Everything you need to know about the meaning of job evaluation. A job is created when accumulated tasks or work justify the employment of an individual or a group of individuals for accomplishing the task or purpose.
Job evaluation is a systematic method of appraising the value of each job in relation to other jobs in the organisation. It provides a consistent procedure that sets up and maintains a hierarchy of jobs, attaching to each job a pay rate commensurate with its status in the hierarchy.
In other words, job evaluation is a process of comparing jobs with other jobs in terms of the demand, a job makes on the worker. It does not set the price of the job it merely fixes its relative worth.
It represents an effort to determine the relative value of every job in a plant and to determine what the fair basic wage for such a job should be.
Job Evaluation Meaning and Definition
Job Evaluation Meaning – With Factors Depending upon Absolute Monetary Value of Job
A job is created when accumulated tasks or work justify the employment of an individual or a group of individuals for accomplishing the task or purpose.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Jobs carry remunerations according to their worth. An engineer gets more than a technician, a supervisor gets more than the workmen and a manager gets more than the supervisors and office assistants. A rational pay structure is based on an evaluation of all the jobs in an organisation. Job evaluation is a process which helps in determining the worth of each job in relation to other jobs in an organisation and thus it helps in evolving a rational wage and salary structure.
The British Institute of Management has defined job evaluation as “the process of analysis and assessment of jobs to ascertain reliably their relative worth, using the assessment as a basis for a balanced wage structure”. In an ILO publication, Payment by Results, the term job evaluation has been referred to as “describing and assessing the value of all jobs in the firm in terms of a number of factors, the relative importance of which varies from job to job”.
According to Prof Bryan Livy, job evaluation “seeks to highlight significant disparities between units of work on a comparative basis and so produce a more equitable distribution of income within an organisation than might be obtained by more arbitrary methods”.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Job evaluation is thus a scientific study of jobs in an organisation to ascertain the comparative worth of each job. It is a practice which seeks to provide a degree of objectivity in measuring the comparative value of a job within an organisation and among similar organisations.
It lists the underlying factors in all jobs and creates scales or measures for each job. These factors include elements of responsibility; job knowledge or skill; mental application; dexterity and accuracy; physical requirements; working conditions; tools and equipment to be handled; hazards, etc. It seeks to quantify what each job constitutes in terms of money. It is the job that is evaluated and not the person doing the job. The person may change but the job will continue.
Different systems suit different types of work. An evaluation worked out for the factory workers may not be suitable if applied to clerical or ministerial staff. Systems applied should assist in determining the relative worth of the jobs.
The absolute monetary value of the job would eventually depend upon many factors like:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
1. Existing union-employer agreements
2. Prevailing wage rates in the region
3. Demand and supply position of workers
4. Minimum wages to the lowest rank of workers and other associated factors.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The objective of applying a system of evaluation is only to help remove guesswork, favouritism and expediency.
It may be remembered that job evaluation is not a shortcut to an equitable wage structure. It is a difficult science and a time- consuming procedure. It should be carried out with a high degree of integrity and fair-mindedness, otherwise it may adversely affect the morale of the organisation. It should evolve a fair method by which the wage structure of an organisation can be settled to the mutual satisfaction of the employer and employee.
Job Evaluation Meaning – According to David W. Belcher, Gary Dessler and Biju Varkkey
According to David W. Belcher, “Job evaluation is a systematic method of appraising the value of each job in relation to other jobs in the organisation. It provides a consistent procedure that sets up and maintains a hierarchy of jobs, attaching to each job a pay rate commensurate with its status in the hierarchy.”
In the words of Gary Dessler and Biju Varkkey, “The job evaluation is a formal or systematic comparison of jobs to determine the worth of one job relative to another.” Similar elements of job evaluation have also been emphasised by many other scholars.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Thus, it is clear that job evaluation is the method of measuring the relative worth of different jobs in the job hierarchy of an organization, and pricing them in terms of money. It is not concerned with the assessment of abilities or skills of individual employees.
