Introduction
In the 15th episode of the fifth season of “Undercover Boss”, the CEO of Sky Zone, Jeff Platt, checks the quality of the work and personal attitudes of the people, who perform the functions of a court monitor, an installer, community relations, and a maintenance assistant. These four jobs are interesting and important in their own ways. In this paper, two of them, a community relations specialist and an installer, will be analyzed and compared in regards to the existing federal and state regulations.
Job description and job analysis are the two activities that introduce a good chance to understand the importance of any kind of work and analyze the effectiveness of the work performed by a team (Mader-Clark, 2013). The necessity to provide customers with the best services and take responsibility for their safety are the two factors that unite a community relations manager and an installer.
Duties of a community relations specialist
The episode under consideration shows that not all CEOs know enough about their workers. It is probably one of the biggest mistakes of the CEOs, who want to create a powerful company and provide customers with the necessary high-quality products and services. For example, a community relations specialist is responsible for developing and implementing different programs that attract new customers in a company, provides them with all necessary information about the company, and explains the main rules under which customers and the company may cooperate.
An installer is involved in a technical kind of work. This person takes care of the details concerning an appropriate installment of trampolines. Much handwork should be done. In spite of the differences associated with these jobs, both workers have to be ready to divide their personal and professional lives and solve their personal problems separately to succeed in meeting their professional goals.
There are several methods that can be used to find credible information that is necessary for a job analysis. Singer and Francisco (2009) admit that it is necessary to remember that the process of gathering information should be based on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of a person. Still, the data found from books and articles differs considerably from what should be performed in reality.
Therefore, in additional to a theoretical part of the analysis that is based on a library survey and literature review, it is expected to consider a personal opinion and interview the people, who know about the chosen jobs from their practice. The ideas offered by the installer and the community relations specialist, who work in the different departments of Sky Zone help to comprehend better the importance of their work.
The analysis of jobs helps to create job descriptions that can be offered to the current and potential workers. The main duties of a community relations manager are to research and develop a customer database, make contacts with potential consumers, describe the services offered during the facility tours and work at call centers to answer the phone calls from customers. The installer should promote the development of safe constructions of trampolines that are going to be used by the company’s customers.
It is not enough to make sure all springs and bolts are at the right places. It is more important to check if all those springs and bolts perform their main function as the creation of safe conditions for trampoline users. A number of skills and core competencies should be developed (Patterson, Ferguson, & Thomas, 2008). For example, the installer should develop the following skills to succeed in performing his work: active listening and speaking (to exchange information effectively), coordinating (to adjust actions of one person to the activities of another person), complex problem solving (to identify problems and implement effective solutions in a short period), time management (to meet the deadlines).
The main knowledge any installer should have is the details of constructing and the rules of installing safe constructions. A community relations specialist should obtain and develop other types of skills. For example, public speaking is necessary for communication with potential and current customers. Researching skills help to find new customers. The skill to work in a team and independently has to be considered as well. Finally, the community relations sphere requires the presence of self-confident and motivated workers because it predetermines customer’s attitudes to the company.
Conclusion
In general, the job analysis and description seem to be in compliance with federal and state regulations. The relations between an employer and the workers are properly developed. Working conditions are appropriate, and workers do not put themselves under a threat performing their tasks (Cihon & Castagnera, 2016). Though the workers are not usually satisfied with the salaries they can get, it is necessary to consider that it is hard to find a person, who does not want to earn more. Besides, the analysis of the jobs described in the episodes of “Undercover Boss” helps to understand that in spite of the variety of functions performed by the workers from different departments, who may never meet with each other, the importance of the work they do is crucial, and the outcomes remain to be great for customers and their CEO.
References
Cihon, P.J. & Castahnera, J.O. (2016). Employment and labor law. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Mader-Clark, M. (2013). The job description handbook. Berkery, CA: Nolo.
Patterson, F., Ferguson, E., & Thomas, S. (2008). Using job analysis to identify core and specific competencies: Implications for selection and recruitment. Medical Education, 42, 1195-1204.
Singer, P.M. & Francisco, L.L. (2009). Developing a compensation plan for your library. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.