job evaluation
What is job evaluation?
Job evaluation is the process of methodically establishing a structure of jobs within an organization based on a systematic consideration of job content and requirements. The purpose of the job structure or hierarchy is to provide a basis for the pay structure. The job structure, as seen in previous lessons, is only one of the determinants of the wage structure. But it is an important one often used.
Why to do Job Evaluation?
Organizations usually begin the process of designing a wave structure by determining their job structure. Two often-cited principles of compensation are
(1) Equal pay for equal work and
(2) More pay for more important work. Both imply that organizations pay employees for contributions required by jobs.
Most organizations utilize job assignment as a major determinant of employee contributions. A formal wage structure, defined as a rate or range of rates established for job classifications, seems to be standard organization practice, except in very small organizations. Formal job evaluation or informal comparison of job content is the almost universal base of pay rates.
Job evaluation is concerned with jobs, not people. A job is a grouping of work tasks. It is an arbitrary concept requiring careful definition in the organization. Job evaluation determines the relative position of the job in the organization hierarchy. It is assumed that as long as job content remains unchanged, it may be performed by individuals of varying ability and proficiency.
Objectives of Job Evaluation
The general purpose of job evaluation may include a number of more specific goals:
1. To provide a basis for a simpler, more rational wage structure;
2. To provide an agreed-upon means of classifying new or changed jobs;
3. To provide a base for individual performance measurements;
4. To reduce pay grievances by reducing their scope and providing an agreed-upon means of resolving disputes;
5. To provide incentives for employees to strive for higher-level jobs;
6. To provide information for wage negotiations;
7. To provide data on job relationships for use in internal and external selection, personnel planning, career management, and other personnel functions.
The principle upon all job evaluation schemes are based is that of describing and assessing the value jobs in the firms in terms of a number of factors, the relative importance of which varies from job to job:
· To secure and maintain complete, accurate and impersonal descriptions of each distinct job or occupation in the entire plant;
· To provide a standard procedure for determining the relative worth of each job in a plant;
· To determine the rate of pay for each job which is fair and equitable with relation to other jobs in the plant, community or industry;
· To ensure that like wages are paid to all qualified employees for like work;
· To promote a fair. and accurate consideration of all employees for advancement and transfer;
· To provide a factual basis for the consideration of wage rates for similar jobs in a community and in an industry; and
· To provide information for ‘work organization, employees’ selection, placement, training and numerous other similar problems.
In fact, the primary purpose of job evaluation is to set wages and salary on the basis the relative work or jobs in the organization.
Responsibility for Job Evaluation
The installation and operation of job evaluation involves certain responsibilities. Several possibilities for implementing the process are apparent.
One or more committees may be selected, a department may be set up or an existing one assigned, or a consulting organization may be brought in. These possibilities are not mutually exclusive.
Support for the program is essential because installation of it involves commitments of time, effort, and money. Such support is usually obtained by securing top management approval and the collaboration of other managers and organization members. Often this approval is obtained through a committee set up for this purpose.
Various bodies involved with the responsibility of Job evaluation
1. The Committee Approach
This committee is given an explanation of job evaluation, the purposes it is expected to accomplish, a rough time schedule, and perhaps an estimate of the cost of the program. The committee makes the decision to install job evaluation, decides on the scope of the project, and assigns responsibility for the work.
The actual work of job evaluation is usually done in committee in both large and small organizations, whether the task is accomplished by organization members alone or with the help of a consultant.
Committees have the advantage of being able to pool the judgment of several individuals. The committee usually selects the compensable factors, determines weighting, chooses the method of comparing jobs, and evaluates jobs.
2. Consultants
Consultants are sometimes employed to install job evaluation plans. Successful consultants are careful to ensure that organization members are deeply involved in installing the plan and are able to operate the plan on their own. Consultants are most likely to be employed in small organizations where no member has the necessary expertise. They are also more likely to be employed when a complex rather than a simple plan is to be installed. Consultants often have their own ready-made plans.
Sometimes consultants are brought in to insure objectivity in union-management installations. It is also common to hire consultants to evaluate management jobs, because the objectivity of committee members rating jobs at levels higher than their own may be questioned.
