home · Motivation · Grading positions - what are the difficulties? Grading system for evaluating positions and remuneration: methodology, methodology, practice Examples of grading according to professional qualities.

Grading positions - what are the difficulties? Grading system for evaluating positions and remuneration: methodology, methodology, practice Examples of grading according to professional qualities.

Find out why such a remuneration system is needed and why it should be implemented in the company. The article contains the main pros and cons of the method, ways to evaluate positions, and practical tips that will allow you to avoid mistakes.

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What is grading

The grade system was developed in the USA back in the 20th century for government agencies. With its help, funds are distributed to pay workers with the same qualifications, but performing different tasks. The system takes into account many parameters that affect material rewards:

  • management functions;
  • presence of subordinates;
  • participation in the organization's profits;
  • experience, independence in decision making;
  • the cost of an employee's error.

The grades are similar to the categories in the tariff system. Positions are built into a hierarchical chain, which is formed based on the employee’s value to the business. Each grade is assigned a wage range and an individual social package. This approach eliminates many problems associated with payroll distribution.

An HR System expert will help you choose the right one for your company. one of two grade system options

Job grading is suitable for medium and large companies. It is irrational for small firms to develop a system due to high time costs, labor intensity, financial investments, etc. After its implementation, you will not have to rename positions to determine individual salaries. Everyone will receive as much as they deserve at the moment. read in the "Personnel System".

Example

The Delta organization employs about 400 people, most of whom are managers. Since employees have different levels of education, experience, and perform different functions, manager Alexey introduced grading. His decision was based on the fact that there were conflicts in the team regarding the size of the salary. Managers did not understand why other employees with the same position were paid more. Alexey developed a simple but understandable system. Now the staff clearly knows which direction to move in order to get more. The number of conflicts has decreased, and employees began to strive for professional growth and development.

What problems does personnel grading help solve?

If the organization has no problems with personnel, including financial ones, the team works stably and with high efficiency, and a clear bonus system is used to reward the best specialists, it is irrational to introduce grades. Before you start developing and implementing a system, think about what problems you will solve with it, and whether it will be beneficial.

The grade system helps:

  • optimize and unify the remuneration system;
  • evaluate each employee's contribution and performance fairly;
  • determine the importance of positions;
  • form a personnel reserve;
  • develop training programs;
  • evaluate staff.

Organizations that provide for grading look more attractive in the eyes of applicants. Company management finds experienced workers more easily, fills vacant positions faster, and generally increases competitiveness. All this leads to the creation of a positive image, an influx of investors and partners.

Example

For a long time, the head of the Phoenix company, Ilya, could not understand why the competing company Yastreb was attractive to applicants. Only when good specialists began to leave the organization did he begin to compare working conditions, wages, and schedule. There seemed to be no differences, but competitors practiced calculating salaries based on grades, while Phoenix used a bonus system that included only performance indicators. During a detailed analysis, Ilya found that those employees who sought career growth and development in order to increase income left. The conditions at Yastreb contributed to this. Over the next few months, the manager developed and implemented grading. He soon noticed that employees became involved and proactive, and that professional development courses were viewed positively, because they understood that this would affect their salaries.

Is it worth introducing grading methods: advantages and disadvantages of the system

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of grading, compare them with those of the current payroll system in the company. During the comparative analysis, you will understand whether it is worth introducing innovations or leaving everything as is.

To understand how grading methods work, develop a system for several positions. If the test results are positive, you can always enlarge it. Collaboration with external consultants will allow you to reduce the time spent on building a model.

Methods and features of personnel grading

There are many grading methods, but the most commonly used method is the one created by Edward Hay in the 1940s. Some companies develop unique systems, for example, Mercer, Watson Wyatt, PricewaterhouseCoopers. How the grades are built in them, what assessment methods are used - a secret that has been partially revealed. Experts from the HR Director magazine will tell you


In the classical model, the number of grades is 32, but with an individual system, their number can be significantly reduced. Consulting companies are adapting Hay's method. They take into account the organizational structure, financial capabilities, and other factors. If you don't want to spend money on developing a system, create it yourself, following the basic rules.

Principles of correct grading

  1. Involve experienced department heads in grading. If you start developing a system without their support, it may become ineffective and unreasonable.
  2. Establish job evaluation criteria that are clear not only to you, but also to your employees.
  3. Use multi-stage approval of grades - first from top to bottom, then in reverse order.
  4. Link grading to compensation and incentive policies.
  5. Review the system every three years and make adjustments. If major changes occur in the company's operations, conduct more frequent reviews.
  6. Do not copy the system from other companies. What takes root and is widely used in one place can be harmful in another. This is due to the fact that financial capabilities differ, employees have different levels of education, experience, etc.

