In today’s competitive job market, we need to have robust processes in place to attract and retain top talent. Bespoke job evaluation is a systematic method of assessing the skills, responsibilities, and complexity of a role. It serves two main purposes: internal equity and external competitiveness.
In this article, we will explain why developing a framework aligned with your organisation’s reward strategy and pay philosophy is better than an off-the-shelf approach.
Understanding the Need
Developing a bespoke job evaluation framework is dependent on your organisation already having a career framework in place.
Internal Equity
Job evaluation ensures consistency in how we assess the complexity and responsibility levels of roles, preventing subjective decision-making based on personal biases. Creating internal equity also ensures we are compliant with the Equality Act of 2010 by looking at equal pay for equal work.
External Competitiveness
To attract the right candidates, organisations need to benchmark their salaries against similar roles in the external market. This process helps us determine the appropriate pay range for each role, allowing us to advertise jobs with competitive salaries.
Adding a pay range to job ads has been proven to increase the number of applications.
The 3R Strategy Bespoke Job Evaluation
There are a few ways to carry out this process, ranging from simple to complex, depending on your needs and resources. Most of the salary surveys, such as Willis Towers Watson, Radford, and Mercer all have their own approaches that are used by hundreds of organisations
Job Role Ranking – This method involves comparing and ranking different job roles within the organisation based on their perceived value and contribution. Jobs are typically assessed according to predetermined criteria such as skills, responsibilities, qualifications, and complexity. The highest-ranked jobs are considered more significant and have higher salaries.
Career Bands – Also known as salary or job grade structures, these group jobs into broad categories or bands based on their similarities in terms of responsibilities, skills, and market value. Each band has a salary range associated with it. This approach simplifies pay management by providing a framework for assigning salaries. Employees can progress within their career bands allowing for clear growth.
Points Factor System – This approach assigns points to various factors that characterise a job, such as skill requirements, responsibility levels, and working conditions. These factors are typically broken down into sub-factors like education, experience, and decision-making authority. Each job’s total points determine its relative value within the organisation. The higher the points, the higher the salary of the role.
However, these are off-the-shelf solutions that remain fairly generic in order to apply to every organisation.
If we’re going to be transparent with employees, communicating clearly and honestly to them, we need something that is bespoke and uses language that reflects our brand. To do this, the team at 3R carries out five steps:
1. Reviewing Your Career Framework
First things first, it is important to review some job descriptions and understand the common characteristics that typically lead to career progression in your organisation. This will ensure the outcome is consistent, fair and reflects the needs of each role.
2. Career Progression Factors
Our experienced reward team is able to recommend a number of gender-neutral factors that represent the common skills leading to career progression across your organisation. The ones that are most relevant, applying to all the different job roles, can then be used within the bespoke job evaluation process to communicate expectations with employees.
3. Mastering Brand Language
It’s important to keep the specific language and tone of voice consistent throughout any policies and employee communications. This allows you to reinforce certain values and reflect your brand at every level. Removing jargon and using simple, clear language can also help to reduce confusion and make the content accessible to all employees.
4. Building Clear Definitions
Each gender-neutral factor needs its own definition. By incorporating brand language, you can express the key points every manager and employee should be looking for when considering career progression.
5. Creating the Bespoke Job Evaluation Policy
An off-the-shelf policy will not necessarily reflect your organisation’s goals, values and approach to pay. A tailored policy will detail the definitions and governance of the whole process and how it works. This can be communicated to every level of your organisation and used to train managers and tackle challenging pay conversations.
Importance of Career Pathways
When paired with your bespoke job evaluation process, career pathways provide employees with a clear understanding of how they can progress in their careers, fostering a sense of purpose and engagement. They allow for skill development and gaining diverse experiences by offering career movements in all directions.
Clarity in Career Progression
Research shows that a lack of career progression is one of the top reasons employees leave their jobs. By implementing clear career pathways, we can address this issue and provide employees with a roadmap for growth and development.
It is essential to define expectations and emphasise long-term organisational fit when doing so. Clear communication of career development opportunities and providing support and leadership training for individuals in people management roles are also crucial aspects of ensuring clarity.
Career Bands
Career bands or levels are a way to categorise roles based on the skills and responsibilities required, regardless of job function or family. These bands can be defined at a generic level or by defining specific “impact factors” as we outlined in our method above. Some examples of this include accountability, leadership and autonomy.
As employees move up the career bands, the level of skill and responsibility increases. This approach combines the simplicity of job ranking with the sophistication of clear definitions for each band, ensuring a fair and consistent approach to job evaluation.
Developing Career Path Visibility
In today’s evolving workplace, career progression is not limited to vertical advancement. We are increasingly embracing both vertical and lateral movement, allowing employees to gain new skills, experiences, and perspectives.
Defined Strategy
Having a well-defined strategy is essential for career path visibility. Whether you adopt dual career paths or prioritise developmental opportunities, it is crucial to define behavioural competencies and emphasise cultural fit.
Informed Decisions
A bespoke job evaluation framework enables us to make informed decisions about pay and reward. By evaluating roles and placing them within career bands or levels, we can establish pay ranges that align with the skills and responsibilities associated with the role.
Employees want to know where they stand within your organisation and how they can progress. A career framework and evaluation process provides the necessary structure to address these needs and foster a sense of purpose and engagement.
Conclusion
Bespoke job evaluation is a critical aspect of your pay and reward management. By implementing a systematic and fair process, you can ensure internal equity, external competitiveness, and clear career progression opportunities.
Combining this with a well-defined career framework creates visibility, recognition, and growth opportunities for employees, leading to increased engagement and retention.
So, if you’d like to learn more or get started on your own tailored process while fostering a culture of trust, get in touch today!