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Job evaluation involves measuring the worth of jobs within an organization and ensuring a reasonable wage differential. Evaluation methods can be non-analytical, such as ranking and classification, or analytical, such as the point method. According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (1991), a full understanding of the classification standards is needed for a successful assessment. This paper aims to provide a general description and essential weaknesses of different job evaluation systems and consider situations in which each method would not be effective.
One of the primary methods used for job evaluation is ranking. As per Performing Job Evaluations (2016), it can be considered the simplest system, which creates an estimated hierarchy of jobs based on their importance to the company. While employing this method, an experienced evaluator compares two positions and their difficulty until all the jobs are ranked. Despite being widely applied, the system presents the following drawbacks: the lack of specific assessment standards and subjective and biased evaluation risks, which can make some employees feel offended. In addition, ranking is unmanageable if a large number of jobs are present. Consequently, in some situations, the implementation of the method would be ineffective. For example, a company with 150 specific jobs should select another evaluation system since ranking will fail to present a fair assessment of jobs importance.
Another popular evaluation technique is classification, which is considered more sophisticated than ranking in terms of preciseness. Jobs within organizations are divided into classes judging by responsibilities, skills, and experience needed for each position ( Methods, 2019). The rater composes a description for each class and allocates jobs depending on how they match the characteristics of each group. Even though this method appears less subjective than ranking, several weaknesses are attributed to classification. First, some jobs complexity can disable the ability to categorize them fairly and fit in a particular class. Second, the subjectivity grade from evaluators can still affect the outcome of the assessment and result in some jobs being under- or overestimated. It would be ineffective to apply classification at a company that aims to recognize and award talented employees, since this method groups individuals into classes with similar pay.
Finally, the point method identifies various compensable factors for jobs and places points on them. This approach is considered more advanced than the previous two, as it is analytical and quantitative. The evaluator assigns a numerical value to each compensable factor determined by the job analysis ( Performing job evaluations, 2016). An example of a factor is a skill required for the position, which can be further broken down into communication, social, technical, and other skills. The quantitative nature of the method allows for less subjectivity; however, developing a comprehensive point-factor system can be time-consuming and require additional expenses. Moreover, the point method involves much clerical work and might not be easily understood by an average employee. There might be situations in which this approach would be too complicated: for instance, managerial jobs where work cannot be measured in quantitative terms.
In conclusion, a discussion of such job evaluation methods as ranking, classification, and the point method is presented in this paper. A brief description and major drawbacks are considered for each system, and a situation when the implementation of each approach would turn out unproductive is determined. It can be concluded that a wide range of factors must be taken into account while choosing the best job evaluation method for a particular company.
References
Methods of job evaluation. (2019). Web.
Performing job evaluations. (2016). Web.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (1991). The classifiers handbook. Washington, DC: Author.
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