SAINT LEO UNIVERSITY

AutoZone: Job Analysis

Human Resource in Management MBA-533-MBOL7
Stuart Hart 11/10/2013

Job analysis is a vital part of any supervisor role and is a skill that if mastered would separate you from most other supervisors simply because most are not knowledgeable as to how to perform such a task. In the human resources profession the process of job analysis is integral to any human resources management within any company. The job I chose to perform a mock job analysis for was a retail sales/store management position for AutoZone. (CareerBuilder.com, 2013) After completing the job analysis using the task based approach I was able to ascertain roughly nine (9) tasks from the job description all with varying levels of complexity and responsibility. By outlining these tasks an HR manager would be able to effectively formulate an outline of the ideal candidate starting with education level, skills, abilities, and potentially temperament. (Ivancevich & Konopaske, 2013) Since this is a service based, retail operation in the automobile parts industry a candidate should possess a passion or understanding of cars. The nine (9) tasks that I came up with for the position were as follows: 1. Train and develop store personnel, 2. Maintain store financial revenue and expense targets, 3. Supervise and schedule store personnel, 4. Manage weekly and monthly P&L accountabilities, 5. Conduct opening & closing procedures, 6. Make bank deposits, 7. Monitor loss prevention procedures, 8. Answer phones, and 9. Manage commercial department operations as it pertains to commercial accounts and deliveries. Again since this is a retail operation it makes sense that most of these tasks are included in the job analysis. After further thought customer service could have been added but in my opinion that should be automatically assumed since it is retail. On another note since it is a store manager position handling escalated customer complaints could be another task as well. One thing that stood out to me after performing the job analysis for this position was the level of responsibility for the overall success of a storefront operation such as this. Since HR managers would be using this information to also figure out compensation it would definitely benefit the HR manager to know this information to make accurate compensation suggestions.

According to my calculations the tasks that garnered the greatest scores according to the essential function importance levels were maintain store financial revenue and expense targets with a score of forty eight (48) and managing weekly and monthly profit and loss accountabilities with a score of fifty two (52). There were three other tasks that were ranked with mid-level importance and they were managing commercial department operations as it pertains to commercial accounts with a score of twenty two (22) and training and developing store personnel and monitoring loss prevention both shared a score of twenty (20). One thing that I would recommend if I was a HR manager with this company would be to find candidates with strong sales experience and I would also emphasize providing training in these areas through workshops from regional directors. While walk in customers are the a large part of the business models the commercial accounts which would be any local service shops, as well as service shops associated with dealerships would provide a very stable source of revenues for these stores. With that being the case the opportunity for store managers to get out of the office and make these connections is of the highest importance so store personnel must be trained and competent to give the store manager the confidence to be able to leave the store and know that the operation will run smoothly. One other point I would like to make is that for an HR manager to have this information is very important because when setting expectations of the store manager realistic hiring practices can be put in place in regards to the organization of the store personnel. By this I mean how much staff does it take to run the store, what are peak hours in this industry, when are ideal times for a manager to be able to leave the store front to make business calls on local repair shops and what should store personnel be trained to do in his/he absence. Some of the lower level tasks that I also listed were conducting opening and closing procedures with an (EFIL) score of five(5), making bank deposits had a score of seven (7), answering phone did not have a score. In my opinion these are tasks that could be given to management trainees to add to their responsibilities and this would free up some additional time for store manager to focus their attention

on the high profit areas of the operation. This process of conducting a job analysis would help a HR manager find areas where some of the more menial tasks could lead to an assistant position and a reworking of the responsibilities of the store manager. It also sets the groundwork for potential organizational shifts in the future which helps HR manage the process of keeping ahead of recruiting needs.

Works Cited
CareerBuilder.com. (2013, 11 10). CareerBuilder.com. Retrieved from CareerBuilder.com: http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?source=jrp&APath=2.21.0.0.0& job_did=JHP7FP6M60SHGXMDRN5&sc_cmp1=js_jrp_viewjobdesc&IPath=JRKV0B Ivancevich, J. M., & Konopaske, R. (2013). Human Resource Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.