Practical Problems in Using Job Evaluation Technique

Job evaluation is a technique used to determine the value of each job in  relation to all jobs within the organization. Its main objective is to  determine the relative worth of different jobs in an organization to serve  as a basis for developing rational wages and salary structure.

Like any other technique of human resource management, job evaluation  is not free from certain shortcomings and limitations. Various practical  problems in using job evaluation  technique may be grouped into two categories: technical and  operational.

1. Technical Problems

There are some technical problems involved in effective  job evaluation which are of the following nature.

  1. Job evaluation establishes hierarchy of jobs based on their worth.  Though there are various methods developed for this purpose.  These are not completely objective.
  2. Another problem in establishing job hierarchy through job evaluation comes  in the form of changing profile of job factors because of changes in  environmental variables such as technology, social structure and processes  and international impact. Therefore, a job hierarchy which may be  workable at one point of time may not work at another point of time. Thus,  in order to make job evaluation effective. it should be undertaken at  regular intervals.
  3. Job evaluation is a costly and technical exercise. Therefore, many  organisations do not prefer to take it in a formal way. Rather, they prefer to  go through prevailing practices.

2. Operational Problems

Besides the technical problems, there are some operational problems too  in job evaluation. These are of the following types:

  1. Linking jobs, based on job evaluation, and wages and salaries is not  completely possible because of the operation of several forces in the  environment. There are substantial differences between job factors and the  factors emphasized by the human resource market. Often it has been  observed that these external factors change with the time.
  2. Job hierarchy created through job evaluation may create human problems in  an organisation particularly if it has been taken for the first time and results  into fundamental differences as compared to the existing system. In such a  situation, job evaluation may face resistance from the employees.
  3. Job evaluation is, generally, suited to large organisations where human  resource management system has been formalized. In comparatively smaller  organizations, this may not result in much advantages.

The existence of various problems in job evaluation does not mean that it  should not be undertaken. In fact, this should be undertaken. The problems  identified above indicate that suitable safeguards should be provided while  undertaking job evaluation to make it more productive.

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