Job evaluation to bring equity, fairness

The mother of unfairness, one could say, is the disappointment of not getting paid at the end of the month after an honest month's job. This is not to imply that the salary never gets paid, but the uncomfortable experience of a delay could span days or even months!

The public sector however has various manifestations of pay inequity and unfairness, which the job evaluation exercise aims to address. In Government, there are parallel and overlapping salary policies and guidelines which mean that one size currently does not fit all.

A typical example is the disparity in the salary paid to two government accountants working in separate public institutions.

They each possess the same level of qualification and experience, but the accountant in entity A earns more basic pay, and perhaps also enjoys more allowances. Payment structures and policies in the public sector need to be aligned to ensure that both accountants feel that they have been paid fairly and received an equal amount of pay for the value of the skills and effort put into the job.

Another scenario would have two county drivers, one working in Nairobi and the other in Wajir. The job evaluation exercise would aim to make sure the Wajir County driver does not feel disadvantaged over the salary he receives monthly in comparison to the Nairobi driver.

He would need to be assured that the geographical location or economic size of his county will not place him at the bottom of the salary food chain. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) is required by the constitution to ensure fiscal sustainability of the total public compensation bill. It is important for the commission to ensure that the Government is able to attract and retain the needed skills to execute the functions of public services, and drive transparency and fairness across all job roles.

The other mandates of the Commission under Article 230(4) of the Kenyan Constitution are to set and regularly review the remuneration and benefits of all State Officers; and to advise the national and county governments on the remuneration and benefits of all other public officers.

There is no silver bullet to address the current challenges the Government faces on fiscal sustainability, but one should appreciate that this is a gradual process.

A process that requires the exploration and understanding of the skills required to carry out public service functions, and the resultant competitive remuneration attributable to job holders.

Against this background, the job evaluation exercise is poised to drive the process of fairness and equity in pay. The job evaluation exercise will involve collecting and analysing data on job functions across the public sector.

The data collected will be used to define job activities and scope from which the basis for ranking will be defined from largest to smallest or complex to simple jobs. This ranking will further be used to evaluate the pay level of each job.

The final output is that jobs will be ranked and aligned to respective levels of remuneration.