Its focus is on elements of requirements of jobs such as skill, experience, duty, responsibility, physical and mental efforts required and the physical working conditions under which the job is performed. It involves comparison of one job with other jobs in these terms. It aims at determining the relative value of every job in the job-hierarchy of the organisation.
Purpose of Job Evaluation:
The purpose of job evaluation is to produce a defensible defensive ranking of jobs on which a rational and accepted pay structure can be established.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
a. It tries to assess jobs, not people.
b. The standards of Job Evaluation are relative, not absolute.
c. The basic information on which Job Evaluations are made is obtained from Job Analysis.
d. Job evaluations are carried out by groups, not by individuals.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
e. Job evaluation is not fix pay scales, but merely provides a basis for evaluating a rational wage structure.
Job Evaluation Meaning – With Advantages
Job evaluation is a systematic process of evaluating different jobs of an organisation. It depends upon the characteristics and requirements of a job. Further, job evaluation determines its relative worth and attaches a value to it. These relative values of jobs assist in deciding wage rates and salaries for different jobs.
In other words it can be said that job evaluation is the process of analysing and assessing the various jobs systematically in order to ascertain their relative worth in an organisation. Jobs are mostly evaluated on the basis of their content and are placed in the order of their importance.
In this way, it establishes a job hierarchy in the organisation; the purpose being fixation of satisfactory wage differentials among various jobs. Here, it shall be noted that in a job evaluation, the jobs are ranked and not the job holders. Job holders are rated through performance appraisal.
According to Edwin B. Flippo- “Job-evaluation is a systematic and orderly process of determining the worth of a job in relation to other jobs.”
It is the technique for rating the job and not the man. It takes into account the demands of the jobs in terms of efforts and abilities but it does not take into account the individual efforts and abilities. It is an important tool in fixing the scales
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The process of establishing a consistent and systematic relationship among compensation rates for all jobs within the organization is known as job evaluation. Job evaluation is conducted in order to have equity in compensation. It is the systematic appraisal of each job in the organization to determine its comparative value.
Job evaluation enjoys the following advantages:
(a) It is an objective and logical method of ranking jobs and of removing unjust differentials in the existing wage structure.
(b) It helps in fining new jobs at their appropriate places in the existing wage structure.
(c) It improves labour-management relations by reducing grievances concerning relative wages in the long run.
(d) It establishes an objective and clear basis for wage bargaining.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(e) It simplifies wage administration by making wage rates more uniform.
(f) It reveals the possibilities of more efficient use of the plant’s labour force by pointing out jobs which need less or more skilled workers than those who are manning these jobs at present.
Job Evaluation Meaning
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 organisation are evaluated.
When jobs are evaluated, the relative worth of a given collection of duties and responsibilities to the organisation 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 priced, i.e., high-valued jobs may receive less pay than low- valued jobs. When employees realise that this is happening, they become dissatisfied.
They may leave the organisation, reduce their efforts or perhaps adopt other modes of behaviour detrimental to the organisation. 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 judgement 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.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Every job in an organization requires different levels of knowledge skills and abilities. As the nature of job varies at different level, so does the knowledge, qualification, experience, capability for doing that job. The effort required for doing different jobs, the working condition of different jobs, the responsibilities which goes with different job is different.
As we all know, the employees working at different levels in an organization are paid different by according to the nature of the job. So the question arises how to determine who should paid how much for doing which job.
Job evaluation provides the answer. Job evaluation is a systematic way of determining the value/worth of a job in relation to other jobs in the organization. It tries to make a systematic comparison between jobs to assess their relative worth for the purpose of establishing a rational pay structure.
Job evaluation is a systematic process of evaluating and determining the value or worth of jobs performed. It helps to identify the worth or contribution of an employee’s efforts within the organization. Job evaluation is done for the purpose of establishing wage and salary credentials. The scope extends to develop an equitable wage and salary structure.
