JOB EVALUATION
Job evaluation adapting to changing business needs
Job evaluation has come under increasing attack in recent years. Critics say it is not only bureaucratic and inflexible, but also time-wasting and costly. What’s more the concept of paying people for carrying out a tightly-defined job is said to be inconsistent with today’s flatter, flexible pay structures. As a result, we are supposed to have seen the end of job evaluation. On the contrary, Incomes Data Services claims in its new guide to job evaluation.
The trouble with much of the familiar criticism is that it is based more on rhetoric than hard empirical evidence. This in-depth IDS study of job evaluation challenges this dogma, drawing on an impressive analysis of what’s really happening in the workplace.
It suggests that job evaluation has shown an ability to adapt to meet changing business needs, embracing contemporary reward practices such as competencies, role profiles and broadbanding.
As the authors of the IDS research succinctly put it:
"Far from dying on its feet, job evaluation has been rejuvenated by recent public sector interest in the concept to address equal pay and single-status issues and by the need to harmonise pay structures as a result of the increase in merger and acquisition activity."
Key role in delayered structures
The popular idea is that job evaluation is largely irrelevant in the modern workplace where traditional hierarchical arrangements have been replaced by flatter — sometimes broadbanded — structures with greater emphasis on lateral career movement.
Again the IDS research shows the precise opposite is true. IDS found some consensus that job evaluation is playing a key role in these moves and is typically reflected in broadbanded pay structures. It is also a useful tool for encouraging lateral movement of employees in delayered structures which incorporate competencies.
Words of wisdom
IDS on the role of job evaluation in flatter structures . . .
"In these scenarios, job evaluation is facilitating improvements in career management. With less emphasis on hierarchical progression, employers are encouraging lateral career movement involving progression across different functions. Job evaluation can help to clarify these possible options for employees. By analysing jobs factor by factor, it is possible to translate the results into role profiles which can indicate the level at which jobs operate for each job element. This enables employees to better identify how they can use their capabilities in different jobs."
Supporting rapid growth
Elsewhere the IDS researchers claim that new and rapidly-growing organisations are still turning to job evaluation to provide a consistent framework to underpin their pay decisions and establish internal relativities.
As the authors point out: "In these circumstances, job evaluation can help to frame the new structure and allow manager to check that it is developing in the appropriate way rather than necessarily providing a springboard from which to alter arrangement more radically."
What you’ll find in this IDS StudyPlus
The 84-page report offers a comprehensive overview of how job evaluation is adapting to meet changing business needs. Packed with detailed case studies, it provides some fascinating detail on what is happening in the real world, based on a breadth of access to senior managers in nine organisations and reflected in an admirably clear and logical approach.
The case studies are supported by in-depth research, with advice on how to design a scheme. It looks at the questions to ask before deciding which job to analyse. And then there are numerous practical ideas for those who are trying to make sense of how to implement a scheme.
It’s a thoroughly-researched and highly-authoritative study, written by experts who demonstrate their awareness of the key issues in job evaluation.
For a fuller flavour, take a look at the abstract on the IDS web site . . .
www.incomesdata.co.uk/studies/jobevaluation.htm
Want to know more?
Incomes Data Services is an independent research organisation providing information and analysis on pay, conditions, pensions, employment law and personnel policy and practice in the UK and the rest of Europe.
Title: "Job evaluation", IDS StudyPlus, autumn 2000.
Availability: contact the IDS customer services manager, tel: 020 7324 2599. Please remember to quote e-reward.co.uk in all correspondence.
Subscription details: with your annual subscription you receive 24 issues a year, including four in the expanded StudyPlus format (includes directory of suppliers).
A list of recent IDS Studies together with abstracts can be found on the IDS web site . . . www.incomesdata.co.uk