Executive Summary 2

Job Description 3

Introduction 4

Interviewing Process 5

Surveying Process 6

Task Statements 7-8

Incumbent Characteristics 9-10

Selection & Evaluation Procedures 11

Training Procedures 12

Limitations 13

Conclusion 14

Interview Questions 15

Survey Invitation 16

Survey 17-19

Technical Terms 20

References 21

Table Of Contents

Douglas Monsky and Ryan Howell

2015 Customer Service Representative Job Analysis Report

Executive Summary

The functions inherent to the position of Customer Service Representative were analyzed at behest of the owner of New Remotes Inc. The data gathered and displayed in this report should be used to strengthen the job description and to aid in the selection process. Training recommendations are also included. Job analysts conducted interviews and administered surveys to pinpoint the truly essential job functions. Customer Service Representatives have to manage complaints, manage orders, and facilitate shipping and billing procedures. The most important tasks of the job involve using technology to generate orders and handle money flow, as well as interacting with the customers. The most relevant characteristics to be considered for applicants are good interpersonal skills, understanding how elec-tronics work and how to use them, and being able to remain calm under pressure. SELECTION One of the most prominent findings showed that job incumbents must be good at interacting with other people. Assisting coworkers was also identified to be important, so having good relationships with one’s coworkers is necessary. Interviewing is the company’s main source of selection criteria, making situational interview questions the ideal technique to employ during the interview process. TRAINING New Remotes Inc. does not utilize any formal training methods. However, the job analysts discovered areas in which training benefits would far outweigh the costs of the training itself. The training would ensure that job incumbents perform to the best of their ability without any ambiguous expectations of them. There are many unique programs used on the job and prior knowledge of and skill in them would be immensely beneficial. However, some of these programs such as Stone Edge likely require a more active training process to get new employees up to speed.

EVALUATION We recommend that New Remotes Inc. implement a system through which employee interaction with the customers is recorded. This would allow supervisors to view a sample of the employee’s work and gauge its quality. Positive feedback can be given from work samples that display excellent customer service care, and negative feedback would be just as easy to show, also allowing for easy evaluation some time after interventions have been applied to improve work quality

Job Description

We are a small company looking for a customer service representative to join our customer relations team. This role would be suitable for someone experienced in the customer service industry, preferably someone who has previously worked in electronics. As the customer service representative, you will:

Respond to internal and external inquiries via email and phone Manage customer order entries Provide customers support with technical issues As well as many more varying tasks

We are looking for someone who is friendly, hardworking and thrives in a fast-paced environment. Successful candidates must also have:

Excellent communication skills Experience using database management systems Willingness to work nonflexible hours Ability to get along in a small business environment

Should this position be of interest please email a current resume to Mike Mitrani at

MrKingRemote@aol.com

Further contact information:

New Remotes, Inc.

Electronic Adventure

12914 Dupont Circle

Tampa, FL 33626

1-800-294-3889

813-925-88 82(direct)

1-813-925-8776 (fax)

Introduction New Remotes Inc. is an authorized seller of discounted original, universal, and learning replacement remote controls for consumer electronic components. They have been a leading wholesale distributor of TV, VCR, Audio, and DVD remotes since 1987 and now also sell directly to consumers through the Internet. Although from an outside perspective their customer service representative job may seem simple, job incumbents require a high level of customer service skills as well as excellent teamwork skills, which is evident in the job analysis conducted. The analysts conducted interviews using structured questions with two job incumbents as well as their supervisor. From the interview data, the analysts then constructed task statements and requisite knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) aimed to capture how the job is conducted. The survey takers rated each task statement on its difficulty and criticality, and each KSAO on whether or not it is necessary to perform the job, practical to expect in the job applicant pool, whether trouble is likely if not considered during selection, and finally the extent to which it distin-guishes a superior from an average worker. The data captured in this endeavor will be useful for selection purposes. Since New Remotes Inc. does not utilize any formal training methods, we provide guidelines in case the company ever decides to implement formal training. The findings revealed that many tasks centered around dealing with upset customers and interacting with others to achieve goals. Other skills identified as necessary in regards to selection were related to using computers and telephone systems effectively and efficiently. As such, these characteristics should be identifiable in potential job applicants. New Remotes Inc. is extremely focused on providing high quality customer service and hold their employees to equally high standards to ensure this excellence is met. As a result, they attempt to select only the finest customer service representatives. With this policy, New Remotes Inc. won the Best Western Superior Customer Care Award in 2015 for their Clean Remote product and now wishes to set the bar even higher during selection.