Job Evaluation Meaning – Provided by Different Authorities: The Bureau of Labour Statistics of U.S.A and the British Institute of Management
Job evaluation is a process used for arriving at reliable estimates of the value and importance of various jobs. It is a tool and a technique for evaluation and the ranking of jobs to help an organization to evolve a rational and scientific wage structure. It is a systematic method of appraising the value/worth of one job in relation to other jobs in an organization. Job evaluation has as its function the establishment of fair and equitable wage and salary rates.
Thus, job evaluation is a process of comparing jobs to determine the relative value of each job with a view to determine what should be the fair wage rate for such a job. In order to determine the relative worth of a job in comparison to other jobs in an organization, job evaluation is the most current and systematic technique.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Job evaluation has been defined by different authorities as follows:
The Bureau of Labour Statistics of U.S.A.:
“Job evaluation is widely used in the establishment of wage rate structures and in the elimination of wage inequities. It is always applied to jobs rather than the qualities of individuals on the jobs”.
The British Institute of Management:
“Job evaluation is the process of analysis and assessment of jobs to ascertain reliably their relative worth using the assessment as a basis for a balanced wage structure”.
As one browses through literature on job evaluation, definitions of job evaluation are found to be as diverse as the blind men’s elephant -and all the views may be accurate, depending on how job evaluation is designed and administered.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
One thing becomes very clear from the analysis of several definitions that job evaluation is the technique for rating the job and not the man. It takes into account the demands of the jobs in terms of efforts and abilities but it does not take into account the individual efforts and abilities. It is not concerned with the performance of the individual employee; rather it is concerned with the demands of the job.
Whether the individual carries out the job adequately should be immaterial. Good performance may be rewarded by merit payments but job evaluation is concerned with the value of the job relative to other jobs and not with the relative value of the employee as compared with other employees. It is an important tool in fixing the scales of wages for different grades of jobs.
Job evaluation should not be confused with job analysis. Job analysis is concerned only with the collection of data, it is in no way concerned with the evaluation of job. Job evaluation follows the job analysis which provides basic data for job evaluation.
Job Evaluation Meaning – By Dessler and Harris
“Job evaluation is the establishment of rates of pay for various jobs on an equitable basis. It eliminates chance, favouritism and individual bargaining in determining wage rates and for establishment of fair and equitable wages. The basis of job evaluation programme is an occupational description, which indicates the duties or tasks of the person holding the job. It gives facts related to work content like the hours of work, age, sex and educational requirements of the worker, value of material handled and danger of spoilage, value of tools and equipment used and danger of breakage, accident hazard of self and fellow workers, possible damage to clothing, working conditions as dirt, heat, moisture, lifting, standing, walking, judgement, attention, adaptability, mental alertness, initiative and planning, required experience, necessary quickness of expertness in coordination of sight and hearing with muscles of arms or feet….”
i. Dessler- “Job evaluation is aimed at determining a job’s relative worth.
ii. Harris- “Job evaluation is a systematic, objective procedure for determining the value of a group of jobs for the organisation.”
We may define job evaluation as a process of analysing and describing positions, grouping them and determining their relative value by comparing the duties of different positions in terms of their different responsibilities and other requirements.
a. It is the quantitative measurement of relative job worth for the purpose of establishing consistent wage rate differentials by objective means. It measures the differences between jobs, differences between job requirements, the objective being the setting of pay for wage administration purposes.
b. It does not set the price of a job; it merely fixes its relative worth. It presents an effort to determine the relative value of every job in a plant, and to determine what the fair basic wage for such a job should be.
c. It is not evaluating the merit of the worker who is doing the work. It rates the job and not the qualities of the individual worker on the job, which is the task of employee rating.
