Job Evaluation Assessment

Part A – Job Evaluation

You have been provided with:
a)    A set of possible factor descriptors, with levels.
b)    Some suggested criteria for these factors.
c)    The beginnings of a set of levels descriptors –  covering knowledge and skills and supervision, but with points not fully assigned
d)    Data on two jobs.

PART A
Job Evaluation – (there are some tips for this part activity on p10, please read it carefully BEFORE you start working on it.)

1) a) Assign points to the ‘Physical Skills’ and ‘Responsibility for Supervision’ factors.
b) Develop your own set of factor level descriptors and points for a new, sixth factor ‘Responsibility for Physical Resources’. Explain your rationale for each of this new factor’s level descriptors (in other words, you need to write a blurb describing each level of this new factor for as many levels as you choose).

2)    Apply the factor plan to the two jobs, explaining how you arrived at your decision. You must write down the evidence for the highest level of demand for each factor in each job.  You can choose a high or low number of points within the range of points for each factor.

3)    How would you rank the two jobs relative to each other on the basis of these six factors?  Explain why. This means adding the points for each factor for each job, and comparing the totals.  Does the result seem right?
Hint: You may respond to question 2 and 3 together in a table

4)    What additional information about the jobs or other factors would have helped you make a decision about the ranking of each job relative to the other?

5)    a) How might the results vary if you changed the points, or weighted a factor more heavily?

b)    Choose two of the factors, and demonstrate what the effect of changing the number of levels or the points for a level (implicit weighting) or by explicitly weighting a factor (e.g. multiplying it by 1.5 or 2).

Figure 1 – Factor Levels and Weights
Source: M. Armstrong, A. Cummins, S. Hastings and W. Wood (2005) Job Evaluation: A Guide to Achieving Equal Pay, Kogan Page, London, p. 194

Figure 2 – Factor Descriptors
Source: M. Armstrong, A. Cummins, S. Hastings and W. Wood (2005) Job Evaluation: A Guide to Achieving Equal Pay, Kogan Page, London, p. 205

Level descriptors
Knowledge
Level     Factor Level Descriptor    Max Points
1    Job requires following straightforward directions    20
2    Job requires basic literacy, oral and mental skills, knowledge of basic work procedures such as operation of basic tools, following a period of induction    40
3    Job requires skills and knowledge in an administrative or manual specialisation , including ability to use complex tools . Normally requires training to a standard beyond secondary school level and induction, or equivalent work experience    60
4    Job requires specialised skills and knowledge of a trade, craft, processing, technical, clinical, commercial, administrative or operational nature, drawing on a specific knowledge based. Coordination, planning or problem-solving under general supervision. Equivalent to trade certificate or diploma    80
5    Job requires considerable skills and knowledge in technical, clinical, human relations, commercial, administrative or other specialist activities.  Tasks require problem solving by applying broad principles, often without external advice.    100
6    Job requires advanced levels of knowledge applied to independent completion of complex technical, clinical, administrative or operational activities, without external advice.  May include planning, developing and recommending actions. Work requires substantial theoretical knowledge at professional level.    121
7    Job requires experience in planning and decision making in a complex environment, including initiating strategies and policies based on effective research – equivalent to postgraduate study..     142
8    Job requires advanced theoretical and practical knowledge within a specialised field, and a breadth of experience working at high levels leading management, academic, scientific, political or similar functions.    163

Mental skills
Level     Factor Level Descriptor    Max
Points
1    Job requires judgmental skill to deal with familiar problems, based on readily available information    13
2    Job requires solution of recurring problems with local impact, by interpreting information and using reference and other sources    26
3    Job requires creative skill in solving problems of considerable complexity and in developing new solutions, based on research    39
4    Job requires multiple advanced skills for solving complex problems, interpreting and applying policies based on research and using wide discretion    52
5    Job requires highly creative skills of complex problem solving, setting strategic goals and assessing outcomes.     65
6    Job requires the development of solutions to unique problems, using abstract thought and the creation and testing of hypotheses    78

Interpersonal skills
Level     Factor Level Descriptor    Max
Points
1    Job requires polite workplace exchanges    13
2    Job requires effective and courteous information exchanges, with the skills to present, explain and discuss ideas     26
3    Job involves instructing or guiding others , and transactional interactions    39
4    Job requires good negotiating, interviewing, motivating and counselling skills, sometimes in stressful or emotionally charged situations    52
5    Job involves influencing others, demonstrating high levels of tact and diplomacy, or building empathy in high-stress counselling situations    65
6    Job calls for diverse and complex negotiation involving decisions that are critical to outcomes inside and/or outside the organisation     78

