JOB EVALUATION

OBJECTIVES:
1. To know basic approach to Job Evaluation.
2. To importance of Job Evaluation and its effectiveness.
3. To know the important methods of Job Evaluation.

Job evaluation is the process of analyzing and assessing the various jobs
systematically to ascertain their relative worth in an organization. Job is
evaluated on the basis of their content and is placed in the order of their
importance.
It should be noted that in a job evaluation program, the jobs are ranked and
not the jobholders. Jobholders are rated through performance appraisal.
“Job evaluation is a process of finding out the relative worth of a job as
compared to other jobs”
The following objectives are derived from the analysis of the above-mentioned
definitions: -
1) To gather data and information relating to job description, job
specification and employee specifications for various jobs in an
organization.
2) To compare the duties, responsibilities and demands of a job with that of
other jobs.
3) To determine the hierarchy and place of various jobs in an organization.
4) To determine the ranks or grades of various jobs.
5) To ensure fair and equitable wages on the basis of relative worth or
value of jobs. In other words equal wages are fixed to the jobs of equal
worth or value.
6) To minimize wage discrimination based on sex, age, caste, region, religion etc.

PRINCIPLES OF JOB EVALUATION

Job evaluation program should be implemented carefully. The following principles help
in successful implementation of the program:
1. Rate the job but not the employee. Rate the elements on
the basis of the job demands.
2. The elements selected for rating should be easily understood.
 3. The elements should be defined clearly and properly
selected.
4. Employees concerned and the supervisors should
be educated and convinced about the program.
5. Supervisors should be encouraged to participate in
rating the jobs.
6. Secure employee cooperation by encouraging them
to participate in the rating program.
7. Discuss with the supervisors and employees about
rating but not about assigning money values to the
points.
8. Do not establish too many occupational wages.

For, better understanding let us look at the flowchart below:

Job Evaluation Process:

The job-evaluation process starts defining objectives of evaluation and
ends with establishing wage and salary differentials.

The main objective of job evaluation, as was stated earlier, is to

establish satisfactory wage and salary differentials. Job analysis should
precede the actual program of evaluation. Job analysis, as was
discussed earlier, provides job-related data, which would be useful in
drafting job description and job specification.

A job-evaluation program involves answering several questions:

The major ones are:

 Which jobs are to be evaluated?

 Who should evaluate the jobs?
 What training do the evaluation need?
  How much time is involved?
 What should be the criteria for evaluation?
 What methods of evaluation are to be employed?

Which jobs are to be evaluated in any exercise, where there are more
than 30 or 40 jobs to be evaluated, it is necessary to identify and
select a sample of benchmark jobs, which can be used for comparisons
inside and outside the organs. The benchmark jobs should be so
selected to achieve representative sample of each of the main levels of
jobs in each of the principal occupations.

The size of the sample depends on the number of different jobs to be

covered. It is likely to be less than about five percent of the total
number of employees in the organization and it would be difficult to
produce a balanced sample unless at least 25 percent of the distinct
jobs at each level of the organization were included.

METHODS OF JOB EVALUATION

Job-evaluation methods are of two categories-Analytical and Non Analytical
The basic difference between these two methods lies in the sense that, under
non-quantitative methods, a job is compared as a whole with other jobs in the
organisation, whereas in case of quantitative methods, the key factors of a job
are selected and, then, measured. The four methods of job evaluation are now
discussed one by one.
RANKING METHOD:
The ranking method is the simplest form of job evaluation. In this method, each

job as a whole is compared with other and this comparison of jobs goes on until

all the jobs have been evaluated and ranked. All jobs are ranked in the order of

their importance from the simplest to the hardest or from the highest to the

lowest.

The importance of order of job is judged in terms of duties, responsibilities and

demands on the job holder. The jobs are ranked according to “the whole job”

rather than a number of compensable factors. Ranking method is appropriate for

small-size organisations where jobs are simple and few. It is also suitable for

evaluating managerial jobs wherein job contents cannot be measured in

quantitative terms. Ranking method being simple one can be used in the initial

stages of job evaluation in an organisation.

