What is Job Profiling?

Technical College job profilers, working together with an employer, use job profiles to identify the key workplace skills necessary to successfully perform a particular job. Once identified, employers can then clearly describe the skill set to educators, students, and job applicants.

By comparing job profiles with individuals' scores on the Georgia Work Ready assessment tests, employers are better able to make reliable decisions about hiring, training, and program development.

Job profiling is used for white-collar professional jobs as well as jobs in manufacturing, healthcare, law enforcement, and hospitality. More than 10,000 unique job titles, ranging from accountant to automotive technician and from welder to webmaster, have been profiled by ACT Job Profiling, which is the tool that Georgia Work Ready uses for the assessment testing.

Customized Job Profiling with a Technical College Trained Job Profiler:

• Supports hiring, promotion, and training decisions
• Uses focus groups and trained facilitators
• Offers a proven methodology and reliable results
• Meets requirements adopted by the EEOC
  

Every technical college has a certified job profiler.  Job Profiling is available to all Georgia business and industry at no charge who meet hiring criteria threshold.   Find out more about how job profiling can help your business by contacting your local technical college.  

Step 1: Creating an Initial Task List
The technical college’s trained job profiler establishes an initial job task list by obtaining background information about the job from the company contact person and by taking a tour of the job site.

Step 2: Task Analysis
The profiler meets with subject matter experts (SMEs)—incumbent workers or supervisors of the job being studied—who review and revise the list of tasks, adding, deleting, consolidating, or changing the wording of each task to make sure that the list accurately represents the job as it is performed in their company.
Next, the SMEs rate each task according to two dimensions: importance and relative time spent. This data is used to produce a criticality rating for each task. The SMEs review this revised task list and make any necessary changes. The resulting final task list establishes which tasks are most critical to successfully performing the job.

Step 3: Skill Analysis
Profilers present detailed descriptions of each skill required to complete the job tasks to the SMEs. These descriptions include examples of problems or situations that employees must handle. The SMEs decide, as a group, which skills are relevant to the job, including which skill levels are necessary for entry into the job and effective performance of the job.

Step 4: Documentation
The profiler documents the results from step three in a customized Georgia Work Ready Job Profile Report containing a list of the tasks most critical to performance of the job and information on the skills and skill levels required for entry into the job and effective performance of the job. This report establishes the link between the tasks of the job and the assessment skills.

Finding the Right Job Profile

Employers may be confident of finding a fit between workers and tasks:

• Most employer job specifications closely resemble those already profiled in ACT’s occupational tables;
• A Georgia Work Ready Certificate indicates the skill level of the applicant who earned it, and
• The table of Average WorkKeys Scores Needed by Job Title states whether those skills are sufficient for the job. (These tables summarize specific jobs into standard classifications and state a skill range for each. )

Georgia Technical Colleges may provide custom job profiling without charge to employers who are hiring several workers in a job category that diverges significantly from those in ACT's job profiles.  To provide this service a Georgia Technical College profiler follows the steps outlined in the Customized Job Profiling with a Technical College Trained Job Profiler section. 

Small- and medium-sized businesses interviewing to fill positions similar to one of those described in the ACT job profiles will find the Georgia Work Ready Certificate to be a valuable prescreening tool. Employers who require a Georgia Work Ready Certificate as an interview precondition will begin interviews with the certainty that job applicants have acceptable levels of needed skills. Employers may direct otherwise attractive candidates who lack this credential to obtain assessment through one of Georgia’s 34 Technical Colleges.

Find a Georgia Work Ready Center at a Local Technical College. Click here to see the interactive map showing center locations.

Select a technical college to view:

• Contact information
• Assessment schedule
• Assessment prep schedule
• Other relevant information