Job Evaluation Meaning – Meaning and Definitions of Job Evaluation
Job evaluation is a very useful technique. The wage rate is fixed on the basis of the nature of the job and not for men. Job evaluation is otherwise called as job rating. Job evaluation is a systematic procedure which measures the relative importance and value of each job on the basis of skills, duties, responsibilities and the like. In other words, job evaluation is the expression of each job in terms of money.
The very purpose of job evaluation is to fix wage rates according to the job done by a man. It means fixing of higher wages rate for highly risky jobs and vice versa. For example, a college lecturer deserves to be paid more than a school teacher.
A person who meets the minimum requirements of a job is recruited by the management. Job evaluation identifies the minimum and maximum requirements of each job.
In simple words, job evaluation is “the rating of jobs in an organization”.
This is the process of establishing the value or worth of jobs in a job hierarchy. It attempts to compare the relative intrinsic value or worth of jobs within an organization.
Thus, job evaluation is a comparative process.
A job evaluation is a systematic way of determining the value/worth of a job in relation to other jobs in an organization. It tries to make a systematic comparison between jobs to assess their relative worth for the purpose of establishing a rational pay structure.
Definitions of Job Evaluation:
According to the International Labor Office (ILO) “Job evaluation is an attempt to determine and compare the demands which the normal performance of a particular job makes on normal workers, without taking into account the individual abilities or performance of the workers concerned”.
The British Institute of Management defines job evaluation as “the process of analysis and assessment of jobs to ascertain reliably their negative worth using the assessment as the basis for a balanced wage structure”.
Wendell French defines job evaluation as “a process of determining the relative worth of the various jobs within the organization, so that differential wages may be paid to jobs of different worth. The relative worth of a job means relative value produced. The variables which are assumed to be related to value produced are such factors as responsibility, skill, effort and working conditions”.
To sum up, job evaluation is a process used to establish the relative worth of jobs in a job hierarchy. This is important to note that job evaluation is ranking of job, not job holder. Job holders are rated through performance appraisal. Job evaluation assumes normal performance of the job by a worker.
Thus, the process ignores individual abilities of the job holder. Job evaluation provides basis for developing job hierarchy and fixing a pay structure. It must be remembered that job evaluation is about relationships and not absolutes. That is why job evaluation cannot be the sole determining factor for deciding pay structures.
External factors like labor market conditions, collective bargaining and individual negotiations also affect the pay structure in the organizations. Nonetheless, job evaluation can certainly provide an objective standard from which modifications can be made in fixing wage/salary structure.
Job evaluation needs to be differentiated from job analysis. Job analysis is a systematic way of gathering information about a job. Every job evaluation method requires at least some basic job analysis in order to provide factual information about the jobs concerned. Thus, job evaluation begins with job analysis and ends at that point where the worth of a job is ascertained for achieving pay equity between jobs and different roles.
Job Evaluation MeaningDefinition of Job Evaluation – Defined by Different Authors
Job evaluation is a systematic way of determining the relative worth of jobs in an organization. In other words, job evaluation involves comparison amongst jobs to ascertain the worth of each job for the purpose of determining a rational pay structure.
Job evaluation has been defined by different authors as follows:
International Labour Organization, “Job evaluation may be defined simply as an attempt to determine and compare the demands which the normal performance of particular job makes on normal workers without taking into account the individual abilities or performance of the workers concerned”.
Kimball and Kimball, “Job evaluation is an effort to determine the relative value of every job in a plant to determine what the fair basic wage for such a job should be”.
Dale Yoder, “Job evaluation is a practice which seeks to provide a degree of objectivity in measuring the organization value of jobs within organization and among similar organizations”.
Meaning and Definition of Job Evaluation – According to Different Authors and Organisations
Job evaluation is the outcome of job analysis. Job analysis narrates the duties of a job, skills required, and authority relationships, conditions of working and additional permanent information. Job evaluation utilizes the information in job analysis to value each job-assigning to its components and determining relative job worth.