MERITS:

Ranking method has the following merits:

1. It is the simplest method.

2. It is quite economical to put it into effect.

3. It is less time consuming and involves little paper work.

DEMERITS:

The method suffers from the following demerits:

1. The main demerit of the ranking method is that there are no definite

standards of judgment and also there is no way of measuring the differences

between jobs.

It suffers from its sheer unmanageability when there are a large number of jobs.

GRADING METHOD/JOB CLASSIFICATION:

Grading method is also known as ‘classification method’. This method of job

evaluation was made popular by the U.S. Civil Service Commission. Under this

method, job grades or classes are established by an authorised body or

committee appointed for this purpose. A job grade is defined as a group of

different jobs of similar difficulty or requiring similar skills to perform them. Job

grades are determined on the basis of information derived from job analysis.

The grades or classes are created by identifying some common denominator

such as skills, knowledge and responsibilities. The example of job grades may

include, depending on the type of jobs the organisation offers, skilled, unskilled,

account clerk, clerk-cum-typist, steno typist, office superintendent, laboratory

assistant and so on.

Once the grades are established, each job is then placed into its appropriate

grade or class depending on how well its characteristics fit in a grade. In this

way, a series of job grades is created. Then, different wage/salary rate is fixed

for each grade.

MERITS:

The main merits of grading method of job evaluation are:

1. This method is easy to understand and simple to operate.

2. It is economical and, therefore, suitable for small organisations.

3. The grouping of jobs into classifications makes pay determination problems

easy to administer.

4. This method is useful for Government jobs.

DEMERITS:

The demerits of this method include:

1. The method suffers from personal bias of the committee members.

2. It cannot deal with complex jobs which will not fit neatly into one grade.

3. This method is rarely used in an industry.

ANALYTICAL METHOD
POINTS RATING:

This is the most widely used method of job evaluation. Under this method, jobs

are broke down based on various identifiable factors such as skill, effort, training,

knowledge, hazards, responsibility, etc. Thereafter, points are allocated to each

of these factors.

Weights are given to factors depending on their importance to perform the job.

Points so allocated to various factors of a job are then summed. Then, the jobs

with similar total of points are placed in similar pay grades. The sum of points

gives an index of the relative significance of the jobs that are rated.

MERITS:

The method has the following merits:

1. It is the most comprehensive and accurate method of job evaluation.

2. Prejudice and human judgment are minimised, i.e. the system cannot be

easily manipulated.

3. Being the systematic method, workers of the organisation favour this method.

4. The scales developed in this method can be used for long time.

5. Jobs can be easily placed in distinct categories.

DEMERITS:

The drawbacks of the method are:

1. It is both time-consuming and expensive method.

2. It is difficult to understand for an average worker.

3. A lot of clerical work is involved in recording rating scales.

4. It is not suitable for managerial jobs wherein the work content is not

measurable in quantitative terms.

FACTOR COMPARISON METHOD:

This method is a combination of both ranking and point methods in the sense

that it rates jobs by comparing them and makes analysis by breaking jobs into

compensable factors. This system is usually used to evaluate white collar,

professional and managerial positions.

MERITS:

This method enjoys the following merits:

1. It is more objective method of job evaluation.

2. The method is flexible as there is no upper limit on the rating of a factor.

3. It is fairly easy method to explain to employees.

4. The use of limited number of factors (usually five) ensures less chances of

overlapping and over-weighting of factors.

5. It facilitates determining the relative worth of different jobs.

DEMERITS:

The method, however, suffers from the following drawbacks:

1. It is expensive and time-consuming method.

2. Using the same five factors for evaluating jobs may not always be appropriate

because jobs differ across and within organisations.

3. It is difficult to understand and operate.

Now, all the four methods are summarised as follows :