Interview Process Task statements (pages 7-8) and incumbent characteristics (pages 9-10) were gathered through interviews with two customer service representatives and their supervisor/ the owner of the business. The interviews took place on October 7, 2015 from 1:00 to 5:00 pm at their office in Tampa, Florida. The demographics of those interviewed are detailed below.

Customer Service Representative

Length of Time in Position: February 2013 (over 2 years)

Length of Time in Company: February 2013 (over 2 years)

Average Amount of Hours per Week: 40

Age: 52

Gender: Female

Ethnic Background: White

Customer Service Representative

Length of Time in Position: August 2007 (over 8 years)

Length of Time in Company: August 2007 (over 8 years)

Average Amount of Hours per Week: 40

Age: 40

Gender: Female

Ethnic Background: White

Supervisor/ Owner

Length of Time in Position: January 1987 (over 28 years)

Length of Time in Company: January 1987 (over 28 years)

Average Amount of Hours per Week: 60

Age: 56

Gender: Male

Ethnic Background: White

First and foremost, all participants were informed of the purpose and nature of this study and consent was given to use retrieved information. Those interviewed were asked questions geared towards both identifying the tasks they must complete throughout the day, as well as nailing down required characteristics of an incumbent filling the customer service representative role. The interview questions that were used during this process can be found on page 15 though, a variety of other questions were asked depending on the flow of the interview in order to elicit more in-depth responses.

Survey Process

An online survey was created using Qualtrics that followed the guidelines set out by the Combination Job Analysis Method (C-JAM). This method excels at “Identifying what gets done on the job and how, which is essential for legal, quasi-legal, and other purposes” (Brannick, Levine, & Morgeson, 2007). It also provides quantifiable ratings of the job tasks and the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) for the job. C-JAM was chosen because all of its facets combined make for an excellent tool to develop selection and training methods.

After the interviews and generation of the survey, two job incumbents and a supervisor were sent an email link to participate in our survey. Each person was informed that the survey would take about 30 minutes to an hour to complete. Everyone asked took the survey for a response rate of 100%. The email link can be found on page 16 and the survey can be found on pages 17-19.

Job tasks were rated exclusively on their difficulty and criticality using a 7-point scale. Adding the scores for difficulty and criticality then generated a task importance value. Using SPSS, the scores were analyzed and found to have an intra-class correlation (ICC) of .722. ICC assesses the reliability (i.e. consistency) of the measure by comparing each rater’s scores. The ICC value (.722) indicates a moderately strong reliability of the task statements. A variant of the Spearman-Brown Prophecy was used in order to assess how many additional raters would be required to reach the desired minimum ICC of .9. The statistic yielded by the test indicated that at least four more raters would be required.

The KSAOs generated were assessed on four qualities:

Necessity for new employees

Practicality to expect in current labor market

Trouble likely if ignored during selection

Extent to which it distinguishes superior from average workers

Once again using SPSS, the scores for KSAO’s were analyzed and found to have an intra-class correlation (ICC) of .686. The results from this portion of the survey aided in determining whether each KSAO was suitable for selection or training.

Below is a list of Task Statements generated for the position. Each statement is grouped by overarching job function then rank-ordered by the average task importance score across raters. The means and standard deviations are reported.

Task Statements

Below is a list of Task Statements generated for the position. Each statement is grouped by overarching job function then rank-ordered by the average task importance score across raters. The means and standard deviations are reported.

Task Statements

WorldShip

Incumbent Characteristics

Effectively performing the job tasks necessitates that job incumbents possess certain KSAOs. KSAO’s are as follows: Knowledge: the degree to which employees have mastered a technical body of material directly in-volved in the performance of a job. Skills: the capacity to perform tasks requiring the use of tools, equipment, and machinery. Abilities: the capacity to carry out physical and mental acts required by a job’s tasks where the involve-ment of tools, equipment, and machinery is not a dominant factor. Other Characteristics: interests, values, temperaments, and personality attributes suggesting what an employee is likely to do rather than how well an employee can do at peak performance. Present below are the lists of knowledge and skills generated by the job analysts. After receiving the survey responses, analytics were run on the data in order to determine whether each KSAO should be used for either selection or training purposes.

