Bayer’s Job-evaluation System Defines Job Values

Key differences exist between the Hay Guide Chart-Profile Method that two of the three former Bayer divisions previously had used for job evaluation and Bayer’s new version for the new company. The primary difference lies in the focus of each descriptive “cluster” of work-value dimensions-especially in the language used to define varying degrees of value for a role. The work-value clusters are defined as follows:

Improvement Opportunity — describes the requirement for and assesses the ability to improve performance within the context of assigned roles and rate of change in the work environment. The prior method was more oriented toward describing the context within which problems could be found.

Contribution — describes the requirement for and ability to achieve results that improve performance and define success. The emphasis moves toward process impact and away from hierarchy and financial measures of contribution size.

Capability — describes the total of proficiencies and competencies required to support effectiveness and progress. The focus is still on the core assignment and the stage is set for transitioning toward individual competencies as well.

Moving to one more level of detail, the subcategories of each cluster also are defined in terms of Bayer’s key values. Following is the breakdown of the capability cluster:

Expertise and Complexity: measures the depth and breadth of specific, technical and professional proficiencies and competencies required for expected individual and teamwork performance. To reflect differing perspectives, such as those of the researchers and manufacturers, the definition allows for expertise to be acquired through experience and on-the-job learning as well as through education. This category measures expertise, however acquired, that people need to achieve work results; it’s not limited to credentials.

Leadership and Integration: measures the ability to manage, coordinate, integrate and provide leadership for diverse people, processes and organizational resources to achieve common goals and objectives. This capability also involves competencies that lead to establishing a motivating and focused environment. Since these terms are used contextually-relative to a defined business and organization-a strategic role in a less-complex environment may be equal to a tactical role in a more complex situation.

Relationship-building Skills: measures the requirements for meeting internal and external customers’ needs through effective listening, understanding, sensitivity and analytical abilities. This capability area also measures the requirements for proactive persuasiveness, organizational awareness and collaborative influencing skills necessary to effect desired change and build effective, enduring relationships.

Each of these dimensions is further broken down into a scale to help define the total of all proficiencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) and competencies (best-practice ways of using proficiencies) necessary to perform at an expected level to support organizational objectives. As with the existing charts, these factors fit on a grid that generates points, still the key output Bayer needs to ensure a basis for achieving internal equity. More than just a rewrite, the enhancement to the charts has brought the standards by which jobs and personal capability are measured into close alignment with corporate values. The new system was approved in August 1995 by Bayer’s executive committee.

Workforce, May 1997, Vol. 76, No. 5, p. 44.