{"id":255827,"date":"2023-03-31T04:23:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T02:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=130331"},"modified":"2023-03-31T04:23:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T02:23:35","slug":"job-evaluation-is-key-in-the-organisational-design-process-an-hr-expert-shares-his-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/job-evaluation-is-key-in-the-organisational-design-process-an-hr-expert-shares-his-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Job evaluation is key in the Organisational Design process \u2013 an HR expert shares his thoughts."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Do not underestimate the strength of job evaluation in the Organisational Design process.<\/p>\n

Shaun Barnes explains how\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cMany companies are rightly worried in today\u2019s world about the efficiency of their organisational structures.<\/p>\n

Questions that often come up are:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Do we have the right structure?
\u2022 How could our structure be more effective?
\u2022 Do we have too many managers?
\u2022 Do we have too many layers and departments?
\u2022 Do we structure according to business need or according to people in roles?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem lies with analysing a structure \u2013 how exactly does one do this? What methodology can be used and against what standards or benchmarks can the structure be evaluated?<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies often ask what the \u201cbenchmark industry structure\u201d is, forgetting that all companies are different in size, scope, complexity, and culture and often have differing IT platforms and processes to boot. External benchmarking is very often not the answer. This is even less so if the company is in an industry in which there is a smaller pool of players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen talking about a structure, it is important to distinguish between the two components of a company structure being:<\/p>\n

1. The macro-structure: This is the top level of a company and describes in overarching terms how the company is set up. The macro-structure often refers to the Executive structure and the layer below the executives; and<\/p>\n

2. The micro-structure: This is the full management, supervisory and staffing complement that makes up the rest of the organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese two structures are tested and analysed in different ways:<\/p>\n

\u2022 The best method to test a macro-structure remains checking its effectiveness when judged against the stated strategy, business model, value chain and operating model of the company. These elements provide the guidance as to whether a structure is efficient and will deliver the required results.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There are a number of tests that can be conducted to check the micro-structure of an organisation. These tests include a gap analysis, staff ratios (including management to staff and operational versus support staff) as well as management levels and Spans of Control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is not well understood is that the tests for the micro-structure yield the best results when based upon job grades. I hear the response to this already \u2013 do I mean job grades that are arrived at through traditional job evaluation and that are then used to determine the level of remuneration and promptly forgotten about? Yes, believe it or not, the grades of jobs form one of the best quantitative foundations to test the efficacy of structures.<\/p>\n

\u201cJob grades allow structures to move from qualitative boxes with titles to jobs that are accurately placed on the correct level. This will guide you in testing the logic of your structures.<\/p>\n

\u201cJob grades introduce a quantifiable element into the process that is organisational design, moving beyond subjectivity and conjecture. There are a number of ways in which job grades can do this:<\/p>\n

1. Gap Analysis: The gaps between positions, especially positions within a designated career path or identified as successor positions, will assume a new clarity when viewed from a job grade perspective.<\/p>\n

A \u201cGap Analysis\u201d between positions within a function, department or job family can be very useful in showing where career gaps exist. International research by various consultancies and universities over the years has resulted in a clear path of the ability of staff to move through grade levels. Bearing in mind that each new grade level represents an increase in complexity, we have an accurate idea of how many grade levels can successfully be moved within a single promotion or appointment.<\/p>\n

Studies indicate that the ideal \u2018gap\u2019 between a management\/supervisory position and the next identified successor role is two traditional grades. Should the gap be three grades or more, the increase in job complexity will start to become a risk and the greater the grade \u2018gap\u2019, the higher the chance of failure for the successor upon their promotion. By the same token, the grade \u2018gap\u2019 between positions within a career path should also not exceed two job grade levels, as the same risks will be present.<\/p>\n

2. Spans of Control: The Span of Control (or SOC) is the number of employees a manager can supervise as effectively as possible. The addition of new hierarchical layers makes the organisational structure steeper.<\/p>\n

A large Span of Control leads to a flatter organisational structure, which results in lower costs. A small span of control creates a steeper organisational structure, which requires more managers or supervisors and which will consequently be more expensive for the organisation. It is therefore useful for an organisation if its managers have the correct span of control.<\/p>\n

The theory of spans of control was first touched on academically by Vytautas Andrius Graiciunas (1898-1952), a French management consultant and engineer.<\/p>\n

Graiciunas mentioned three types of superior-subordinate relationships, namely direct single relationships, direct group relationships, and cross relationships.<\/p>\n

According to Graiciunas, as the number of subordinates increases arithmetically (like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.) the number of relationships which the superior has to control also increases almost geometrically (like 1, 6, 18, 44, 100, 244, etc.). Therefore, a superior can only control a limited number of subordinates, and anything beyond this limit is very hard to control.<\/p>\n

So, according to this initial body of work, a top-level manager can effectively manage only 222 relationships. Therefore, a top-level manager should not have more than 6 direct subordinates. Similarly, a lower-level manager should not have more than 20 direct subordinates. These variances increase or decrease according to the grade of the managerial job as well as the grade levels and diversity of functions of the team.<\/p>\n

Job grades can thus not only be instructive in providing greater clarity with career paths and succession plans within structures, but can also be used to assist with SOC studies to check what the acceptable span of control for a management level should be.<\/p>\n

3. Grade Spread: Titles and pay levels can be misleading when conducting an analysis to determine the spread of resources across divisions or departments. To truly determine whether some departments are more \u2018resource-heavy\u2019 than others without having the results being skewed by legacy pay issues, using job grades to determine the ratios of staff within and across departments provides the most accurate way of arriving at a credible hypothesis.<\/p>\n

A well-conducted grade spread analysis can also indicate which levels in the organisation are under- or overstaffed as well as identifying \u2018bottle-necks\u2019 in terms of layers and levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs demonstrated, the job grades within an organisation, when analysed in conjunction with structure and levels, can provide quantifiable guidance that is hard to come by within a traditional organisational design project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should help dispel the perception that job evaluation is a one-dimensional process that provides results that can only be used in benchmarking remuneration and benefit levels for staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf properly understood and utlised, job grades can provide a rich resource for accurate structural analytics. \u201c
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Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do not underestimate the strength of job evaluation in the Organisational Design process. Shaun Barnes explains how\u2026 \u201cMany companies are rightly worried in today\u2019s world about the efficiency of their organisational structures. Questions that often come up are: \u2022 Do we have the right structure?\u2022 How could our structure be more effective?\u2022 Do we have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9021,1],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-255827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mypr","8":"category-south-africa","9":"tag-mypr","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/job-evaluation-is-key-in-the-organisational-design-process-an-hr-expert-shares-his-thoughts.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}