Job Task Analysis Template for Training
Five documents and three sheets that score every task twice, because adding frequency into a priority number buries the tasks nobody gets to practise.
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Task Register
Role:
One row per task. The three ratings stay in their own columns and the last two columns are worked out twice, once by the weighted sum and once by the decision table.
| Cell | F | C | D | Score | Composite says | Table says | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-01 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-02 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-03 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-04 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-05 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-06 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-07 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-08 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-09 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-10 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-11 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| T-12 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Where the two answers part company
| Row | What it counts | Value |
|---|---|---|
| D-1 | Tasks the composite bands into a training band | — |
| D-2 | Tasks the table sends to a course | — |
| D-3 | Needs a course, composite buried it | — |
| D-4 | Needs no course, composite promoted it | — |
| D-5 | Rows a statutory mandate settles | — |
Frequency runs the other way here. The more often a task is performed, the less has to be built for it, because the shift is already the delivery mechanism.
Every scored job task analysis template collects the same three ratings and then adds them up. Frequency, criticality and difficulty go into one weighted number, the number gets banded, and the bands get sorted descending. The frequency weight is always positive, so a task done every shift rises and a task done twice a year sinks. Federal guidance on job analysis asks instead for work behaviours and their relative importance, which is a different column. This pack scores the register twice and keeps both answers.
Calderwell Water runs one surface water plant and is deciding what to build for its Water Treatment Plant Operator role. 32 tasks came off the procedures and two shifts of observation, rated for frequency, criticality and difficulty, and rolled into 9 competencies. On its own band labels the composite asks for a course on 28 of the 32 and reaches nothing at all for none of them. The decision table asks for 14. The two agree on 21 rows.
The 11 rows they disagree on are the ones worth arguing about. 6 need a course and the composite buried them, including locking out a motor before work on it at rank 16. 5 need no course and it promoted them, led by a filter backwash at rank 3 that outranks 12 of the 14 real courses. 5,151 weightings were searched and none reproduce the table, so this is not a tuning problem. What gets built goes to the programme design.
What's in the pack
Task Register
One row per task with the three ratings kept apart, the composite, the rank it gives, the table's verdict, and the reason on every row.
Competency Matrix
Tasks grouped into competencies, each with three indicators written so that two people watching the same shift would record the same verdict.
Training Priority
The build list and everything left alone, with the mandated courses carrying a date and the rest due before the next intake.
Task Analysis Report
The register read as findings: where the two scores part company, which rows a mandate settles, and what the observation could not see.
Competency Definitions
Each competency, the tasks inside it, the verdict its hardest task forced, and the indicator an assessor marks against later.
Training Recommendation
What to build, in lead-time order, plus the job aids and the on-shift sign-offs that replace the courses nobody needs.
How the Register Is Scored
The decision table written out with its gates, the weight search, and the three things the method deliberately refuses to settle.
Observation and Interview Guide
What to watch for on shift and what to ask afterwards, built so a difficulty rating comes from a stumble somebody saw.
How to use it
- 1
Open it in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and have the agent score your own register both ways, or download the eight blank Word and CSV files with no account.
- 2
Send the role, not a job description
Procedures, work orders, incident reports, the shift log, and whatever an experienced holder of the role says when asked to walk through a day.
- 3
Rate the three columns separately
Frequency is how often, criticality is what breaks, difficulty is how long somebody takes to get reliable. Averaging them is the thing this avoids.
- 4
Read the disagreement column first
A row where the composite and the table part company is either a wrong rating or a task the usual arithmetic gets backwards. Both are worth twenty minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Download all eight files as Word documents and CSV sheets with no signup and no card. Edit with AI is the optional path, where the agent scores your own register both ways and writes the reason on every row. The rest of the packs sit in the template library.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents (.docx) for the report, the competency definitions, the recommendation, the scoring explainer and the observation guide, and CSV (.csv) for the three sheets, zipped together. They open in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets. In River the same content opens as live Docs and Sheets.
What is actually wrong with weighting the three ratings?
The frequency weight points the wrong way. A task done every shift is already being taught by the shift, so the more often it happens the less has to be produced for it. Two tasks on the worked register share a criticality and a difficulty and differ only in frequency, and the table builds a checklist for the rarer one.
Could a better set of weights fix it?
No, and the pack shows the search rather than asserting it. 5,151 weightings were tried at a hundredth of a point, against every threshold each, and the best managed 29 of 32 rows. Across all 671 that tied for best the frequency weight never went above 0.19.
What happens to a task with a statutory training mandate?
It is settled before any rating is read, and the register records which rule settled it. Confined space entry needs training before the employee is first assigned duties, which is a date rather than a priority. Three of the worked register's rows are the ones no weighting ever gets right.
Is a competency the same thing as a learning outcome?
No, and conflating them is why competency lists arrive unusable. A competency is a thing a role does, held by whoever does the job. An outcome belongs to a course and is written to be assessed, so if you need those, write them separately.
The content lives in one person's head. Where does that fit?
Before this. The register needs tasks and ratings, and an experienced role holder is usually the only source of both, so start from the interview. The indicators here then give an assessor something to mark against, which is where an anchored rubric comes in.
Find out how little of the role needs a course
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open it in River and have your own register scored both ways, with the reason written on every row.
Edit with AI