Thus it is a formal and systematic comparison of jobs with a purpose to ascertain the worth of one job in relation to another so that the outcome can be a wage or salary hierarchy. Hence it is a process to appraise the jobs in an organisation. Each organisation has different kinds of jobs. They need various kinds of knowledge and proficiency for their performance.
The need for the evaluation arises to fix up the compensation rates for such different jobs. Under job evaluation, a systematic appraisal of each job in the organisation is done to ascertain its relative value. All the procedures used in evaluation seek to discover watched job in the organisation is worth work of the consideration for which wages are paid.
Job evaluation helps to provide for a framework of fair and equitable wages on the basis of the assumption that each job should be remunerated in accordance with its contribution to the value of the completed product or service and to the enterprise success and progress of the organisation in the long run.
Definitions of Job Evaluation:
Here are some important definitions of job evaluation:
“Job evaluation is the evaluation of rating jobs to determine their position in job hierarchy. The evaluation may be achieved through the assignments of points or the use of some other systematic rating method for essential job requirements, such as – skill, experience and responsibility” – (Bureau of Labour Statistics, USA)
“Job evaluation may be defined as an attempt to determine and compare the demands which the normal performance of particular job makers or normal workers, without taking account of the individual abilities or performance of the workers concerned.” – (The studies carried out by International Labour Organisation)
“Job evaluation or job rating is the operation of evaluating a particular job in relation to other jobs either within or outside the organisation.” – (Scott, Clothier and Spriegel)
“Job evaluation is a process of determining the relative worth of the various jobs within the organisation, so that differential wages may be paid to jobs of different worth.” – (Wendell French)
“Job evaluation is a method which helps to establish a justified rank order of jobs as a whole being a foundation for the setting of wages. Job evaluation is the only one of the starting points for establishing the relative differentiation of base wage rates.” – (The Netherlands Committee of Experts on Job Evaluation)
Thus job evaluation may be defined as a process of ascertaining the comparative worth of jobs, ranking and grading them by comparing the duties, responsibilities requirements like skill, knowledge of a job with other jobs with a view to fix compensation payable to the concerned jobholder.
Job Evaluation and Merit Rating:
Sometimes job evaluation is confused with merit rating. But both these are entirely different. Job evaluation is the process of determine the relative worth of jobs, while merit rating is related to the evaluation of qualities and capabilities of the jobholder. Though they both have some common techniques, their basic aim is quite different. Job evolution is an objective assessment of the worth of job, while merit rating is a subjective technique.
Definition of Job Evaluation
In modern times a great deal of attention is paid to job evaluation. Job evaluation is the output of Job Analysis is the integral part of the job evaluation. Job analysis describes the duties of a job, authority relationship, skills and abilities required conditions of work and the information relevant to the job.
On the basis of this information jobs can be evaluated. It determines the relative worth of a job in comparison to another job so that one can easily understand the wage or salary hierarchy in an organization.
For evaluation of jobs a programme is arranged, which involves answering several questions. Such as- (i) which jobs are to be evaluated? (ii) Who should evaluate the jobs? (iii) What training do the evaluators need? (iv) How much time is involved? (v) What should be the criterion for evaluation? (vi) What methods of evaluation are to be employed?
The main objective of job evaluation is to establish satisfactory wage and salary differentials. Job analysis should precede the actual programme of evaluation.
Definition of Job Evaluation – With Concept and Characteristics of Job Evaluation
Money is a pre-requisite of sound industrial relations. Every individual works hard with the basic motive to earn and satisfy their own and family member’s needs. If he receives sufficient compensation in the form of wages and salaries, it would give him satisfaction.
The management thinkers and philosophers believes in equitable, fair and just compensation to the workers and employees therefore every organization must adopt a sound wage and salary administration, which helps in maintaining cordial and healthy industrial relations in an organization too.
The primary objective of wage and salary administration is to give compensation according to the services rendered by the employee. This is most important decision usually involves comparison of one job to other job within the organization or to similar jobs in other organizations.
