ABSTRACT
This chapter examines ways in which job analysis data may be used when setting job compensation rates, a process often termed job evaluation. Many strategies for setting pay rates exist (Caruth & Handlogten, 2001; Henderson, 2005); however, most make relatively little use of detailed, objective job analysis data—especially those approaches that address strategic compensation issues (Balkin & Gomez-Mejia, 1984; Devers, Cannella, Reilly, & Yoder, 2007; Murthy, 1977). This chapter focuses on job evaluation techniques that are based on direct linkages to verifiable job analysis data, paying particular attention to a variant of the point factor method that uses policy capturing to predict market compensation rates from the work dimensions measured by standardized job analysis questionnaires. This technique has received comparatively little attention, despite the fact that it embodies far less subjectivity than methods that rely on holistic judgments to measure compensable factors. Its use is illustrated using work dimension scores produced by the Common-Metric Questionnaire (CMQ; Harvey, 1991a) to predict market wage-survey compensation rates.