Physical skills
Level     Factor Level Descriptor    Points
1    Job requires physical activity typical of everyday life
2    Job requires acquired physical or motor skills normally obtained through practical training, involving care but not precision
3    Job requires training or experience to a level of proficiency and precision . Dexterity, eye-hand-foot coordination, large muscle movements and possibly speed are required, with some variety of activity
4    Job requires complex physical skills acquired through formal training , involving detailed hand and/or finger dexterity and eye-hand-foot coordination.  There is a need for precision and generally speed in one very detailed activity or across a range of activities
5    Job requires highly specialised training in physical skills; training is lengthy and complex.  Job involves very precise coordination and dexterity, and the skills are applied in a variety of complex ways, requiring adaptation to different situations

Responsibility for Supervision
Level     Factor Level Descriptor
1    Jobholder is responsible for own work, and may be required to show others how to perform tasks
2    Jobholder is responsible for on-site work allocation and may direct contractors/consultants
3    Jobholder provides non-permanent supervision to a number of people with similar roles in a project team. Applies mentoring or coaching skills and may coordinate contractors/consultants
4    Jobholder has fulltime direct accountability for supervising more than one staff member or coordinating a group on an ongoing basis
5    Jobholder has fulltime direct authority and accountability for a range of personnel management functions for more than one staff member.  Jobholder is required to exercise ongoing formal people management skills, including performance management
6    Jobholder has direct accountability for higher level staff management, involving leadership and performance management of a significant number of staff covering more than one work unit/organisational area

Position descriptions
a) Information Officer, Worklife Group Call Centre
b) Information Systems Support Advisor, Worklife Group

Context:    The relevant Government Department has three main delivery arms;
Workforce: Assessing skill needs and providing immigration services
Worklife: Providing employment relations and health and safety advice
Workfutures: Developing regional labour market knowledge

Worklife Group: Provides:
•    advice on enhancing workplace productivity,
•    support to the small business sector in enhancing quality,
•    guidance through to enforcement to ensure safe and healthy workplaces,
•    advice on minimum employment standards
•    services fostering positive relationships at work.

a)    Information Officer, Worklife Group Call Centre
Reports to:     Team leader, call centre
Security:     Sensitive/In confidence
Position purpose:
•    To provide information to callers on employment relations and health and safety.
•    To filter, diagnose and refer inquiries, solving as many problems as possible at the lowest level of intervention.
Duties and responsibilities – Key result areas:
Information delivery:
•    Respond to phone, fax, email, website and face to face request for information related to workplace standards and practices covered by a range of legislation.
•    Establish the issue, identify the relevant legislation, check whether caller has tried to resolve the issue, clarify options and assist inquirer to next step, focusing on problem-solving
Promotion of  best practice:
•    Advocate and encourage good practice
•    Record poor practices or high-risk areas requiring interventions
•    Use effective presentation skills and cross-cultural knowledge
Knowledge management
•    Use and contribute to internal and external information management systems
•    Keep up to date with legislative changes and case law
•    Help develop leaflets and information material
Relationships
•    Work with team to ensure information is relevant to other departments
•    Develop community relations in support of strategies for groups with special needs
•    Interact with employers, employees, families, government at all levels, and community organisations
Record keeping
•    Maintain electronic records of all client contacts and follow-up action
Team contribution
•    Contribute to a safe, healthy environment that encourages effective working relationships

