Ovania Chemicals is modernizing its facilities and redesigning employee jobs. For new System Analyzer roles at its Boucherville plant, the company conducted a job analysis to identify the key skills and qualifications needed. These included technical abilities like pneumatics, hydraulics, IT, and programming. 56 applicants applied, including 21 women and 15 visible minorities. Candidates took 12 tests and the selection committee used a cutoff score of 800 to identify the top 20 candidates. While the selection process and criteria appear fair and content valid, the committee notes some reservations about only selecting three female candidates, including potential bias claims.

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JOB ANANLYSIS AND HIRINGJOB ANANLYSIS AND HIRING
DECISIONS AT OVANIADECISIONS AT OVANIA
CHEMICALSCHEMICALS

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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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Job
Specification
 Pneumatics
 Hydraulics
 IT
 Programming
 Electrical Wiring
 Finger Dexterity
 Mechanical Compensation
 Numerical Ability,
 Spatial Ability
 Visual Pursuit,
 Detection.

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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 avoidpanel to avoid
prejudice charges.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 analysisA future oriented approach to job 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