Equality and Human Rights Commission

B.1 Is the scheme analytical?

First see the ‘What is job evaluation’ section

A job evaluation scheme must be analytical (factor-based) for it to be accepted by the courts as an appropriate method for determining whether jobs are, or are not, equivalent.

You as the employer (rather than the supplier or consultant) must show that the scheme is analytical.

B.2 Does the scheme’s factor plan fairly measure all significant features of all the jobs it covers?

A job evaluation scheme must be based on factors that fairly value all the main demands of the jobs covered by the scheme, irrespective of whether men or women perform them. See Factors for more details.

Factors that tend to favour workers of one sex (e.g. physical effort) can be included, as long as the scheme also includes factors that tend to favour the other sex (e.g. manual dexterity). However, the point here is that the factors should fairly reflect the real value of the job rather than being a balancing act, and therefore only relevant factors should be included.

To check whether a scheme factor plan fairly measures all significant demands of jobs either:

• Check the scheme factors against a list of frequently overlooked factors and a list of factors that favour typically male or female jobs, or,
• Analyse job information (job descriptions, person specifications) from a sample of typically male and female jobs, listing the main job features and compare them with the scheme factors. If there are job features not covered by the factors, you should consider whether these factors are more common in jobs typically carried out by one sex or the other.

If the scheme factors predominantly favour one sex, then this may indicate that factors favouring the other sex have been omitted. See Bias in factor choice for more information.

B.3 Do the factor levels in the job evaluation scheme reflect measurable steps in demand within the jobs covered by the scheme?

Factor levels should reflect significant and measurable differences in levels of demand, which are appropriately reflected in the scoring and weighting systems. See number of levels for more information on this.

B.4 Is the rationale for the scheme’s scoring and weighting system documented?

A weighting and scoring system should not introduce bias towards predominantly male or female jobs.

You can check this by comparing the rank order resulting from simply adding up raw scores (1 point per level per factor) with that resulting from applying the scheme’s weighting and scoring systems. If the differences in position in the two rank orders affect jobs of predominantly one sex, then this indicates the introduction of bias through the weighting and/or scoring system.

Any use of ‘felt fair’ ranking as a basis for generating weighing should be carefully checked for bias, as it may tend to perpetuate any discriminatory features in the existing hierarchy. See weighting for more information on this.