Job Evaluation at Whole Foods - Assignment Example

? Job Evaluation at Whole Foods Introduction Job evaluation can be explained as the procedure of determining the significance of the jobs so that thejob structure can be created for the organization. The evaluation of the particular job depends upon job contents, value of the organization, external market, skills required and culture of the organization (Slideshare, 2009). Evaluation of Jobs and Job Structure Prior to the commencement of the evaluation process of the Whole Foods, it is vital to understand what type of organizational culture is followed at Whole Foods. The store operation at Whole Foods is broken down into teams. The teams have been clustered into departments and the work is conducted by the team members. The teams need to ensure that successful operations are maintained and thus the teams are profitable to the stores, the communities and the organization. The teams have their own roles and responsibilities at the stores and thus functions as being the part of the bigger teams such as stores. It has been noticed that in the store level there are numerous store teams such as bakery, floral, meat, prepared food, products such as fruits and vegetables, customer service and facilities such as store maintenance and janitorial staff, sea foods, specialty such as cheese and chocolates. The other team members are store team leaders, departmental team leaders, specialized store support, associate store team leaders, specialized team members, associate team leaders and team members. At this instance, it is significant to determine the job titles upon the basis of the information that has been provided. Assigned Titles to Jobs It can be mentioned that Job A required a store manager or more specifically the Chef/ Cook. Job B requires a Customer Service Cashier. Job C requires a Departmental Manager or Prepared Foods Team Leader. Job D requires a Prepared Food Supervisor. Job E requires Prepared Food Dishwashers. Job F requires Overnight Grocery Team Member. Job G requires Specialty Associate Team Leader. Job H requires Associate Store Team Leader. Job I requires Grocery Team Member. Job Structure by Title and Job Letter Job A: Store Manager Job H: Associate Store Team Leader Job C: Departmental Manager Job D: Prepared Food Supervisor Job G: Specialty Associate Team Leader Job F: Overnight Grocery Team Member Job I: Grocery Team Member Job: Customer Service Cashier Job E: Prepared Food Dishwasher Process, Techniques, and Factors Process Followed to Arrive at Job Structure In the hierarchy above, the job that holds the best position in the organization was given the top most priority. Furthermore, on the basis of who reports to whom the rest of the positions have been placed in the hierarchy. Job Evaluation Techniques and Compensable Factors It can be viewed from the above hierarchy that store manager holds the highest position which has been characterized as Job A. Therefore, according to the ranking method, it has been observed that the store manager holds the benchmark job and thus all other jobs will be compared with that of the benchmark job. At the outset, Job H needs to be compared with that of the benchmark job since it lies in the second position of the hierarchy. It has been noted from the case study that the Associate Store Team Leader has to endorse and assist the store team leaders with all the store functions. He is responsible for coordinating and thus supervising the products as well as personnel at the stores. The job of the store manager has been to look after the customer service, pursue and thus fulfill with the health and sanitation procedures. Store manager needs to perform wider variety of tasks at a time. Therefore, his job has been ranked at the topmost level of the hierarchy. The department manager needs to report to the associate store team leaders as well as to the store team leaders. He tends to manage and supervise the Prepared Food Department. The Prepared Food Supervisor is supposed to perform all the work related to the Prepared Food Team Members. He needs to report the actions of the team members to the team leader or to the associate team leader. Specialty Associate Team Leader reports directly to the Prepared Foods Team Leader and thus assists in the proper management and supervision of the Prepared Foods Department. Overnight Grocery Team Members is responsible for all the work functions such as breaking down of the deliveries and development of the promotional display among others. Customer Service Cashier undertakes the cash register function as per the established standards. The kind of work that the Prepared Food Dishwasher needs to prepare is related to dishwashing such as cleaning of the dishes, washing and sanitizing of the dishes among others. It has been ranked lowest in the hierarchy in comparison to the store manager. Reason for Selecting the Ranking Method The main reason behind the selection of the ranking method of the job evaluation is that the method is quite simple, easily understandable and in most of the cases accepted by the labor unions. The method is less costly in comparison to the other three evaluation methods that have been mentioned above. Evaluation of the Job Descriptions Evaluation of the Job Descriptions The job descriptions for Job A to Job I has been clearly mentioned in the case study. Most of the skills required have been related to the job titles. However, it can be analyzed that there are certain skills that are most common for all the positions in the Whole Foods such as good communication skills, ability to learn and grow, ability to work well with others, good leadership skill, good math skills and patience. These are a few of the skills that the recruiters would look for in a candidate when recruiting the employees for any position. However, there are certain technical skills that are common for other job positions as well which creates confusion for the employee while actually performing the task. It has certain advantages as well. Each employee holding a certain position can assist the other employees at certain other position in their job tasks when the job description tends to remain the same. This becomes essentially significant when the employee at certain position is supposed to report to the employee at the higher level. Parts That Were Most Important The parts that were most important have been communication skills, knowledge of the market policies of the Whole Food market, ability to communicate the quality goals to the customers and product knowledge among others. Improving the Job Description In order to improve the job description program, various steps and measures need to be followed. The scheme of job evaluation needs to be chosen wisely and with great caution. The scheme needs to be continuously developed and thus administered, based upon the bargaining power of the parties, the employment market, the demand for labor and the job conditions. It would be better to design the job description in such a way so that one job is completely different to that of the others. It is to be remembered that too many job titles as well as classifications make the job too confusing. Therefore, they need to be reduced to the minimum and only the most important ones must be listed and developed. Conclusion Job evaluation has been one of significant aspects in the organizations. It is the process followed by the organizations to determine the relative value of the job in order to create job structures in an efficient way. It becomes significant to comprehend the organizational culture prior to evaluating the job. It has been noted that at Whole Foods the position of store manager has been considered as a benchmark job and thus other jobs have been compared with the benchmark job. Ranking method is one of the simplest forms of job evaluation technique; therefore this method has been applied in the study. Reference Slideshare. (2009). Job Evaluation. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/simply_coool/job-evaluation-1759402 Read More