Posted on: November 17, 2020 Posted by: admin Comments: 0

Remember the HALJ?  We talked about this last week…the Handbook for Analyzing Jobs…today we’ll get into part two of the Handbook – including what it is, why you should care about it as far as being a Social Security Administration Vocational Expert (SSAVE), and how to roll it into your day-to-day business.  

Last week we worked through the Handbook for Analyzing Jobs all the way down to aptitudes and temperament. Today we’ll pick up where we left off…getting right into what else is contained in this book.

Our starting point means getting into key focus areas of what the SSA vocational expert cares about in regards to Social Security Administration duties … this is physical demands and environmental conditions.  Both of these are critical for the SSAVE to understand as every single hypothetical that is presented will have some variation of a question regarding these factors from the administrative law judge or ALJ.

Physical demands as well as environmental conditions can vary from job to job and the ability for a claimant to adjust to either can greatly increase or decrease their chances of receiving a favorable disability decision from the Social Security Administration.

As you continue in this document, you also get you more of the “why” behind the issues that are documented in the Handbook for Analyzing Jobs. Understanding what job summaries are, as well as job analysis reports and studies, gives you a good background of where the authors of this book came up with their data and how they actually organized it.  This background knowledge continues with how the authors ended up putting information into a format such as the narrative report that caters to all users of this book. The appendices is also a good source of information.  This sections includes breaking a job down in tasks, determining the detail in those job descriptions, and then examines the different work aids such as machine tools and equipment and how all inputs roll into the analysis of each occupation.

The HALJ really provides an overall sense of instruction for the SSA vocational expert who would use this book.  This instruction will help the SSAVE to truly understand how job analysis is completed for different occupations in the national economy.