Information Officer Job Analysis data  – based on interview with job incumbent
Working with people
Types of interactions:
Explain    Reassure    Break bad news
Interpret    Use tact/diplomacy    Coach
Listen actively    Train    Deliver presentation
Mentor    Liaise    Empathise
Give feedback    Advise    Notify
People with whom jobholder interacts:
Team leader    Team members    Clients’ families
People from other government agencies    Business community    Media
People from other internal departments    Welfare groups    Public
Contexts of interactions
One-to-one    Communication barrier
Group of under 15    Conflict
Group of over 15    Distress/agitation
Working with information/ideas/data
Types of interactions:
Analyse    Evaluate
Apply    Summarise
Diagnose    Revise
Types of data:
Ethical protocols    Legal cases/judgments    Regulations
Client records    Inquiries    Policies and procedures
Legislation    Database    Publications
Law reports    Organisational knowledge
Working with tools/technology
Web-based law references            Annotated legal references               Tabs, post-it notes
Things missing from job description
Use initiative and versatility, identify core patterns in diverse issues , ask probing questions, deal with distressed people (including a suicide threat). Use discretion, know how far to go before referring on, adopt techniques for keeping control of calls.
Less visible job skills
Manage feelings (eg anger, empathy) towards client
Adjust communication style to establish client trust
Make rapid responses through quick decision-making
Manage resistance or non-cooperation
Search out hard-to-find information quickly
Manage conflict
Balance time pressures against need for quality
Translate professional language into terms that clients can understand

b) Information Systems Support Advisor, Worklife Group
Reports to: Senior Adviser, Business Systems Support
Position purpose:
•    To ensure consistent and authoritative information system support to staff and customers through a total solution of tools, practices and information.
•     To provide a help desk service
•    To provide training in use of Infoline database
•    To undertake data analysis and project work.
Duties and Responsibilities:
•    Provide a Infoline helpdesk service and will maintain related helpdesk documentation;
•    Provide induction and ongoing training for the Workplace Group and develops and maintains training materials;
•    Undertake Infoline data analysis;
•    Provide regular communications to other work areas;
•    Undertake project work as required.
Areas of Accountability    Typical Actions Which Demonstrate Work At The Appropriate Level
Design
Review, design and implement application changes    •    Lead the review, analyse the issues and provide recommendations on improvements to applications.
•    Liase with developers to implement recommendations.
•    Test changes once implemented.

Deliver
Provide a helpdesk service    •    Solve IT problems, by answer queries, and  following up problems.
Team participation and networking    •    Work as a member of the team in ways which enhance the effectiveness of the Worklife Group.
•    Communicate with the wider Worklife Group to maintain an awareness of current projects and productive ways of using business systems.
Coordinate meetings and projects    •    Coordinate meetings and projects including resources and communications.
Provide effective support to Senior Adviser    •    Complete tasks assigned by the Senior Adviser Business Systems Support and the Worklife Group members.
Data analysis    •    Responsible for entity management of the Infoline datastore.
Relationship management    •    Keep informed and liaise with service providers.
Provide training    •    Develop and update training material.
•    Conduct or coordinate training as is required.

Information Systems Support Advisor, Worklife Group
Job Analysis data  – based on interview with job incumbent
Working with people
Types of interactions:
Give advice    Facilitate    Break bad news
Report    Use tact/diplomacy    Chair meeting
Encourage/motivate    Train    Deliver presentation
Mentor    Liaise    Coordinate
Listen actively    Advise    Translate/interpret
Coach    Explain    Provide feedback

People with whom jobholder interacts:
Team leader    Team members
People from other government agencies    Business community
People from other internal departments    Professional experts
Contractors/vendors
Contexts of interactions
One-to-one    Communication barrier    Stress/tension
Group of under 15    Conflict    Verbal aggression
Distress/agitation
Working with information/ideas/data
Types of interactions:
Analyse    Evaluate
Apply    Summarise
Diagnose    Revise
Types of data:
Audio-visual production    Layouts    Regulations
Client records    Inquiries    Policies and procedures
Legislation    Database    Publications
Maps    Organisational knowledge    Statistics
Working with tools/technology
Data projector, laptop, cabling layouts, telephony (in conjunctions with IT help), web-based data base (development)
Things missing from job description
Use initiative and versatility, de-escalate emotion of callers in order to focus on problem, visualise callers’ problems without being able to see their screens, manage communication barriers.
Less visible job skills
Engage in conversation to lift clients’ spirits or allow closure
Develop and use systems to follow-up on incomplete and unresolved matters
Develop ‘tricks’ for working around the bugs in systems and machines
Interpret and solve technological problems for colleagues who cannot describe them

Tips on How to Do the Activity

You are comparing these two jobs to see which should be paid more on the basis of the demands it makes on jobholders, in terms of four factor families – knowledge and skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions.

It is technical but easy when you get your head around it. You’ll probably end up writing 2-3 pages, with short sentence answers for questions, and some tables.  Just write as if you were talking to us to explain what you are doing.

