Incorporating Employee Values in Job Evaluation

Abstract

Concerns about the validity and reliability of existing job evaluation plans led the University of Minnesota's Personnel Department to design its own point‐factor plan based on employee values of job worth. Items for the new plan were selected by employee committees, grouped into factors, and weighted by means of a general employee survey. The items were turned into a job evaluation questionnaire for employees to use in describing their own positions, and the questionnaire was used to evaluate 1426 positions in a representative set of 125 job classes. These data provided a basis for refining the plan, assessing its validity and reliability, implementing comparable worth, and revising the university's position classification system.