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Joined: Oct 2010
What is meant by Ranking Method in Job Evaluation?
Posts: 615
Threads: 461
Joined: Oct 2010
Ranking Method—Under this system, all the jobs are arranged or ranked in the order of importance from the simplest to the hardest, or in the reverse order each successive job being higher or lower than the previous one in the sequence. It is not necessary to have job descriptions, although they are useful. A common practice is to arrange all the jobs according to their requirements by rating them and then to establish the group or classification. In this method, jobs are not split up into their component parts, however comparison is made on the basis of whole jobs. Three techniques are generally used for ranking purposes:
1. Utilizing job descriptions.
2. Making paired comparisons.
3. Ranking along a number line.
1. Utilizing job descriptions—When this procedure is followed, each rater is given a set of job descriptions, one for each job to be ranked. The job descriptions are then studied and analysed. The differences between them are noted with respect to the key points selected for comparison. The rater determines which job in the series requires least amount of various characteristics used for comparison, and places that job in the lowest rank position. He then determines which job requires next higher amount of characteristics and places it next to preceding job's rank. And so on. Sometimes, two or more jobs fall in the same rank position. In such cases, they are assigned the same rank position.
After each rater has assigned the rank independently, their rankings can be compared. This comparison is usually made by having the raters meet as a committee and discuss with each other their respective rankings. Final rankings may be done by majority vote or averaging the rankings of raters.
The method just described above involves independent ranking first and then and integration with the ranking of the other raters.
2. Making group comparisons. In the preceding method, a rater is required to keep in mind all the jobs being ranked in order to place them in their correct relationship to each other. But this task may become difficult as the number of jobs increases. Distinguishing differences among jobs may be overlooked or forgotten. This would result in less accurate evaluation. To do away with this weakness, "paired comparison method" has been suggested. This method involves following steps :
(a) First of all, each job is paired with every other job in the series. Suppose there are four jobs say, refund clerk, transfer clerk, adjuster and collection clerk, their pairs will occur as follows :
Refund Clerk------------------------------- Transfer Clerk
Transfer Clerk--------------------------------- Adjuster
Collection Clerk--------------------------- Refund Clerk
Refund Clerk--------------------------- Adjuster
Transfer Clerk--------------------------- Collection Clerk.
(b) Next the rater examines each pair and determines which of the two is more difficult in terms of characteristics selected as guides. Thus he has to keep only two jobs in mind. He then underlines the more difficult job.
© How many times a particular job is rated more difficult than others, is counted.
(3) Ranking along a number line—Here ranks obtained from job descriptions or paired comparison are spaced along a number line. For example job X is the highest rank job and job Y is picked up to find out its closeness to job X.
The ranking system of job evaluation usually measures each job in comparison with other jobs in terms of the relative importance of the following five factors:
(i) Supervision and leadership of subordinates.
(ii) Cooperation with associates outside the line of authority.
(iii) Probability and consequence of errors.
(iv) Minimum experience requirement.
(v) Minimum education required.
The method has following Merits and Demerits.
Merits
(1) It is simple, easily understood and easy to explain to employees. It is, therefore suitable for all small organisations.
(2) It is far less expensive to put into effect than other systems and requires little effort for maintenance.
(3) It requires less time, fewer forms and less work.
Demerits
(1) As there is no standard for an analysis of the whole job position, different bases of comparison between rates occur. Since the process is initially based on judgment, it tends to be influenced by a variety of personal biases.
(2) Specific job requirements are not analysed: rater's judgment is .strongly influenced by present wage rates.
(3) The system merely produces a job order and does not indicate to what extent it is more important than the one below it. It only gives us its rank but it does not indicate how much higher or more difficult a job is in comparison to another job.
