Benchmark Jobs

In the business world today, many companies are made up of benchmark jobs and also non-benchmark jobs. A benchmark job is an occupation that is common throughout that field of work. Therefore, it is a job that has standard responsibilities that can be found from one organization to another. A non-benchmark job is just the opposite. It is a job that it is unique to the organization and cannot be found in other organizations of the same occupation. Through our interviews one will be able to have a better understanding of a benchmark job, with it being applied to reality. Also, through reading, â€Å"Lectures on the Measurement and Evaluation† by Saul Rosen one will be able to clearly identify a benchmark job. Throughout this article, it goes into detail about real and synthetic benchmark job. As stated in the article, a synthetic benchmark job is one that has been designed specifically for inclusion in a benchmark model. They use this model of benchmark jobs for system measurements or testing of evaluation. Throughout the paper we will discuss the importance of benchmark jobs, the process of determination, what has been found in the past, future research, and discussion on personal interviews and information from articles and books. In the end the reader will be able to have a better understanding from our research on benchmark jobs. The importance of a benchmark job Many individuals may wonder why benchmark jobs are important to an organization. Companies use benchmark jobs as a form of evaluation in order to better their company. Through this information it opens the eyes of the organization to be able to see many new methods and ideas that they may not of otherwise been able to acknowledge. They use these methods and ideas towards improving their effectiveness within the company. Another benefit of a benchmark job is that they can be applied to many different kinds of jobs and also newly created jobs. It is not built to only benefit a certain type of career. The benchmark job process In order to determine a benchmark job, the company can do a survey to compare jobs throughout their industry. There are several questions that a company can ask themselves in order to determine what occupations within their company are classified as a benchmark job. Why does the job exist? What knowledge is needed? What does the job consist of? What couldn’t be done without it? Does almost every company in our industry have this job? Simple questions like these can help businesses determine what jobs are a benchmark job. Some examples of a benchmark job would be a secretary in an administrative company, a scientist in a technical group, or an inspector in a manufacturing business. In the reading â€Å"Handbook of Industrial Engineering: Technology and Operations Management† it discusses the benchmark job process and how it is used for evaluations. The first step is to select a benchmark job. This is very critical to an evaluation, because the entire method is based on them. These benchmark jobs serve as reference points. The number of benchmark jobs for the evaluation varies, because it depends on the range and diversity of the work to be evaluated. Next, one will want to rank the benchmark job. They are ranked on each compensable factor, they use the example of a job family consisting of six jobs is first ranked on mental requirements, 1 being the highest, then on experience and skills, and so on. After each benchmark job is ranked on each factor the next step is to allocate the current wages of that benchmark job among the compensable factors. â€Å"This is done by deciding how much of the wage rate for each benchmark job is associated with mental demands, how much with physical requirements, and so on, across the compensable factors (Salvendy, Gavriel). †