Job evaluation looks at job classifications, not employees. Job evaluation examines the duties and responsibilities that are assigned to a job, but does not look at how well or poorly an employee performs these duties. Job evaluation also does not look at the qualifications that an individual employee who is currently performing a job may have, but rather focuses on the qualifications required to do the job. Although there are a number of different job evaluation methods, by far the most commonly used one is the point-factor method. This type of system got its name because it consists of a number of factors with points assigned to each factor.
Factors are measurable features or requirements that are common to many different kinds of jobs.
They are sometimes called compensable factors because the elements should reflect the various components for which the employer pays employees. Here are the four basic job evaluation factors and their definitions. Although some job evaluation systems have more than four factors some have as many as 15 all of the factors are derived from these four basic factors. Each factor level is defined beginning with the lowest possible level and proceeding step by step to the highest level which is applicable to jobs in the organization. For example, a hazards factor may start with a level which describes jobs in which employees do not face hazards and end with a level pertaining to jobs in which employees encounter life-threatening situations on a regular basis.