Incumbent Characteristics

Abilities: the capacity to carry out physical and mental acts required by a job’s tasks where the involvement of tools, equipment, and machinery is not a dominant factor. Other Characteristics: interests, values, temperaments, and personality attributes suggesting what an employee is likely to do rather than how well and employee can do at peak performance. Present below are the lists of abilities and other characteristics generated by the job analysts. After receiving the survey responses, analytics were run on the data in order to determine whether each KSAO should be used for either selection or training purposes.

A prominent aspect of this job deals with interacting with unhappy customers. ‘Determining the source of customer dissatisfaction’ and ‘assuaging their dissatisfaction’ have among the highest task importance values across the various job tasks. It is important that job applicants are capable of with-standing the emotional labor that comes with this particular job. The raters unanimously agreed that qualities such as ‘remaining calm under stress’ and ‘dealing with irate customers’ were necessary qualities that cannot be trained. Interview The superior technique to employ while interviewing job applicants is to ask situational questions. Having applicants describe in detail trying situations that they have dealt with in the past would serve as an excellent glimpse into how they would handle the various stresses that this particular job presents. The applicant should be able to keep their composure and excel at resolving complex issues. Asking about times they have worked in a team or times they facilitated excellent teamwork would also serve useful for selection purposes. Having a passion for customer service will facilitate successful job performance.

Since New Remotes Inc. recently won the Best Western Superior Customer Care award, now would be the ideal time to implement evaluation procedures to ensure that each and every employee performs at the level of excellence indicative of such an award. The services of the company are frequently sought after by repeat customers, and it is important that employees do everything they can to ensure the high level of quality customers have come to expect. Some of these qualities are: Innate desire to look out for the best interests of others Willingness to deal with irate customers Skilled in handling telephones and utilizing their features in order to assist customers The best method by which to evaluate employees of New Remotes Inc. would be to record employee interaction with customers to ensure that they are doing everything that is expected of them. This would allow for evaluations at any time, as calls performed even in the distant past could be retrieved and evaluated. This method would provide employees with positive feedback by pointing out areas where they performed particularly well. It would also serve to provide negative feedback in the form of clearly being able to show where the employee did not meet the customer service standards. If an employee per-forms poorly, their performance can then be captured later after interventions have been implemented to test if the intervention worked and assess if there are any other areas that warrant improvement.

Selection Procedures

Evaluation Procedures

Training Procedures

At New Remotes Incorporated there is no formal training process implemented and incumbents are

instead ‘trained’ in how to complete their job in a very hands on mannerism. New employees are

introduced on their first day of work to a basic overview of how things should be done. This includes a

look at the basics in the Stone Edge operating system, as well as an overview of basic protocol on

processing orders.

With no formal training procedures it is expected that employees ask questions frequently when they

come across new scenarios they haven’t already learned how to handle. With this processes they will

continually learn on the job for years to come, especially considering how the dynamics of the business

are changing all the time. However, employees are expected to be at a competent level of job

performance (no formal definition of competent as of now, subjective to supervisors opinion) a month

into working on the job. This is good in that the fluidness of training allows for employees to never stop

learning.

That said, it is recommended that some form of formal training is actually implemented to quickly bring

new Incumbents up to speed on those characteristics and tasks which are paramount to success on the

job. According to data found via the survey component of this study training should be implemented to

cover knowledge of inner workings of electronics, and the various shipping methods such as USPS,

UPS, and their corresponding operating systems such as WorldShip, Dazzle, and Mail Innovations. Also,

according to the data training procedures should touch on training individuals to be skilled in

persuasion techniques relevant to this particular field of customer service.

Finally, it should be noted that the data does not suggest a need for training in either the skill or

knowledge of the Stone Edge system. This is not really an accurate representation, although it is so

important the incumbents considered it necessary for selection, they recognized that it is not realistic

to expect it in the current job market. This means that people should be selected based on their

capacity to learn how to use this operating system and then trained extensively upon hiring.

