3 Advantages Of Job Levelling | Why Job Levelling is Important For HR

The Advantages Of Job Levelling And How You Can Make Full Use Of It

How can organisations establish a fair and impartial approach to pay and reward?

Small organisations tend to distribute bonuses according to the whims of their managers, but the bigger the company, the harder it is to ensure these decisions are consistent—especially so for those that operate across different sectors and/or multiple countries.

Job levelling creates a framework that allows organisations to make more informed decisions when it comes to pay and reward, among many other things.

How does this look in practice?

Say you have a number of levels, each level defined by a particular set of skills and competencies. Each role is then evaluated and placed into one of those levels. From here, you can begin to reward everyone consistently, according to their level. No more favouritism, no more discrimination. Decisions relating to compensation are fair and universal.

With a job levelling framework in place, there are various other processes that can be developed and implemented. Job levelling sets the foundation for things like learning and development—for instance, what does it take to move someone from one level to another? Training programmes can be tailored around the knowledge and skills needed for career progression.

What’s more, having a job levelling framework enables you to look to the external market for salary data, allowing you to create a benchmark for roles that require similar skills.

Equal pay for equal work

Perhaps most importantly, job levelling gives organisations the ability to conduct a meaningful equal pay audit, ensuring that everyone is paid equally for the same job, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, race, religion, pregnancy and maternity or disability. Equal pay is a legal obligation; legislation has been in place since the early 1970s and is a fundamental right of all workers. Equal work is work that is:

The same or broadly similar
Rated under the same job evaluation scheme as being work of equal value
Of equal value in terms of factors such as effort, skill and decision making

A common language for HR professionals

HR organisations are always looking for more efficient ways to administer their programmes and policies. Implementing a job levelling framework forms the cornerstone for streamlining analysis and decision making, as well as giving an overview of the organisation as a whole. Job levelling solves one of the most common challenges HR leaders face: the ability to compare the value of work and make decisions in a consistent and comprehensive way.

Using a standard job evaluation methodology, HR teams can form a common language to describe career pathways, job requirements and performance expectations.

Developing career path visibility

Increasingly, the future of work will focus less on hierarchical structures and more on skills, capabilities and experiences. Employers will need to demonstrate clear career progression opportunities in order to attract and retain talent.

A job levelling framework can help you respond to what your employees are asking for, setting clear expectations and career path visibility. Over the last decade, we have seen a growing emphasis on employee engagement and transparency—employees want to know where they stand within an organisation and how they can progress. Job levelling offers an explicit route forward, so employees can aspire to their next role.