This content is from Paul H. Elliot's chapter in the Handbook for Human Performance Technology.

A job aid is a human performance intervention of a non-instructional nature, used when a needs analysis reveals deficient performance is the result of a lack of skills or knowledge. The following tasks are ideal for candidates for job aids (p. 435):

• Tasks performed with relatively low frequency (once a year). A task performed once a day is high frequency.
• Highly complex tasks.
• Tasks with dire consequences (great financial loss or loss of life) are to be avoided.
• Tasks whose procedures are very likely to change in the future because of changes in technology, policy, or equipment.
• Tasks that do not involve factors (such as strict time requirements). Airline pilots, surgeons, sewer workers, and lifeguards all have reasons to commit information to memory over referring to a manual.

Job aids must directly guide the task, address only the skills and knowledge relevant to the performance problem, and be cost-effective. Proper development of a job aid involves eight tasks (p. 436):

1. Collect data. Discover the regulations, speed, physical conditions, social conditions, frequency, consequences, complexity, and change probability governing the performance of the task.
2. Select the correct information-storage medium. Is the learner better off using a job aid only, committing all information to long-term memory, job aid plus supportive instruction, and/or instruction with job aid references?
3. Determine whether barriers to a job aid can be overcome, or better yet, lay the groundwork to avoid barriers to job aid use
• Gain support by involving the boss in the analytical process before job aids are produced
• Conduct briefings for bosses on why job aids are developed
• Carefully introduce the job aids to the performers in sessions that resemble training sessions
• Call the job aids training aids
4. Determine whether training support is needed for the job aid. Job aids are more successful when they are paired with instruction on how to use the aid. Self-instructional materials should provide users with practice using the job aid. In computerized instruction, the help screen is a self-instructional job aid.
5. Select the format of the job aid. This includes linear sequencing (cookbook), worksheet, decision table, algorithm, checklist, or a combination.
6. Develop the job aid (p. 437).
• Use specific, unambiguous language.
• Use observable, measurable language. "Understand", "create", "satisfy", and "communicate" can't have definite measurements.
• Write in short sentences. Use short words.
• Organize steps in fifteen-second increments. Short-term or working memory can only store 5-9 chunks of information at at time.
• Put the stimulus first, followed by directions for the action to be taken in response to the stimulus. For example, "When you hear the phone ring, press the intercom button" is better than "Press the intercom button when you hear the phone ring."
• Use line drawings rather than photographs. Photographs show everything whereas a diagram can concentrate on what the learner needs to know.
• Put drawings on the left and directions for action on the right to imitate the performance situation: I see something, and then I do something.
• Avoid humor.
7. Edit the job aid for technical correctness and completeness. Is all information in the correct order and in small chunks? Are all drawings from the performer's perspective? How has highlighting been (under/over)utilized?
8. Test the job aid

Research by the military has shown job aids reduce training time, decrease dependence on highly skilled personnel, reduce the need for manpower, and facilitate cross-training on systems.