3. Compensation Department Involvement
It is quite possible for the organization to assign installation and operation of a job evaluation plan to the compensation department. Sometimes the compensation professional heading the unit and a number of job analysts carry out the task.
Those who favor this last approach emphasize the technical nature of the task. They may also be reacting to the difficulty of getting operating managers to devote the time that the program requires.
4. Union Involvement in Job Evaluation
Union involvement has the same rationale as that offered in our discussion of job evaluation committees. Acceptance and understanding are the expected results of involvement. In practice, union participation in job evaluation has varied greatly. Some unions profess to formally evaluate an organization’s jobs independently and then use the information as an aid in collective bargaining.
Unions have criticized job evaluation on several grounds
· that it restricts collective bargaining on wages,
· that wages shouldn’t be based solely on job content,
· that supervisors do not or cannot explain the plan to employees,
· that management doesn’t administer the plan the way it explained it, and
· that it is subjective.
Relationship between Job Evaluation and Job Analysis
Job evaluation is the output provided by job analysis. As seen earlier, Job analysis describes the duties of a job, authority relationships, skills required, conditions of work, and additional relevant information. Job evaluation on the other hand, uses the information in job analysis to evaluate each job valuing its components and ascertaining relative job worth.
It involves, in other words, a formal and systematic comparison of jobs in order to determine the worth of one job relative to another, so that a wage or salary hierarchy results. So it is a process by which jobs in an organization are evaluated. When jobs are evaluated, the relative worth of a given collection of duties and responsibilities to the organization is assessed. This process is adopted to help a management to maintain high levels of employee productivity and employee satisfaction.
If job values are not properly studied, it is very likely that jobs would not be properly realized, i.e., high valued jobs may receive less pay than low-valued jobs. When employees realize that this is happening, they become dissatisfied. They may leave the organization, reduce their efforts or perhaps adopt other modes of behavior detrimental to the organization. Therefore, in modern society, a great deal of attention is paid to the value of a job. What a particular job should be paid is greatly influenced by the value of judgment about the worth of a job. In other words, a person is paid for what he brings to a job his education, training and experience provided that these are related to the requirements of the job which he is assigned.
Job evaluation is the process of methodically establishing a structure of jobs within an organization based on a systematic consideration of job content and requirements. The purpose of the job structure or hierarchy is to provide a basis for the pay structure. The job structure, as seen in previous lessons, is only one of the determinants of the wage structure. But it is an important one often used.
Why to do Job Evaluation?
Organizations usually begin the process of designing a wave structure by determining their job structure. Two often-cited principles of compensation are
(1) Equal pay for equal work and
(2) More pay for more important work. Both imply that organizations pay employees for contributions required by jobs.
Most organizations utilize job assignment as a major determinant of employee contributions. A formal wage structure, defined as a rate or range of rates established for job classifications, seems to be standard organization practice, except in very small organizations. Formal job evaluation or informal comparison of job content is the almost universal base of pay rates.
Job evaluation is concerned with jobs, not people. A job is a grouping of work tasks. It is an arbitrary concept requiring careful definition in the organization. Job evaluation determines the relative position of the job in the organization hierarchy. It is assumed that as long as job content remains unchanged, it may be performed by individuals of varying ability and proficiency.
Objectives of Job Evaluation
The general purpose of job evaluation may include a number of more specific goals:
1. To provide a basis for a simpler, more rational wage structure;
2. To provide an agreed-upon means of classifying new or changed jobs;
3. To provide a base for individual performance measurements;
4. To reduce pay grievances by reducing their scope and providing an agreed-upon means of resolving disputes;
5. To provide incentives for employees to strive for higher-level jobs;
6. To provide information for wage negotiations;
7. To provide data on job relationships for use in internal and external selection, personnel planning, career management, and other personnel functions.
The principle upon all job evaluation schemes are based is that of describing and assessing the value jobs in the firms in terms of a number of factors, the relative importance of which varies from job to job:
· To secure and maintain complete, accurate and impersonal descriptions of each distinct job or occupation in the entire plant;
· To provide a standard procedure for determining the relative worth of each job in a plant;
· To determine the rate of pay for each job which is fair and equitable with relation to other jobs in the plant, community or industry;
· To ensure that like wages are paid to all qualified employees for like work;
· To promote a fair. and accurate consideration of all employees for advancement and transfer;
· To provide a factual basis for the consideration of wage rates for similar jobs in a community and in an industry; and
· To provide information for ‘work organization, employees’ selection, placement, training and numerous other similar problems.