Stages of implementation of personnel grading

Stage 1. Study the methodology, prepare an expert group to form a system.

Stage 2. Rate positions using questionnaires, surveys, interviews, and the point-factor method. Experts from Sistema Personnel spoke in more detail about the assessment and its features.

Stage 3. Set job requirements. Additionally, use the qualification directory.

Stage 4. Divide the factors that influence salary into levels. If there are a lot of them, exclude some.

Stage 5. Approve salaries for positions taking into account grades - the more points an employee scores, the more he receives. Find out more about this from Irina Kiriy’s book “ Building a grading system »

Stage 6. Prepare documentation: orders, descriptions of grades.

Stage 7. Familiarize employees with the system. If they do not understand how funds are distributed, or they have questions, explain the nuances in detail.

  1. When determining the salary amount consider the market value of the specialist, what value it represents for the company, as well as the wage fund. Experienced employees will always find another job if they are not satisfied with the salary at their current place.
  1. Evaluating employees Don't lose sight of the factors that influence your salary. Be careful when calculating points and assigning grades. Collaboration with other leaders and activists of the organization helps to avoid mistakes or reduce their number.
  2. Adequately evaluate employees, despite personal attitude towards them. Friendship or family ties should not affect the employee’s position in the system. If the team notices that you are dishonestly grouping specialists in order to inflate the salaries of individual personnel, your authority will be lost.
  3. Try do not use complex grading systems. Their use is most often unjustified from a financial point of view. If you want to implement the classic methodology, instead of 32 grades, leave 10-20, excluding the unimportant ones.
  4. Additionally stimulate staff, increase engagement with bonuses, corporate events, and other bonuses. Remember, the more employees earn, the higher their quality of life. They don’t have to think about where to earn extra money, so they can devote themselves entirely to fulfilling their job responsibilities.

The employee grading system is similar in concept to the tariff payment for labor activities, according to which qualification reference books were used to assign a rank to an employee. When using this concept, the employer has the opportunity to set requirements for certain groups of workers and assign adequate monetary incentives.

What is personnel grading?

Personnel grading is the process of classifying an organization's positions depending on certain criteria. Among these should be highlighted:

  • Availability of people under control;
  • Impact on the financial success of the company;
  • Qualification requirements;
  • Level of responsibility.

As a result, a system of job degrees or classes is created. Depending on the value of each post for a specific type of business, a hierarchy of professions is built. Each class has its own specific remuneration and corresponding social package. With a properly structured class system, staff remuneration becomes transparent. Each employee understands why he works, what new privileges he can receive when moving to the next level, and what he can lose if the assigned tasks are not completed.

Grading as a tool for motivating staff is used in the world's leading companies. As a result, management costs are reduced, a specific payment concept is created, which increases satisfaction in the team and reduces staff turnover.

Types of personnel grading system

In modern practice, the following types of the presented concept are used:

  • The first type is the distribution of personnel activities, determined by the complexity of the tasks. Such a system does not require complex calculations and can be implemented by company management.
  • The second type is the classic Edward Hay system, using the point-factor method. Over time, this technique has changed, but has retained its essence: grading is mainly used to organize official salaries.
    Today, other methods created by large companies are also successfully used. In different versions, the number of ranks may differ - 10 grades may be entered, or perhaps 50.
  • The third type is proprietary methods that have been implemented in Russian companies. They are more labor-intensive to implement because they use not only the point-factorial method, but also mathematical calculations of weight, grade step, graphics, and much more.

Pros and cons of the grading system

The practical application of the subordinate grading system allows you to obtain the following advantages:

  • Simplifying the analysis of remuneration structure;
  • Effective regulation of remuneration for labor activity;
  • Clear rules for calculating salaries;
  • Simplification of the salary indexation process;
  • Increased staff satisfaction;
  • The ability to compare salary levels with market averages and competitors;
  • Solving the problem of charging additional payments for quality work;
  • Effective distribution of labor resources.

In addition to the listed advantages, the experience of introducing such a level concept in domestic companies has revealed certain disadvantages:

  • Significant expenses;
  • The need to attract experts;
  • Difficulties in correctly assessing positions;
  • The complexity of the mechanism for the movement of staff members between levels;
  • Subjectivity in assessment (assessment not of the position itself, but of the person).

How to grade personnel?

At first glance, the introduction of personnel grading may seem like a simple process of establishing job boundaries and then calculating salaries. However, if management is serious, then the process needs to be studied in more detail. Practitioners highlight the following stages of personnel grading:

  • Creation of a working commission, determination of methodology;
  • Development of documentation (drawing up plans, schedules, regulations);
  • Job evaluation.