Some issues came up while conducting the job analysis. There were three main areas where the job analysts encountered some unusual happenings. The generated task statements and KSAOs should have been more refined before use, a critical aspect of the job came up as not important for the job, and more raters should have been recruited to participate in our data collection, namely through the survey.

There were some slight issues with the task statements utilized in this project. It was revealed through the data that some of the task statements and KSAOs were a little too broad or redundant. For example, 'Process order into Stone Edge system' is very similar to 'Navigate Stone Edge system to find appropriate information to address customer needs'. By the time the job analysts had caught this mistake, it was too late as all of the job incumbents had already completed the survey. Next time, a more thorough and rigorous process will be employed during the generation of task statements and KSAOs.

Upon receiving and analyzing the data for the KSAOs, the raters came to a consensus that both the knowledge and skill portions of 'Using Stone Edge' were not signifi-cant for either selection or training purposes. However, this is not accurate. The raters unanimously agreed that while that particular aspect is necessary for selection, they did not rate it as practical to expect in the applicant pool. This caused this facet of the job to be excluded as necessary for selection and also training. In light of what the data represent, the job analysts recommend that applicants be selected based on their capacity to learn and use the Stone Edge operating system effectively.

The data gathered reflect that our survey is slightly lacking in reliability; the task statements returned a value of .722, whereas the KSAO’s returned a value of .686. Ideally, a value of .9 or higher indicates that a measure is sufficiently reliable. A variant of the Spearman-Brown Prophecy formula was used to determine how many more raters would have been necessary to achieve the desired reliability. The formula determined that at least four more raters would have been necessary. Unfortunately, the posi-tion analyzed at this company does not have that many incumbents performing this particular job at any given time.

Limitations

Conclusion

The job analysis and all of the data it yielded provided excellent information on the minimum requirements for the Customer Service Representative position. It was determined that some of the most essential tasks for the job included: *Use QuickBooks to pay bills and make deposits *Respond to credit card company with determined information about charged back credit card claims Resolve customer needs and complaints via phone or email Process orders into Stone Edge system *Those two task statements were ranked significantly higher than the others. The job analyst theorize that this is so because while the raters all agreed that those tasks were necessary and practical to expect in the job market, these tasks were determined through interviewing to be a very small part of the job, but also incredibly important. The majority of applicant characteristics that are necessary are to be required for selection. It will be important to screen for applicants who are capable of dealing with constant customer interaction and also good at working in teams. It is also important for applicants to have knowledge of the inner work-ings of electronics and how to use them, though the data identified that those aspects can be acquired through training. As it stands, job incumbents at New Remotes Inc. are expected to ask questions of anything they are unsure about and learning through experience is the only form of training used. Because of this, we recommend that some form of training be implemented that covers some of the basic knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the job. There are myriad programs and shipping methods utilized by job incumbents and it would be more beneficial to train new hires in these programs rather than expect them to learn through experience. It would alleviate any uncertainty from workers and allow them to work more effectively and efficiently. The purpose of conducting the job analysis on the position of Customer Service Representative for New Remotes Inc. was to bolster their job description to make it more accurate, and also to facilitate the selection of ideal employees. Using the task statements, our data will be beneficial in generating a more precise job description so the people who are right for the job are attracted to it. Once the right candidates apply for the job, the KSAOs identified in the analysis will serve to distinguish applicants who possess the correct qualities and rebuff those without. These recommendations will result in obtaining job incumbents who are most suited for optimum performance on the job.

Describe your job

What do you do, step by step? What is a typical day like?

Are there any qualifications/knowledge/degrees required to perform the job?

What skills are necessary to perform the job?

Technology, tools, equipment, etc.?

What abilities are necessary to perform the job?

Physical strength, mental quickness, etc.?

Think of a day when you were particularly busy. Why were you busy? Did you have to do anything out of the ordinary?

Think of a day when you were especially not busy. Why were you not busy?

If you were interviewing candidates for this job, what information would you use to select the right person?

Is there any prior experience necessary?

How does the company handle training? Is there any training?