In fact, the primary purpose of job evaluation is to set wages and salary on the basis the relative work or jobs in the organization.
Responsibility for Job Evaluation
The installation and operation of job evaluation involves certain responsibilities. Several possibilities for implementing the process are apparent.
One or more committees may be selected, a department may be set up or an existing one assigned, or a consulting organization may be brought in. These possibilities are not mutually exclusive.
Support for the program is essential because installation of it involves commitments of time, effort, and money. Such support is usually obtained by securing top management approval and the collaboration of other managers and organization members. Often this approval is obtained through a committee set up for this purpose.
Various bodies involved with the responsibility of Job evaluation
1. The Committee Approach
This committee is given an explanation of job evaluation, the purposes it is expected to accomplish, a rough time schedule, and perhaps an estimate of the cost of the program. The committee makes the decision to install job evaluation, decides on the scope of the project, and assigns responsibility for the work.
The actual work of job evaluation is usually done in committee in both large and small organizations, whether the task is accomplished by organization members alone or with the help of a consultant.
Committees have the advantage of being able to pool the judgment of several individuals. The committee usually selects the compensable factors, determines weighting, chooses the method of comparing jobs, and evaluates jobs.
2. Consultants
Consultants are sometimes employed to install job evaluation plans. Successful consultants are careful to ensure that organization members are deeply involved in installing the plan and are able to operate the plan on their own. Consultants are most likely to be employed in small organizations where no member has the necessary expertise. They are also more likely to be employed when a complex rather than a simple plan is to be installed. Consultants often have their own ready-made plans.
Sometimes consultants are brought in to insure objectivity in union-management installations. It is also common to hire consultants to evaluate management jobs, because the objectivity of committee members rating jobs at levels higher than their own may be questioned.
3. Compensation Department Involvement
It is quite possible for the organization to assign installation and operation of a job evaluation plan to the compensation department. Sometimes the compensation professional heading the unit and a number of job analysts carry out the task.
Those who favor this last approach emphasize the technical nature of the task. They may also be reacting to the difficulty of getting operating managers to devote the time that the program requires.
4. Union Involvement in Job Evaluation
Union involvement has the same rationale as that offered in our discussion of job evaluation committees. Acceptance and understanding are the expected results of involvement. In practice, union participation in job evaluation has varied greatly. Some unions profess to formally evaluate an organization’s jobs independently and then use the information as an aid in collective bargaining.
Unions have criticized job evaluation on several grounds
· that it restricts collective bargaining on wages,
· that wages shouldn’t be based solely on job content,
· that supervisors do not or cannot explain the plan to employees,
· that management doesn’t administer the plan the way it explained it, and
· that it is subjective.
Relationship between Job Evaluation and Job Analysis
Job evaluation is the output provided by job analysis. As seen earlier, Job analysis describes the duties of a job, authority relationships, skills required, conditions of work, and additional relevant information. Job evaluation on the other hand, uses the information in job analysis to evaluate each job valuing its components and ascertaining relative job worth.
It involves, in other words, a formal and systematic comparison of jobs in order to determine the worth of one job relative to another, so that a wage or salary hierarchy results. So it is a process by which jobs in an organization are evaluated. When jobs are evaluated, the relative worth of a given collection of duties and responsibilities to the organization is assessed. This process is adopted to help a management to maintain high levels of employee productivity and employee satisfaction.
If job values are not properly studied, it is very likely that jobs would not be properly realized, i.e., high valued jobs may receive less pay than low-valued jobs. When employees realize that this is happening, they become dissatisfied. They may leave the organization, reduce their efforts or perhaps adopt other modes of behavior detrimental to the organization. Therefore, in modern society, a great deal of attention is paid to the value of a job. What a particular job should be paid is greatly influenced by the value of judgment about the worth of a job. In other words, a person is paid for what he brings to a job his education, training and experience provided that these are related to the requirements of the job which he is assigned.