7.job design

8/18/2019 7.Job Design

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© Oxford University Press 2015. All rights reserved.

Dipak Kumar

Bhattacharyya

Compensation

Management, 2e


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Chapter 7

Compensation Management

and Job Design


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Introduction

For compensation design and management, the important prerequisites are

effective job design, information and documentation of job analysis, job

descriptions, and job evaluations.

All these processes help in identifying job requirements. They also help in

describing the job, job-families, skill-sets, and skill mapping apart from helping

develop skill inventories in the organization.

Job design helps in organizing job tasks. It has a direct impact on the mental and

physical health of employees and thus on their performance levels.

The physical aspects of jobs require organizations to consider ergonomic issues

such as reducing physical strain, fatigue, and even boredom, which occurs whendoing repetitive tasks.

Mental aspects require organizations to address behavioural issues such as

developing work systems and a culture, which enables employees to get relief from

the dehumanizing effects of long work hours.


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Introduction

Factors which are likely to affect job design are:

• job specialization and repetitive operations

• changing technology

• labour-union policies

• abilities of existing personnel

• adequate availability of potential personnel

• interaction between jobs and the system• psychological and social needs that can be met by the job


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Characteristics of Job Design

Jobs where employees experience a high level of job satisfaction generally have at

least one or more of the following characteristics:

1. Task variety, i.e., enabling employees to move from one job to another

within the organization.

2. Task identity, i.e., fitting tasks together to make a complete job from the

beginning to the end, with a visible output.

3. Task significance, i.e., to make workers feel that they have achieved

something meaningful in the course of their working.4. Autonomy, i.e., providing inputs to employees about how their jobs are

done, the order of tasks, the speed of work, etc. Later, these employees

should be given a free hand by reducing the extent of supervision and

control, so that they realize that they are doing their own jobs and that

they are the job owners.5. Feedback, i.e., providing an opportunity to workers to understand their

strengths, weaknesses, and areas of opportunity. This helps them mature

and do better in their job assignments.


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Strategies and techniques of job design

Robertson and Smith (1985) have recommended following strategies for analysing

jobs:

• Review literature and other existing data such as prevailing job

descriptions, training manuals, assess job designs from manuals of

technology providers or vendors.

• Interview immediate managers to understand the responsibilities of a job

and tasks required to perform the job well

• Interview employees who are in the same type of job to assess jobrequirements

• Observe employees while they do the job

• Try to do the job wherever possible to rationalize the job requirements

• Write job descriptions detailing all findings and observations

These apart, one must also refer to policies, incentives, and feedback systems of an

organization while designing jobs as they affect the efficiency and motivation of

employees.


7/13© Oxford University Press 2015. All rights reserved.

Important Techniques of job design

Some of the important techniques of job design are:

1. Job rotation, which involves periodic vertical and horizontalmovement of employees within a set of jobs or tasks.

2. Job enlargement, which is essentially horizontal expansion of jobs. Itinvolves grouping of a variety of jobs within bands rather thanbetween bands.

3. Job enrichment, which is another important process of job design orre-design. It reverses the effects of repetitive tasks.

4. Autonomous work groups, which requires organizations to provideemployees functional autonomy for their assigned tasks or jobs.

5. Sub-contracting, which is another form of autonomous work group.

The difference is that, in this process workers no longer remain on thepay roll of organizations. They form their own organizations andbecome self-employed. Here, workers are responsible for the results.Such an arrangement helps to make work design more specific andmeasurable, price jobs more accurately, and fix responsibility properly.



Components of job design

Various components of job design are:

1. Job information is an essential input for effective job analysis. It not only

facilitates job evaluation for compensation designing, but also helps with

disseminating information to employees about their duties and

responsibilities.

2. Job analysis is the process of gathering information about the job and

evaluating such information in terms of what is necessary and relevant.Essentially, job analysis involves three questions: What is a job? What

should be analysed? What methods of analysis should be used?

3. Job questionnaire, which is a special tool for collecting job information. It

is a printed form, in which essential information about the job may be

listed either by the employee or by his supervisors. The major advantageof the job questionnaire is that compiled information can be used as a job

description.

4. Assessment centres, which can provide opportunity to employees to

experience microcosm of the job, while testing them on work-related

activities as individuals and in groups



Job DescriptionThe compiled job information is translated into job descriptions. These are written

records of job duties and responsibilities, which provide a factual basis for job

evaluation.

1. In terms of format, the job description should first name the job, using a

title which accurately summarizes duties assigned.

2. Secondly, job description should then document a list of duties assigned.

3. For operational positions, job description may be about one page;

whereas for top management, it may run to several pages.



Objectives of Job DescriptionJob descriptions help management to accomplish the following objectives:

1. Efficient organizing of jobs

2. Recruiting for the organization

3. Assigning jobs to people by communicating their duties and

responsibilities, and by setting job standards

4. Reviewing performances of people

5. Improving performances through appraisal and training

6. Rewarding employees



Job Specifications

Job descriptions also outline the basic specifications of the job.

Such specifications include the education or experience required to do the

job; and the special knowledge and skills necessary to carry out the job.

In addition, specifications also identify soft skills such as inter-personal

skills, analytical ability, problem-solving skills, or decision-making skills

required to perform the assigned duties.

C i D i h h C bl



Compensation Design through CompensableFactor

Compensable factors are characteristics of a job on which organizations assign

weights.

These characteristics are identified as the ones that would help organizations

achieving its goals and strategies.

Hence, compensable factors are used as job evaluation criteria. From organizational

point of view, some 5-6 compensable factors are identified. Their degree of importance may differ in accordance with nature and level of the job.

Degree of importance is tested in a 5-point Likert Type Scale and the result is

multiplied with the pre-assigned weight to get the total score.

Aggregated scores are ranked and the job with highest rank gets higher

compensation in comparison to other jobs.

Weights on compensable factors are pre-assigned depending on the goals and

strategies of the organization. Total weight assigned for compensable factors adds to

100.



Ranking of compensable factors

HR Job Family Ranking of Compensable Factor

HR Assistant 125

HR Executive 131

HR Manager 164

General Manager -HR 222

Calculation of aggregate compensable factor score for HR Executive job position

Compensable Factor Degree Weight Total

Education 1 14 14

Communication

Skills

3 11 33

Job complexity 1 22 22

Coaching and

Mentoring Ability

2 9 18

Responsibility 1 24 24

Technical Skills 1 20 20

Total 131

7.job design

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