A new tool for job evaluation - modelled on ABAKABA
The analysis tool used by the researchers was based on the new work assessment system ABAKABA (= Analytical Assessment of Work Activities according to Katz and Baitsch) developed by the Swiss labour scientists Katz and Baitsch. The following aspects were important in the decision in favour of ABAKABA:
- It is a methodologically and practically proven procedure that has been used successfully in Switzerland for several years.
- It fulfils the following key conditions for a non-discriminatory job evaluation:
- It is a standardised procedure, i.e. it is suitable for the evaluation of both blue- and white-collar jobs.
- It takes into account the special character of work in service sectors.
- It is an analytical procedure, i.e. each task is analysed in a differentiated manner on the basis of the requirement criteria.
- ABAKABA complies with EU law; it is therefore a legally compliant job evaluation tool.
Further information on ABAKABA can be found on the website of the Federal Office for Gender Equality. The publication "Equal pay in practice - Two instruments for gender-independent job evaluation", in which ABAKABA is described in more detail, can be downloaded there free of charge.
Two aspects are of central importance in any form of job evaluation: the selection of job criteria and the weighting of these criteria.
The requirements and impairment criteria developed in the project comprise - as in ABAKABA - the areas of "mental requirements", "responsibility", "psycho-social requirements" and "physical requirements" or "impairments" (see the following overview for more details).
However, the weighting of the criteria, i.e. the question of how the requirements are assessed in the remuneration, cannot be determined scientifically. This is a matter for negotiation between the parties to the collective agreement. The project therefore calculated two weighting variants as examples in order to illustrate the political significance of weighting.
Overview of requirement areas and impairments
Requirement areas | Requirement characteristics | Impairments |
Mental requirements (Weighting variant 1: 40% | Technical and specialist knowledge | Interruptions to work |
Responsibility for | Work results of other people | |
Psycho-social requirements | Oral communication skills | Adverse psycho-social |
Physical requirements | Muscle work | Adverse environmental influences |
Project experiences and results in brief
Occupational group-specific workshops were initially held at the universities with all participants who volunteered to work on this project. As part of these one-day workshops, the participants drew up a task profile for their respective field of activity under the guidance of the researchers. Each individual task was then analysed by the participants themselves using an analysis sheet with regard to the requirements and their characteristics.
The workshops made it clear that the tasks in the university secretariat are highly complex. Typical of this job today is not only the actual secretarial work with office, material and appointment organisation and coordination, but also a considerable amount of qualified processing (from budget planning and control, to fund acquisition and administration, to the preparation of personnel matters). In addition, there are also advisory and support tasks as well as organisational management tasks. The university secretariats therefore employ socially competent "all-round" staff with a wide range of specialised knowledge and good foreign language skills, although they are often only paid as "typists" according to BAT VII or VIb. No comparable variety of tasks was found in the male-dominated jobs.
Here, specialist tasks predominate, some of which are carried out in very complex technical systems or installations. However, the so-called "soft" skills factors are also becoming increasingly important here, particularly in the groups that are heavily involved in teaching. Requirements for empathy, responsibility for the success of social processes and responsibility for the organisation of teaching and research are now highly valued and are just as little covered by the collective agreement regulations as in the secretarial area.
The analysis of these job descriptions shows that
Particularly high demands are placed on secretarial staff at universities in the following areas:
- Planning and organising
- Problem-solving skills
- Responsibility for the work results of other people
- Oral and written communication skills
- co-operation
- Nerves, senses and posture.
The frequent interruptions to work that characterise secretarial work are a significant impairment. In addition, environmental influences such as room climate, glare and noise have a negative impact on this area of work.
The exemplary point calculation based on two weighting variants showed that in more than three quarters of the cases, the activities in the university secretarial area achieved higher point values than in the male-dominated comparable activities. This result was independent of the weighting variant selected; however, the point value differences were significantly higher for weighting variant 1 (psycho-social requirements = 30 %).
This shows that the application of a non-discriminatory job evaluation definitely leads to a significant upgrading of secretarial activities. The practical implementation of this realisation in collective bargaining regulations is the responsibility of the parties to the collective agreement in the public sector. Their task is to create a more non-discriminatory set of rules in line with EU case law. The project was able to show that ABAKABA is a useful instrument.