Question 1 – This is straightforward – this is just to see if you understand what you are doing – e.g. why there is a table of points for the factors in each factor family.  One sentence explanations – what do the points for each level represent?

Question 2 – This is to see if you can write level descriptors, increasing the level of responsibility step by step.

Question 3 – Can you look for the highest level of skill, responsibility, effort and working conditions demand in the two jobs, by searching through the information provided about each (position description plus job analysis interview results)?   Then depending on whether the job demands are low, middle or high in the range for that level, you will be choosing a number to indicate the level of demand for each factor. So for question 3, you are assessing the demands of the two jobs, based on each of the factors.  If there is no evidence about a particular factor or level, you note that in answering the last question, stating what further information would have helped.  So your answer to q 3 will probably look like a table, with the factor level descriptors, the evidence, and the points.

Question 4 – you are being asked to add up the points, decide which job should be paid more, and say if this was the expected result, from an impressionistic whole job comparison perspective. Make a comment – e.g. by breaking the analysis down, did you pay attention to job factors that would be overlooked in an impressionistic rating?  Or were the numbers assigned to the factor levels a problem?

Question 5 –  you are asked to experiment with weightings. This requires you to demonstrate your understanding of the way weightings influence outcomes. Consider implicit and explicit weightings.  The points out of 1000 implicitly weight knowledge the highest at 38% of the total.   Just change the numbers or add and subtract levels for various factors.  If you think this is too much value being placed on knowledge, and not enough on effort. You can add further levels or increase the value of points in Effort.  This will bring the total to over 1000.  So the percentages of the total 100% weight will change – you’ll need to recalculate the new implicit weightings.
An easier alternative is to give the existing effort factors an explicit weight – of say 1.5. That way the total points for effort will be now worth 254 X 1.5 = 381.
You will now have to readjust the weightings of the other factors to bring the total back to 100%
Say conditions ought to be worth 100 (a weighting of 2) and responsibility left where it is at 321. This means that knowledge should be worth only 1000 – (381+321+100) = 198 .  But at the moment it is worth 384 .  So you are going to have to weight knowledge at a factor of  198/384.

Remember the golden rule is that the factor plan has to apply to ALL jobs in the organisation uniformly to be equitable.  The weightings (implicit or explicit) indicate how much the organisation values each factor, and affect the relative pay of jobs.

Part B – Base Pay Short Answer Questions

1.    Chart the benchmark positions shown below on a scatter gram by mapping the current rates (pay policy line) and each quartile.
2.    Make an assumption about where you would like to pay your staff and determine and map a new pay policy line.
3.    What policy decisions will you make regarding what you will do with the people who sit outside of the new pay policy?
4.    Once you have made a policy decision regarding outliers, does it make it easier to find a proper/consistent pay policy line?
5.    What use is job evaluation in matching market salary rates?
6.    Establish the 4 main pay structures around your pay policy line.  What are the differences between the 4 main structures.  Which structures do you think are most effective for this example?
7.    What are the key success factors for this type of an organisation according to Shields (p.114)?
(How to access online textbook :
1.    Go to http://www.booktopia.com.au
2.    Sign in: Email address: [email protected]  Password: 123456
3.    Click My eBook bookshelf and you will see the textbook ‘ Managing employee performance and reward’
(Note you may need to download Adobe Digital Editions software so you can read the book online)

The following are benchmark jobs for a manufacturing organisation.  The organisation is a traditional mechanistic bureaucratic organisation with their major competitive strategy as a cost defender.
Benchmark positions    Current rate    Comparable market survey rates    Job evaluation values (out of 1000)
LQ    Mean    UQ
Electrician    38000    40000    42000    44000    280
Production Planner    44000    43000    45000    47000    330
Receptionist    45000    33000    37000    41000    200
Sales Rep    55000    52000    54000    56000    420
Payroll Officer    47000    40000    43000    46000    290
Engineer    80000    55000    57000    59000    440
Admin Assistant    47000    45000    47000    49000    360
Accounts Manager    67000    64000    68000    72000    550
HR Officer    46000    43000    45000    47000    320
Leading Hand    50000    41000    47000    53000    300
Safety Officer    42000    49000    51000    53000    400
Production Supervisor    55000    52000    55000    58000    430
Purchasing Officer    43000    43000    45000    47000    310
Accounts Officer    47000    46000    49000    5200

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