Job evaluation is a technique that systematically compares jobs with each other to produce a rank order on which pay differentials can be based. A job evaluation scheme can be used to compare jobs across a whole country or an entire industry in that country, but normally it is confined to a single organization. In that organization it would be unusual for all jobs to be covered by job evaluation. Typically only some occupational groups are covered and there will generally be different schemes for categories such as manual, non-manual, professional and managerial staff.

Employers will normally have some of the following objectives in seeking to introduce job evaluation: to establish a rational pay structure; to create pay relationships between jobs which are perceived as fair by employees; to reduce the number of pay grievances and disputes; to provide a basis for settling the payment rate of new or changed jobs; to provide pay information in a form which enables meaningful comparisons with other organizations

Job evaluation is often introduced to bring some order into a pay structure. Payment for different jobs may appear to be arbitrary or to have little logical justification. It may have evolved as a result of ad hoc decisions sometimes made under pressure and without consideration for the wider consequences. As a result management will face grievances and possibly disputes.

Most of the reasons given for introducing job evaluation are concerned with raising the efficiency of the organization or improving relations with employees. However, the decision may, at least in part, be taken in response to external pressures or constraints. In both the USA and the UK some organizations introduced job evaluation following the imposition of national pay controls. Pay increases could be justified only where a change in the work could be demonstrated clearly. The systematic nature of job evaluation allowed such changes to be legitimized and it was therefore in the interests of both management and unions to agree upon a scheme.

Job evaluation has also been introduced in response to equal pay policies and legislation. Where an analytical scheme is operated without any gender bias it will normally be accepted that men and women are being paid equally for work of equal value.

Alan Arthurs