what must I do if I don't yet have a job evaluation system

No off-the-shelf system needed, but a classification based on four criteria

The absence of a job evaluation system is not currently a problem that requires an urgent solution, but it is something to start thinking about now. There is no obligation to purchase an existing, commercial job evaluation system tomorrow. What ultimately matters is that jobs within an organization are classified based on objective, gender-neutral criteria: skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions. How this is specifically implemented — with a purchased system, your own model or a simple in-house classification — is not yet set, because the underlying legislation in the Netherlands is still under consideration.

Anyone who has nothing in place yet should ideally start with the existing job profiles and descriptions that are already there. These often already form a useful starting point to determine which job groups already exist and whether they can be organized according to the four criteria mentioned. From that classification, it then becomes possible to determine which jobs are considered equivalent, which is again the basis for the remuneration policy and, later, for any potential gender pay gap reporting. Waiting until everything is definitively settled is therefore not a requirement to get started; the building blocks that already exist can be organized now.

Where this requirement is based

Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 requires employers to organize remuneration structures so that equal work and work of equal value is determined on the basis of objective, gender-neutral criteria, with skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions mentioned as standards. How this directive specifically lands in Dutch legislation is described in bill 36949, the Law implementing the Directive on pay transparency, which is currently still under consideration by the House of Representatives. More about the requirements the law places on job evaluation is described on the page on job evaluation and the law. Current information on the progress of this legislation can be found at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment.