Role Demands Analysis

What a role really asks of a person, agreed by the people who know it

A Role Demands Analysis, or RDA, replaces the written job description with something more useful: what three to five people who know the role independently say it demands, with the differences settled, on the page or in one short meeting. It becomes the yardstick every candidate is later measured against.

What is new (30 September 2026)

• The process runs without Raas. Anyone in the organisation starts a role from the start link; the organisation admin starts a batch. Raas review before release is a setting the admin can turn off (the ten checks still run), and Raas access to the organisation's roles can be closed, after which Raas sees only states.
• Referees agree or comment, part by part. A referee reads the confirmed reading and presses Agree on each of its eight parts, or says in their own words what is wrong or missing. One referee also answers the questionnaire blind, as a check. The owner takes or leaves each comment and presses Rewrite: the platform rewrites the reading with what was taken, the owner confirms the new version, and the levels are proposed again. Level differences settle on the proposal unless a blind answer is two or more bands away on a decisive demand.
• Reopen for a change. A locked role can be reopened when the role itself changes: the locked version is kept, the reading is revised for the stated change, and the role is locked again as the next version. The chairman's document carries the version.
• Up to five documents per role. A job description, a KRA sheet, an organisation chart, an appraisal form, anything the agent should learn from: attached on the batch form or on the owner's Describe page, read in the browser, kept as text with a name and a kind, and given to the agent alongside the owner's notes and the answers.
• One function per batch. A batch of roles is one function; the platform reads them as a family and keeps each distinct from the others.
• Start many roles in one go, with a description and a file each. The organisation admin fills one block per role, says how each role differs, attaches the job description, and presses once. Owners get one email; the AI reading is run on every role at once.
• The reading, not a draft. Before any level is proposed, the platform writes in plain words the person it thinks the role needs, in eight parts: the job, the skills to keep, behaviour, mental agility, other demands, the few things that are decisive, what success looks like at six months and a year, and where such a person can be recruited from. The owner corrects any line, answers the assumed ones, and confirms.
• Referees correct in their own words. Everyone who answers, blind or by review, can correct any line of the reading and add lines of their own. The owner accepts or keeps each correction before approval; the reading carries a version number and a history.
• The requirement. At approval the agreed levels become a requirement for every one of the 22 parameters measured, with priority, direction and tolerance, including what must hold for a candidate from an adjacent industry.
• The Raas review and the chairman's document. Raas checks each approved role against ten quality checks and releases it, or sends it back with a note; the chairman's PDF is printed from the released role.

Starting many roles at once

The organisation admin link (chro.raasintelli.com/o/<token>, issued by Raas) opens a Roles dashboard: every role in the organisation with its state, not started, AI draft awaiting owner, described, so many of so many answered, decisions waiting, needs one blind answer, ready to approve, or approved, and who each one is currently waiting on. An Open button takes the admin straight into any role.

• Remind everyone who has not finished. One email per person, listing every role of theirs still open. Nobody is reminded twice within two days.
• Add roles. Choose the function once: a batch is one function, and roles of another function go in another batch. Then one block per role: title, level, reports to, a few lines on what the role is for and how it differs from the others, and up to five documents (.docx, .pdf or .txt): the job description, a KRA sheet, an organisation chart, an appraisal form, anything useful. Name the owner once for all the roles, or per role. Press Create these roles: each owner is emailed once, listing all their roles with their private links, and the platform reads each role with AI straight away (about a minute each), so the reading of the person the role needs is already waiting when the owner opens it. A pasted sheet (Title | Function | Level | Reports to | Owner name | Owner email | Minimum reviewers) still works, under Paste a sheet instead.

Settings. The dashboard also holds two switches for the organisation. Raas review: on, each approved role waits for the Raas check against ten quality points before it is released to the chairman; off, an approved role is released at once and the ten checks still run and show on the report. Raas access: on, Raas can open the organisation's roles to help; off, Raas sees only the state of each role, never its content, and Raas review is off as well.

For the initiator

Open your organisation’s start link, type the role title, your name and your email, and press Create my role. The platform emails you a private link that opens your role directly, and shows it on screen as well. No password. Keep the link to yourself: anyone holding it can change the analysis. If the role is already listed on the start page, ask its initiator for the link rather than starting it again.

1. Describe the job (five minutes). Choose the function first: HR, Finance, Sales, Projects, NPD, Mechanical/Electrical engineering, PLC programming, IT/Software, Customer support, or Other. The lists of tasks, measures, key skills and key result areas change to suit it, so most of the page is ticking; you can add your own lines anywhere. Then why the job exists, whom it reports to, what it manages, how soon results show, and the qualifications that are genuinely essential. Choose the level of the role (operational, supervisory, middle, senior); it shapes how the must-haves are weighed between mental agility (speed and accuracy of thinking), behaviour and handling people. Say whether the position is new or existing and, if existing, what the last person did very well and what was always a problem; participants never see those three answers. Save. Every participant reads the rest before answering, so everyone rates the same job.
2. Draft with AI (optional; about a minute). Paste the job description or a few lines of notes and press Draft with AI. The platform drafts why the job exists, tasks, measures, key skills, key result areas and essential background, and proposes a level for every one of the 48 demands with one line of reason. Every line shows where it came from, the job description, the function library, an approved RDA for a similar role, or “no evidence”, and where evidence is missing it asks you a short question instead of inventing one. Only the role text leaves the platform; no names, emails or answers. The draft is marked “AI draft, not approved”. You can skip this and fill the page by hand instead.
3. Confirm the job. Answer any questions the draft raised, press Put the draft into the form below, correct anything wrong, and press Confirm the job and invite people. Nothing is final until that press.
4. Say whether you will answer too. If you know the role well, answer the questions yourself; you get your own link and count as one of the five. Your own answer, if you give one, is always blind. If you are coordinating for others, say no.
5. Set the completion date and the review meeting. Pick the date by which everyone should answer; it goes into every invitation and reminder. Offer up to three meeting times; each participant ticks the ones they can attend and the count shows on your page.
6. Invite the people. Name, designation, email, and how they know the role. This role needs at least two answers before it can be approved (more if a higher minimum was set when the role was created). Once you confirm the job, each person you add is set to review the draft by default; switch anyone to answer blind instead if you would rather have their own independent view. A Proposed levels card shows what reviewers will see. Press Send invitation and the platform emails it, with you as the reply-to. Three to five people; five is the maximum.
7. Watch it come in. Refresh shows who has finished. Send reminder re-sends to anyone who has not. The moment someone submits, you get an email from notify@raasintelli.com saying who has finished and how many remain. Individual answers open with View answers once everyone has finished or the completion date has passed, so nobody's answer can influence another's.
8. See where you disagree. Once enough people have answered, the page shows first where people differ on a must-have, then other priority differences, then the demands where levels differ; the agreed ones are folded away. Reviewers who agreed with every proposed level are flagged for your attention rather than hidden. On a must-have difference you can press Ask for reasons: each person sees a one-line question when they open their link, and their reasons appear here. On any gap two or more levels apart, you can press Draft a brief for this gap and the platform writes a short brief, the positions, a suggested settlement, and a question to ask, marked AI draft; it is shown again when you come to settle the gap. In a meeting, reasons are shown as Participant 1, 2, 3, not by name.
9. Settle the differences. You do not need a meeting: you can settle each gap on the page alone, using the reasons and any AI brief, each demand starting at the middle of what the group said. If you would rather talk it through, call a meeting, one email to everyone with the gaps listed and the meeting time most people can attend, and share the screen. Either way, settle each gap and save.
10. Set the priorities. The suggestion follows the ticks: a must-have is what more than half the group said the role cannot do without; should-haves are what some said or what was agreed as Almost always; good to have is Often. There is no fixed number; usually three to five must-haves, and a warning above six. The group may choose a different mix if it says why; the reason prints on the report. A candidate must meet every must-have; the rest are weighed. At the same step the group confirms the four lines on the person wanted: for taking charge, working through people, steadiness and following the rules, you see the side the group's answers suggest and can move it either way. You can edit the priorities again from the final page.
11. Approve this RDA and save it as PDF. Approval is refused, and the page says why, if the AI draft was never confirmed, the differences are not settled, the priorities are not confirmed, fewer than the minimum number of people have answered, or nobody answered blind. Approving freezes the report; the header shows who approved it and when. The first page carries the profile to match: the four lines on the person wanted, the behaviour and attitude bands with the single highest and lowest demand, mental agility ranked for the role, and the emotional demands that matter most with their level. The detailed record follows, and states how many people answered blind and how many by reviewing the draft. Everyone who answered can then open their own link and read what was agreed.

For participants

You have been asked to help define a role. Thank you. It takes a few minutes and there are no right answers.

1. Open your link. It is yours alone and opens straight into the job. Phone or laptop, no sign-in.
2. Read the job first. The initiator has described what the role does, the key skills it needs and the results it is answerable for, and the date to answer by. If something is missing, add it in the boxes provided.
3. Say whether the reading is right. After the job, you see the reading of the person the role needs, as the owner confirmed it, in eight parts: the job, the skills, behaviour, mental agility, handling others, what decides success, what will show the appointment has worked, and where the person can come from. Press Agree on each part, or write in your own words what is wrong or missing. If you were asked for comments only, that is all: press Send my comments. The owner takes or leaves each comment, and the reading is rewritten with what is taken.
4. If you have been asked to review the draft (an older way, no longer the default): after the welcome page you are shown “Do you agree with the draft?” Each demand shows the proposed level and the reason behind it; press Agree, or choose a different level. Open the three questions under any demand if you want to think it through first. Three to four minutes. A link, Answer blind instead, switches you to the full questionnaire below if you would rather give your own independent answers.
5. If you have been asked to answer blind (or chose to): fifteen sets of three questions. Each page carries the same heading, “How often must the person holding this job…”, with the three actions underneath and one line under each one explaining it with an example. A line at the top of every page reminds you what the answers mean: Never is not part of the job, Rarely is a few times a year, Sometimes is a few times a month, Often is most weeks, Almost always is most days. A reminder stays on screen throughout: describe the job, not the person doing it today. Then six questions on the mental agility the job needs, headed “Does the person holding this job need to…” and rated Not needed, Basic, Average, Above average or High: how quickly and accurately the person must find patterns, draw conclusions, check for errors, work with numbers, visualise shapes, and hold information in mind. The page moves on by itself when a set is complete.
6. Check your answers. If your three answers on one page disagree, they are shown back to you against the frequency anchors. Change the one that does not fit, or confirm that the three are genuinely different things for this job.
7. Choose what matters most. Tick the demands this role cannot do without, from the ones you rated Often or Almost always. Usually three to five; there is no fixed number, and nothing to justify. Everything else stays in the record at the level you gave it.
8. Tick the meeting times you can attend, then submit.
9. Done. The initiator is told automatically. If you have a suggestion to improve the format, the last page has a box for it; it goes to Raas.

What happens with the result

Raas IntelliSolutions LLP · Raas-CHRO · Raas Select · Questions: info@raasintelli.com · This page: chro.raasintelli.com/guide/rda