UNIT – I Lesson 1 HRM – AN OVERVIEW Lesson Outline Nature of ...

Job evaluation is defined as the process of objectively analyzing and assessing the value of
each job in relation to other jobs in an organization. It aims at finding the relative worth of
a job and to establish a rational and equitable pay structure. Fredrick Taylor was the
pioneer who designed a formal, systematic way of assigning pay to jobs for improving
productivity. His methodology came to be known as Job Evaluation. It compares jobs to
one another based on their content, which is usually defined in terms of compensated
factors such as skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions. It is mostly a
judgmental process that demands close cooperation between supervisors, HR specialists
and the representatives of employers and employees.
Industry has become increasingly aware of the need for a systematic and an
objective approach to setting the worth and price of each management position in relation
to others within a business management group, and to similar management positions
within a geographic region or an industry. While the shop floor and clerical planners
normally evaluate a job in terms of its duties, a managerial position is always evaluated in
terms of responsibilities, which could include those related to making others perform their
duties.
Job evaluation is highly dynamic in nature. It is not a one-time project but is
something that must be maintained on an ongoing basis. Jobs do go through change and it
is imperative that when any alteration happen the job evaluation has to be reviewed and
amended to reflect the change. Since Job evaluation examines the effect of skills,
capabilities, responsibilities and work environment on the performance of the job in a
particular context, it cannot be automatically transplanted from one company to another.
There would be a lot of localized adaptation before finalizing a job evaluation format.
Since salaries paid depend upon the classification of jobs, job evaluations would have to
be done conscientiously and administered judiciously.
Job evaluation rates the job and not the person going to occupy it. The cycle of job
evaluation is launched first by way of creating a by a committee of personnel trained in the
process, consisting of heads of various departments, representatives of employees and a
specialist on the field, along with the team of Human Resource Department. The team of
raters would use the job descriptions to determine the relative worth of every job in
comparison with others. In this process, the committee should subject all the relevant
external and internal factors into their active consideration before arriving at a final
scheme of fixing pay scales. A general guideline provided to these committees is that too
many levels of pay scales should be avoided through proper grading of jobs.