Define and give an example of How to conduct a job evaluation
Job evaluation refers to the process of establishing the relative value of jobs in an organization. The process of job evaluation focuses on the job and not the ability or any characteristics of the job holder. It does not focus on the volume of work being done. It does not focus on how competently the job is being done. The purpose of undertaking a job evaluation is to establish a relative rank order of jobs within the organization. After job evaluation, jobs are ranked normally from the job of the highest value to the organization to the job of the lowest value. The jobs considered to be of equal value in the organization are grouped in one grade. You must note that even in cases where the same job evaluation is used, jobs with the same title but in different organizations can end up in different . Again I want to emphasize that jobs are evaluated based on relative value to the organization. As an example, you can find a Human Resources Manager in a big mining company falling in a different grade from another Human Resources Manager role in another mining company or a manufacturing company.
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To undertake a credible job evaluation process you would need to make sure that you have accurate and credible job descriptions. I will explain this in detail in the next sections. This is such an important process. You need to understand how to do proper job descriptions for you to come up with credible results from a job evaluation process.
It is important to realize from the onset that a job evaluation process should ultimately lead to the development of a pay structure and benefits structure. If the job evaluation process is flawed, which is a common outcome, the whole process of pay structuring will be flawed. Instead of addressing equity issues, a flawed job evaluation process can lead to more equity complaints. I urge you based on my experience covering over 20 years, that you pay attention to the proper way to carry out a job evaluation process. I will share the process you require to undertake to carry out a credible job evaluation process.
Advantages and disadvantages of job evaluationHere are the major advantages and disadvantages of a job evaluation process. Pay attention to these as they would help you understand the importance of job evaluation.
Advantages of job evaluation
Disadvantages of job evaluation
The multiplicity of job evaluation systems, using different factors to evaluate jobs has created problems in terms of consistency on the comparability of jobs
Job Evaluation MethodsThere are several job evaluation methods available on the market. My experience shows that what tends to vary among them is the level of sophistication but the results are the same; a rank order of positions within the organization. Sometimes I think organizations will choose a particular system over the other simply because that is what is fashionable at that particular time.
Here are the various job evaluation methods:1. Rank Method – In this method you compare jobs against each other and rank them. There is no specific factor to consider here. Based on the subjective judgment of the importance of the job, jobs are ranked in a particular organization. It is one of the simplest methods but also one of the most controversial methods. What is important is that you need to understand the job very well to be able to do a rank order of jobs. One way to make this process better is to make sure the people ranking the jobs have a full understanding of each job. They need to read the job descriptions in greater detail to be able to rank-order all the jobs. This process of rank ordering jobs is done until all the jobs are done. Remember when using this method, you use the whole job as a basis for ranking and not any particular factor. Once all the jobs have been ranked you can broadly group them into groups. You can choose where to cut – off and create different groups. That will effectively lead to grades of your choice. The advantage of this method is that is less expensive and if done well it can serve the same purpose as the more sophisticated methods. The system is less time-consuming and can be done even by people who are not sophisticated. The disadvantage is that it can be perceived as haphazard as it does not have standard procedures.
2. The Point Factor Method – This method works based on specific factors considered important across jobs and these factors are given points. These factors could be weighted or not weighted. As an example, you may find a job evaluation system or approach based on factors such as :
For me, this is one of the best job evaluation methods available as it leads to some total points for each job and the jobs are ranked based on these points. This approach has very high face validity with employees and managers as they can see how you arrive at the total points for a particular role.
One of the advantages of using this method is that is more reliable when compared to other methods. It is one of the most popular methods available on the market at the moment. The point system allows for easy classification of jobs into grades based on pre-established cut-off points.
The downside of this method is that it can be very complicated for ordinary employees to understand. The people grading the jobs need a good understanding of each factor and the cut-off points per factor. In some instances, people find it difficult to see the differences between the various cut-off points. Employees sometimes have complained about this system on the basis that it is too quantitative and ignores the qualitative aspects of the job. Despite the above disadvantages, my experience using this system of job evaluation shows that it produces the most acceptable rank order of jobs often accepted by both employers and unions.
3. Market Pricing This method starts by getting market data for all your jobs. This data can be in the form of the market average, 25th percentile, 50th percentile, or 75th percentile. As can be seen from the table below three clear bands emerging from the market data below;
Job Title Market Median Marketing Executive 32,000 HR Manager 31,456 Banking Executive 33,156 Supply Chain Manager 32,541 HR Officer 18,632 Accountant 22,000 Account Clerk 5,220 Back Office Assistant 4,956 Creditor Clerks 4,856
This is one of the easiest ways to come up with job evaluation grades. The challenge is that it is more technical and would require a person who understands the concept of pay structuring. It is less costly and can be used when you require a quick way to come up with grades.
The job evaluation processEmbarking on a job evaluation exercise is a tough choice. If you fail to plan properly for the whole process you may end up with more problems than you want to solve. Before you embark on a job evaluation exercise you need to be clear about why you are doing this project. In many cases, I have seen people going for a job evaluation process for reasons I would consider to be trivial. As an example, you may find that an organization is embarking on a job evaluation process because they have used the other current system for too long. Such a reason is not good enough as it leads to wastage of resources.
Justification for a job evaluation exerciseBelow I outline some of the key reasons that are good enough to trigger a job evaluation process. It is always important to embark on a job evaluation process if any of the following conditions exist in your organization:
I consider the above reasons to be good enough to embark on a fresh job evaluation exercise. Do not be tempted to engage in a job evaluation exercise for political reasons e.g. to fix a few jobs and individuals targeted for downgrading.
