• Oral Comprehension, this is the ability to listen and comprehend ideas presented and information provided through sentences and spoken words;
• Problem sensitivity, this ability allows an office manager to discern when something in the organization is wrong or is probable to go wrong. It does not involve problem solving; only diagnosing the presence of a problem.
• Written comprehension, this is the ability to read and understand ideas as well as information that has been presented in writing.
• Written expression, this involves being able to communicate ideas and information in written form in such as a way that other people will understand.
• Speech clarity, the ability to speak clearly so others can understand.
• Deductive reasoning, this is the competence to apply general rules to particular problem to produce solutions that are working.
• Inductive reasoning, the ability to amalgamate pieces of information that seem unrelated to find a relationship and come up with conclusions
• Information ordering, the ability to organize things or actions in a particular pattern or order corresponding to a certain rule or set of rules.

Approach for Assessing Potential Candidates for the Position of Office Manager

Candidate assessment is a complex undertaking. In order to be effective and successful, positions must be appraised and assessed, and a success criteriondelineated, encompassing the competencies, experience, knowledge, work value and skills, as well as weighty personality traits that are necessitous for success in the job position. Job profiling allows an organization’s management team to effectively evaluate jobs at any level and makes sure that potential candidates are evaluated based on job criteria, versus candidate to candidate. Every so often, competency-based questions or behavioralinterview questions are included as part of the process of interviewing candidates. These questions divulge information and give an insight into a potential candidate’s integrity and valued ethics. Asking follow-up questions to unmask the thinking behind the conducts provides a more complete snapshot of the candidate.

Competencies are behaviors or conducts that comprise of the skills, knowledge and attributes which prerequisite for successful performance. Along with aptitude and intelligence, the underlying individualities of a person, for instance, motives, self-image, traits and social roles, as well as the environment surrounding an individual, allow an individual to deliver superior performance in a given role, job or situation. They enable an organization’s staff to realize set objective and get results, in so doing creating value. It then follows that competencies matched with an organizations objectives help further and achieve an organizations strategic goals and consequently organizations’ success (Reynolds & Scott, 2010, pp. 200-201). An organization must be aware of their fundamental needs such as knowledge, skills, behaviors and abilities that are necessitous for people in strategic roles to deliver results.

Assessing Tools for the Position of Office Manager

In assessing the potential candidate for the position of office manager, I would recommend the use formal assessment instruments such as: work culture and climate survey; multi-rater assessments (360); team assessments; and Everything DiSC(University of South Florida, 2014, p. 35). Other personality models which can be used include: castell’s 16PF, PRISM Brain Mapping, Belbin Team Roles and personality types theory and Lumina Spark

The use of the Work Culture and Climate Survey will help the organization a great deal. With the foreseen growth in the organization both in terms of space and staff will necessitate the need for preset values which can be associated with the organization. The use of work culture and climate survey will enable the managing couple to establish an organizational culture, values and principles which all the employees can work towards maintaining and which will be the face of the organization.Multi-Rater Assessments will enable the recruiting team to assess the performance, character and other preset assessment criteria for the new office manager based on the appraisal of his previous job work mates, superiors, and subordinates. This approach has the advantage that it allows for a non-biased assessment of the candidate based on how people view his competency.Everything DiSC assessment helps an individual learn to understand and appreciate their own style and the work style of the people they work with. This instrument profiles four primary behavioral styles of influence, conscientiousness, dominance and steadiness. Itfocusses on understanding what worked for a particular candidate and what challenges them when working with others. In an upcoming medical organization, an ideal office manager should be one who can effectively manage the running of the facility, authoritatively but at the same time admirably and in a way that he or she commands respect. The use of this instrument will enable the recruiting team to recruit a candidate who fits these criteria.

Hansen(2014) recommends other pre-screens and assessment that may be required in the assessment of an office manager. These the author highlights as: Predictive Index, which tells what type of a person the job candidate is and how he or she relates and works with others; Kolbe A Index which measures a persons instinctive and inherent approach of operation, and characterizes the mode he or she will be most productive; Simmons Personal Survey that measures an individuals job-related emotional and behavioral tendencies such as stress, self-esteem, energy and commitment to work; The Executive Achiever which assesses intelligence, knowledge of leadership skills and a variety of leadership personality traits;  and finally, Business Values And Motivators, which informs what employees or a candidate values.

The right person for the job of office manager also needs more than technical abilities. Often the best person for a particular position may lack some technical expertise but have other qualities that make him or her the ideal candidate. Therefore, in assessing a potential candidate for the position of office manager, other qualities will come into play. These may include: honesty and integrity, commitment to the profession, enthusiasm, strong work history as well as adaptability.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, a healthcare organization and its executives should conduct a job analysis because it helps summarize the human resource needs, provides a guideline for obtaining those needs through a recruitment process, and builds a basic foundation for other activities of human resource management. The methods and processes used to conduct the job analysis are not rigid; therefore, Health care executives and the job analysis team must apply the ones that are most appropriate to their needs, circumstances, and the environment. It is also of note that, as the healthcare industry is rapidly changing, job analysis should be performed on a regular basis so that an organization is able to effectively respond to the changes as part of the organizations overall strategic plan. Therefore, the job analysis of an office manager currently is different from the job analysis of a candidate for the same position tomorrow and it also varies depending on the circumstances, the environment and needs, however, it should always be ensured that job analysisis continually reflective of the organization’s prevailing strategic.

References

Caple, J., & Buckley, R. (2009). The Theory and Practice of Training (6 ed.). Kogan Page Publishers.

Hansen, K. (2014, May 26). Handling Pre-employment Screenings and Assessments. Retrieved October 29, 2014, from QUINTESSENTIAL CAREERS: http://www.quintcareers.com/pre-employment_assessments.html

Hernandez, R. S. (2009). Strategic Human Resources Management in Health Services Organizations (3 ed.). New York: Cengage Learning.

Leonard, B., & Cardy, R. L. (2011). Performance Management: Concepts, Skills, and Exercises (illustrated ed.). M.E. Sharpe.

O*Net Online. (2014). Summary Report for: 11-9111.00 – Medical and Health Services Managers. Retrieved October 29, 2014, from O*Net Online: http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/11-9111.00

Reynolds, D. H., & Scott, J. C. (2010). Handbook of Workplace Assessment. John Wiley & Sons.

University of South Florida. (2014). Organization Development and Training Catalogue. Florida: University of South Florida.