If so, are there any areas in training that are lacking/missing/overdone? Ask about anything non-routine involving:

Interactions

Within organization/outside organization

How do people communicate outside the organization (phone, memo, meetings, etc.)?

What activities require collaboration? Other Characteristics

How much do you travel?

How predictable is your work schedule?

How flexible are your work hours?

How would you rate the work pace for your job?

How would you rate the pressure for results for your job?

How would you rate the frequency of deadlines for your job?

How autonomous are you?

How would you rate your amount of decision-making responsibility?

Do you get to set your own goals?

Do you work with others?

Do you complete your tasks in a specific order, or do you get to choose how you go about doing them?

Do you have to do any record keeping?

How necessary is attention to detail?

How necessary is creativity?

Would you describe your workplace as static or changing? Additional Information

What special knowledge of specific work aids are needed for this position?

Indicates the educational requirements for the job (not the educational background of the incumbent).

What level of education do you feel is really required for your position?

Can you specify the training time needed to arrive at a level of competence on the job?

What records or reports do you prepare as part of your job?

Who do you have to send these reports?

Interview Questions

The following email was sent to all three interviewed employees via their official work emails through Outlook.

Hello (Insert New Remotes Inc. employee name),

Thank you again for cooperating during the interview

process. In order to complete the next step in our job

analysis we are in need of your further cooperation by

completing the attached survey that I had informed you

during the interview would be coming via email. We would

be very grateful if you could take the time (approximately 30

mins, although feel free to take your time) to go through the

survey and answer all of the items to the best of your ability.

Responses are anonymous and individual data will not be

shared with anyone.

We have compiled together your interview responses with

that of your colleagues in order to identify both the tasks

one must be able to complete and the characteristics need-

ed to be successful on the job. In the first set you will be

asked to rate tasks based on their Difficulty and Criticality.

In the second set you will be asked to rate Characteris-

tics based on their necessity, practicality, how likely trouble

will arise if not considered and finally how well it can be

used to distinguishes superior workers from average ones.

We understand this survey may be taxing to complete but, please do your best to answer as accurately as possible

and understand we are greatly appreciative of your cooperation! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free

to email or call me (***-***-****). I would like to have the responses by this weekend. The link to the survey can

be found below:

http://ucf.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_aW5pBK3jSnJxr4p

Thank you again for your cooperation,

Douglas Monsky and Ryan Howell

Survey Invitation Email

Qualtrics Survey

Qualtrics Survey Continued

Qualtrics Survey Continued

Stone Edge Operating System: Provides an order manager and a way of communicating order status and tracking information to customers. The purpose of the Stone Edge Order Status System is three-fold. It adds a new level of sophistication to the merchant's web site, it improves customer service, and it saves time and money by reducing the "Where's my order?" telephone calls. WorldShip: From package to LTL and air freight, WorldShip enables you to process shipments easily, remain complaint free, and reduce costly errors through UPS. Dazzle: USPS service which is a low-cost shipping alternative for commercial and online customers who are currently using Priority Mail or Merchandise Return Service. Extended warranty: Prolonged warranty offered to consumers in addition to the standard manufacturer warranty on a new item for a set price.

New Remotes Inc: New Remotes, Inc. is an authorized seller of discounted original, universal, and replacement remote controls for consumer electronic components. They have been a leading wholesale distributor of TV, VCR, Audio and DVD remotes since 1987 and now also sell directly to consumers through the internet. Electronic goods: Electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and office productivity. In this specific case usually

involves remote controls and the devices they control such as TV’s, VCR’s and DVD players.

Technical Terms

References

Brannick, M. T., Levine, E., L., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). Job and work analysis: Methods, research, and applications for human resource management (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

IBM Corp. (2015). IBM SPSS Statistics 23 [Computer software]. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp. Mitrani, M. (2005). Offering brand new remote controls!. Retrieved from http://www.electronicadventure.us/

The survey for this report was generated using Qualtrics software, Version (2417833) of the Qualtrics Research Suite. Copyright © 2015 Qualtrics. Qualtrics and all other Qualtrics product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Qualtrics, Provo, UT, USA. http://www.qualtrics.com

The job analysts would also like to thank New Remotes Inc. staff for their cooperation and help in completing this job analysis!