Related: Job Rotation: Advantages and Disadvantages
Job evaluation and stakeholder buy-inOnce a good reason for a job evaluation exercise has been established, move on to get the necessary buy-in from the key stakeholders in your organization. The stakeholders, in this case, include your employees, union members, and senior management. All these should have a clear understanding of why the job evaluation process is necessary and the expected outcome from such a process. As part of this process, you need to embark on roadshows to educate the stakeholders in small groups on the reason why the job evaluation process is necessary and what they will benefit from the process. Make it clear as part of this process that the job evaluation process does not imply automatic salary adjustments, although some may end up with adjustments. A major concern I have noted with many job evaluation projects is that employees in general link the job evaluation process to salary adjustments. Although a job evaluation process does lead to a pay structure, there is no automatic salary alignment for all employees.
Selecting a job evaluation system
Once your stakeholders are aligned to your goals for the job evaluation project, you now need to select the right system to address your needs. As previously explained all job evaluation systems lead to some form of a rank order of jobs within an organization. Your choice on which system to use must be guided by the following factors:
Job evaluation Project TeamYou would need to put together a multi-disciplinary project team to supervise the whole job evaluation project. The purpose of this team is not to evaluate jobs but to deal with all policy-related issues that may arise as you progress with this project. The team must be made up of senior people in the organization who have a say on policy issues. Others prefer to include one or two worker representatives in this team, and there is nothing wrong with that. The only criteria that matter is that the project team members must have a full understanding of the business and how it operates.
Job DescriptionsIf the project is managed by internal people, who in this case are led by a senior HR professional they need to make sure that they put together a team to prepare job descriptions. The team must be trained in the techniques for preparing credible job descriptions. The internal team doing the job descriptions must have a clear understanding of the business. Major challenges with job descriptions are that incumbents tend to inflate their jobs including qualifications and education. This can make the whole process unreliable. In jobs occupied by more than one individual, it makes sense to involve all the concerned incumbents where possible. That makes the more reliable. A very clear protocol for preparing job descriptions must be developed by the HR team or the Consultant leading such a project.
Poorly done job descriptions will lead to disputes when results are presented to employees. Managers and supervisors need to cross-check all job descriptions submitted by their subordinates for accuracy and validity.
The Job Evaluation CommitteeOnce the job descriptions have been done and signed by the incumbent, supervisor, and manager, the Consultant or lead HR Professional can proceed to constitute a Job Evaluation Committee. One thing to remember when selecting job evaluation committee members is that the committee is not a bargaining committee, it is a team put together to deal with a specific organizational problem. Give the committee very clear terms of reference. The membership of this committee must be cross-cutting covering all key areas of the business and cutting across various levels of the business. Managers and employees and various professional groups must be represented in this committee. Here is the sample of Terms of Reference for the Job Evaluation Committee;
Presentation of Job Evaluation Results to StakeholdersOnce the Job Evaluation Committee completes the evaluation of jobs, the results should be presented first to the Job evaluation project team. Once the project team approves the results, the Human Resources department and the whole job evaluation committee must embark on a roadshow to present the results. The results must be presented to employees in small groups, and then to union members and groups of managers. Feedback from these sessions is very crucial for the job evaluation committee. The feedback could signal the acceptance or non-acceptance of the job evaluation results. As part of that presentation, the committee must let employees know that they have a right to appeal if they are not happy with the grade. The only acceptable basis for appeal is that the committee may have missed some important information that the incumbent(s) would like to add. Giving employees the right to appeal increase the transparency and subsequent acceptance of the job evaluation results. Give employees 2 weeks to submit their appeals, after which the Job Evaluation Committee must meet to consider such appeals. Once jobs have been submitted for an appeal, they can only go up or remain where they are. Once the appeal process is completed and the final grading structure approved the next step is to prepare a pay structure. A pay structure is prepared by technical experts and it is not for the job evaluation committee.
How to link job evaluation results to pay structureThe ultimate for a job evaluation exercise is to end up with a new pay structure. The process of designing a pay structure requires higher-level technical skills which are not often found in general HR practitioners, hence the reliance on Consultants to carry this process. See this article for a detailed pay structuring process.
How to maintain a job evaluation systemMaintaining a job evaluation system is a crucial process. For the new grading system to last it would need to be maintained. Below I list some of the job evaluation system maintenance hints that you can use in the management of your system.
ConclusionJob evaluation is probably one of the most important human resources processes that add significant value to the organization if done properly. The process outlined in this paper should assist everyone new to job evaluation and those experienced in job evaluation who are seeking to enhance their system. In summary, this job evaluation paper is for every HR professional and every manager charged with managing people in the workplace.
Memory Nguwi is an Occupational Psychologist, Data Scientist, Speaker, & Managing Consultant- Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd a management and human resources consulting firm. https://www.linkedin.com/in/memorynguwi/ Phone +263 4 481946-48/481950/2900276/2900966 or cell number +263 77 2356 361 or email: [email protected] or visit our website at www.ipcconsultants.com How would you conduct a job evaluation?The job evaluation process involves four steps. These steps are planning and diagnosis, design & development, validation & modeling, and communication & roll-out.
What is job evaluation explain any 3 methods with suitable examples?The basic objective of job evaluation is to determine the relative contributions that the performance of different jobs makes towards the realization of organisational objectives. There are four basic methods of job evaluation: ranking method, job grading method, point method and factor comparison method.
When conducting job evaluation what is evaluated?1. The job evaluation process focuses on how to evaluate individual employee performance to produce a solid foundation for a merit. pay system.
What are the four methods of job evaluation?The four primary methods of job evaluations used to set compensation levels are point factor, factor comparison, job ranking, and job classification. The first two are quantitative and the latter two are non-quantitative.
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