24 of March, 2025

Among the tasks performed by the HR department is the evaluation of job positions in a company. Therefore, today you can choose from different ways of evaluating a job.

You may be wondering what job evaluation methods exist. If you want to find out, don’t miss this article! We tell you everything you need to know to improve your personnel selection processes, and much more!

Job evaluation, what is it?

The evaluation of job positions is a key operation to see if the criteria or levels set by the entity are being met. With this, a fair salary policy can be established and new vacancies of reference can be created in relation to this evaluation.

That is, when a job evaluation report is carried out, it enables companies to objectively analyze and study the importance of each of the positions within the company, for the proper functioning of the company and to establish an objective remuneration policy.

When conducting the evaluation of job roles, it is helpful to have a personnel management software such as Sesame HR.

3 job evaluation methods

Today, there are many job evaluation methods available to Human Resources teams. They can be divided into two groups:

Traditional job evaluation systems. In this category are some such as the evaluation by hierarchy, by grades or by comparison of factors.
Modern job evaluation methods: there are 6 different ones such as the slots, Time Span or basic skills methods.

Specifically, in this article we want to highlight three of the most employed by companies. These are:

Job evaluation method by grades

This is a qualitative job evaluation method, which is based on the categorization of jobs, taking into account the load of responsibilities and the work that has been previously established. For this, a series of grades are set, each with a value.

It is advisable to carry out in the following stages:

The first thing to do is to identify the factors that will be used for comparison. The most common are usually responsibility, effort or working conditions, as well as the labour skills.
The grades to be used for classification are established. Usually, there are between 5 and 10 grades.
Once the grades are set, they are assigned to each job, according to the factors previously designated.
A salary load is set for each one according to the grades.

Job evaluation system by hierarchy

This job evaluation, is a qualitative method that orders the jobs from highest to lowest importance, forming a job hierarchy. To carry it out, a committee is usually created to define the importance of each vacancy together with the corresponding salary adjustment.

How to make a job evaluation by hierarchy? Just follow the next process:

Definition of the same: a detailed description of each one is prepared and the responsibilities, tasks, skills and knowledge required are included.
Selection of key positions or representative ones that cover different levels of responsibility and complexity within the organization, which will serve as a reference.
Hierarchize the key positions: ordering them from highest to lowest importance, considering factors that make up each one of them.
Hierarchization of the rest of the positions within the established hierarchy, comparing them with those key and determining their relative position in terms of importance and value.

All this information can be translated into a company chart.

Time Span method

To carry out this job evaluation method, a task measurement must be done. In practice it is done through interviews. This system emerged in 1952 as a new way to measure job responsibility, due to the difficulties of other techniques of the time.

This form of measurement is based on two key aspects:

What to do? A question that refers to the result.
How to do it? Including the orders or norms of the moment to comply with the task.

From these two axes, the proper completion of tasks is encouraged. The steps to follow are as follows:

Definition of job positions that exist and the responsibilities of each one.
Identification of key tasks and responsibilities, to achieve success in the position.
Estimation of learning time, for each key task and responsibility.
Calculate the Time Span: as the sum of the learning times of the key tasks and responsibilities.

How to select the appropriate job evaluation method?

These are just three of the existing job evaluation systems. To choose the one that best suits your organization, you can take into account a number of factors such as the size of the organization, the complexity of the positions or the resources available.

Advantages of evaluating and analyzing job positions

The evaluation of job positions is a valuable process for the entity, as it helps to support decision-making in HR matters. Among the benefits of performing it are:

They help define and establish a fair and equitable remuneration policy, by determining the relative value of positions, facilitating the creation of a fair and equitable salary structure.
They serve for the construction of a quality database, recognizing the most critical areas.
They support decision-making in human resources matters.
Improving the job satisfaction of employees, perceiving that their position is fairly valued, reducing staff turnover.
Allows to avoid the salary gap, since a job evaluation is made, not of people. Therefore, job positions are known and the remunerative level is leveled.
They facilitate the creation of objective, fair and discrimination-free promotion plans.
Improve performance and increase productivity.

Now that you know the advantages of job evaluation, it’s time to get to work! If you have any questions on the subject, don’t hesitate to visit the Sesame HR blog. We are your reference HR software!

Professional with over 20 years of extensive experience in various areas of Human Resources (Recruitment, Training, Occupational Risk Prevention, and Personnel Management). Experience in the Management Department: Broad understanding of the company and HR.

Do you want to rate our article?

Average rating:

5 stars (1 votes)

★★★★★

cristinamartin

HR Content Specialist

3 ways to evaluate the job positions of a company’s employees