The first comparison is made with the help of job evaluation and the later comparison is made through the use of wage and salary surveys. Job evaluation is an orderly and systematic technique which aims at determining the worth of a job. It is a formal system of determining the basic compensation of job.
After study the jobs worth in relation to other jobs, then there is a conversion of numerical value into rupee values.
In the words of Dale Yoder, “Job evaluation is a practice which seeks to provide a degree of objectivity in measuring the comparative value of jobs within an organization and among similar organization. It is essentially a job rating process not unlike the rating of employees.”
Thus, the job evaluation facilitates the determination of equitable wage rates with justifiable wage differentials based on the sound principle of “right pay for the right job.”
Characteristic of Job Evaluation:
(1) It is a systematic and orderly process of job evaluation
(2) It determines a relative worth of an every job by doing comparison with other jobs.
(3) It reveals condition of job such as responsibilities duties, difficulties, hazards and all other job factors involved in each job.
(4) It fixes the minimum and maximum limits of compensation for each job.
(5) It is one of the basis for determining employee specification such as qualities, qualification, skills, experience, talent, capabilities and other traits required for performing on the job by the job holder.
(6) It weeds out the training needs for employees for competent performance on their jobs.
(7) It facilitates the standardization and case of wage and salary structure for various types of jobs in an organization.
Concept of Job Evaluation:
Job evaluation is a process of determining the value of a job in relation to other jobs in the organization. The jobs are compared to ascertain their relative worth .This is a method of rating the jobs in the organisation. This helps to determine a rational pay structure. It is a process of evaluating the worth of a job and establishing the value of different jobs in a hierarchical order. This helps to determine the position of job in job hierarchy.
According to International Labour Office (ILO) (1960), “Job evaluation is an attempt to determine and compare the demands which the normal performance of a particular job makes on normal workers, without taking into account the individual abilities or performance of the workers concerned”.
The British Institute of Management defines job evaluation as “the process of analysis and assessment of jobs to ascertain reliably their negative worth using the assessment as the basis for a balanced wage structure”. The jobs are compared to establish a rational pay structure.
Job evaluation is the rating of job and not rating of people. The basis of job evaluation is job analysis. The process of job evaluation utilizes the facts disclosed by job description and job specification that are the products of job analysis. Job analysis is a systematic process of gathering detail information about the job. Dale Yoder described job evaluation as “a practice which seeks to provide a degree of objectivity in measuring the comparative value of jobs within an organization and among similar organizations”.
Job evaluation process evaluates the job and not the performance of the workers. The job evaluation process begins with thorough study of job description and job specification after which the jobs are compared taking into consideration the factors like skill, responsibility; working conditions. The jobs are rated on the basis of factors like skill, responsibility; working conditions.
Definition of Job Evaluation
Job evaluation is the formal process used to assign wage and salary rates to a job. A variety of systems and products exists to guide this process, each different from the other in packaging, pricing, philosophy, procedures and utility. The degree to which an organization uses a formal job evaluation process is related to the number of jobs in the organization.
Job evaluation is a systematic technique determining the worth of a job and not the man. It considers the demands of the job in terms of efforts and abilities but does not take into account individual abilities and efforts. Once the worth of the job is determined, it becomes easier to fix the wage structure that will be fair and remunerative.
Definition of Job Evaluation:
Edwin Flippo — “Job evaluation is a systematic and orderly process of determining the worth of a job in relation to other jobs “.
Dale Yoder — “Job evaluation is a practice which seeks to provide a degree of objectivity in measuring the organization value of jobs within the organization and among similar organizations “.
International Labour Organization:
Job evaluation may be defined simply as an attempt to determine and compare the demands which the normal performance of particular job makes on normal workers taking into account the individual abilities or performance of the worker’s concerned.
Maurice B. Cuming – Job evaluation is a technique of assessing the worth of each job in comparison with all others throughout an organization.