Getting job evaluation right
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Many employers find job evaluation essential in achieving fairer pay structures, latest XpertHR Benchmarking research reveals. Using job evaluation helps organisations achieve fairer pay structures. This is the verdict of HR practitioners surveyed by XpertHR, with an overwhelming majority agreeing or strongly agreeing that this is the case. XpertHR's 2011 benchmarking survey on job evaluation is based on data from 207 organisations with a median workforce of 600 employees. |
Subscribers to XpertHR Benchmarking can drill down into the complete benchmarking data from the survey.
Job evaluation can help employers bring order and systematic consistency to the necessarily subjective decisions regarding the relative value of jobs. Use of job evaluation is widespread: three-quarters of employers operate a job evaluation scheme, with use particularly high in the public sector.
The most common use of job evaluation is to help determine pay and grading structures and to ensure compliance with equal pay law.
Job evaluation schemes are either analytical or non-analytical:
- Analytical job evaluation schemes (where factors that make up jobs are separated and analysed) are used by three-quarters of employers.
- Non-analytical schemes (which consider each job as a whole) comprise the remaining quarter.
Other key findings of the XpertHR Benchmarking survey include the following:
- The time-consuming nature of the process is cited as a common problem with job evaluation.
- Use of a single job evaluation scheme is the most common approach.
- Seven in 10 employers say that their job evaluation scheme includes an appeals procedure.
- Face-to-face meetings are the most common means of communicating with employees about the job evaluation scheme.
- "Red-circling" salaries (holding them at a protected level) is the most common response when jobs are found to be overpaid.
You can also access detailed write-ups of the survey findings, in our analysis of job evaluation scheme details and of practical issues with job evaluation schemes.
Michael Carty, benchmarking editor
