Using Job Evaluation in Your Organization

A Refresher

Job evaluation is a formal and systematic process for determining the relative value of jobs in an organization based on job content. The end result of a formal job evaluation process will be a job worth hierarchy for an organization.

Job evaluation is concerned with job content, not people.

When did job evaluation begin?

The process of setting pay through job evaluation is over 150 years old. The United States Civil Service Commission first used job evaluation to classify jobs in 1871. Unions then encouraged the spread of job evaluation by pushing employers to give more attention to rational wage structures. During World War II, the United States War Labor Board further encouraged the expansion of job evaluation as a way to reduce wage inequities.

Bureaucracies rely on job evaluation.

Following World War II, the use of job evaluation spread rapidly in both U.S. industry and government. This was a time when the size of organizations in the United States increased rapidly, and the need for a comprehensive approach to pay became important. It was also a time in which workers stayed with the same company for most of their working years because organizations provided them with lifelong career paths. Organizations grew into bureaucracies that tended to promote from within. This insulated the organization from the labor market and necessitated an internal method of setting pay - job evaluation.