Job evaluation a source of problems for employees

job evaluation processes.

Some employers have also pushed for job evaluation with the hope that job evaluation will assist them get rid of undesired workers and they have found out when it is too late that job evaluation does not provide the solutions they had hoped for.

Job evaluation is not as simple as employers and workers think and it is a complex process that can only be undertaken by well trained and experienced individuals.

If the process is recklessly handled it can easily be a source of labour relations problems and in worse cases litigation, which could leave the business with a huge financial burden.

Not long ago I dealt with a case where workers disowned job evaluation results alleging they were not part of the process, which they claimed was adulterated by the hired consultants and the employer.

In another case, parties have taken each other to court over non-implementation of job evaluation and in another case the job evaluation has stalled because workers have refused to participate alleging they were not consulted on the decision to grade jobs.

In another case workers allege the grading method was imposed by the employer despite it having been rejected by workers.

In many other cases, workers are querying the job evaluation process alleging it lacks transparency and there are also disputes related to salary structuring where workers are demanding to know how credible the salary survey was and others query for fairness of the notching process while others query linkage of grades to various benefits. The list of disputes is endless. To avoid all these problems, works council engagement must be continuous throughout the process to manage any emerging challenge.

With all the given challenges it must be understood that the purpose of job evaluation is determining the worth of one job relative to another and its purpose is to achieve fairness in distribution of basic salaries according to grade.

Job evaluations helps create internal equity, creates a fair platform for job comparison, helps reduce allegations of favouritism in salary payment, helps manage payroll costs that are related to benefits and many others.

The job evaluation method to be used must be driven by acceptability, ease of implementation, cost