The three initial steps are preparatory and very extensive, but they are necessary. The following steps contain:

  • Formulation of job requirements;
  • Systematization of factors by levels;
  • Assessment of levels;
  • Determining the significance of each factor;
  • Calculation of points for positions;
  • Ranking of odds by levels;
  • Determination of salaries.

The company's transition to the appropriate system should not be without the control and participation of management. Also, the system should be revised when the economic situation, company goals, and other factors change.

Personnel grading system - example

As an example, consider the criterion - the presence of subordinates to evaluate the positions of accountant, HR specialist and department head. Set the levels for the selected criterion:

  • Absence of subordinates (1 point awarded);
  • There are no direct subordinates, but employees of other services are coordinated (2 points);
  • Several subordinates (3 points);
  • Management of an entire department (4 points).

Each profession in the company is assessed in points with a distribution by level: accountant - level A (1 point); HR specialist – B (2 points); Head of Department – ​​D (4 points). The position is assessed similarly based on other selected criteria. Positions with a large number of coefficients are classified as the highest category and vice versa.
Each level has its own number, step value (minimum and maximum points), salary, etc.

Today, the grading system takes on new importance, because retaining good specialists is a priority task for any company. A properly constructed concept of material motivation will significantly increase the efficiency of personnel management.

Every work must be fairly paid,

otherwise it turns into exploitation.

Ali Absheroni

Grading(from the English grade - rank, degree, class) is one of the most frequently mentioned procedures in the context of modern personnel motivation.

Grading is part of the material motivation of personnel, the essence of which is the harmonization of employee salaries.

Grading is a system of procedures for assessing and ranking positions, as a result of which they are distributed into groups (grades) in accordance with their value to the company.

The prototype of grading can be considered the Soviet system of assigning grades to professions in accordance with the qualifications of the performer and the nature of the work. In the USSR, since 1968, the Unified Tariff and Qualification Reference Book (UTKS), mandatory for all industries, has been used. Today in Russia there is an All-Russian Classification of Worker Occupations, Employee Positions and Tariff Classes (OKPDTR). This classifier is an integral part of the Unified System of Classification and Coding of Information (USCC) in the Russian Federation; it was put into effect on January 1, 1996 as part of the implementation of the State Program for the transition of the Russian Federation to the accounting and statistics system accepted in international practice.

Today, Russian state-owned enterprises primarily use a tariff and qualification directory to calculate salaries. Budget financing is strictly linked to regulations of labor legislation. Private companies have greater freedom and are increasingly choosing to use the Hay method. The grading system came from the USA, where in the early 60s of the last century Edward N. Hay developed a method for assessing positions of various professional profiles based on universal criteria. Since then, the grading system has successfully proven itself and is today considered the best basis for a transparent and manageable remuneration system. The main difference between the Western approach and the domestic one is that a good specialist can receive a higher salary than his immediate superior.

Grading allows you to build a hierarchy of positions depending on their value to the business, and develop an appropriate remuneration system, more precisely, the basic remuneration that employees receive for performing job duties at a “normal” level (Fig. 16).

Rice. 16 – Elements of the personnel grading system

Personnel grading goals:

Establish the objective value of each employee for the organization;

Increase transparency of career prospects for employees;

Increase the efficiency of using the wage fund from 10 to 50%;

Qualitatively evaluate current personnel;

Attract the attention of potential candidates on the labor market.

In modern personnel management, grading is a necessary tool for organizational planning and personnel cost management.

Grading allows you to systematize all positions in the organization, set upper and lower limits of wages for each level (grade) and create a tool for calculating wages. Grading regulates salaries. Salary “forks” allow you to avoid an exorbitant increase in the wage fund due to arbitrary salary increases, establish fair salaries for long-term employees and increase their motivation, and financially reward a person only according to his real contribution to the common cause. After grading, each employee can see the connection between their work and the company’s income.

The essence of grading is simple: all company positions are assessed according to a number of criteria, such as the level of responsibility, qualification requirements, impact on financial results, etc., depending on the specifics of the company’s business. As a result, a system of functional and job levels is created, where positions are arranged in a hierarchy in accordance with their value to the business. The payment “fork” and the amount of social guarantees and benefits are tied to the grade. Thus, employee remuneration becomes not only transparent and fair, but, very importantly, manageable.

The grade system allows you to flexibly build a scheme of job levels, taking into account not only qualifications and experience, but also other equally significant factors, such as the level of managerial and financial responsibility, the complexity of decisions made, and others. Thus, in the grading system, each position finds its place in the “table of ranks” and receives a corresponding rating in the form of a salary bracket. A highly qualified expert who “closes” a critical area of ​​a business process may have a higher grade than the head of a department in a non-core area of ​​the company’s activities. This provides employees with not only a managerial, but also a professional career, which is important for large and medium-sized businesses.

At the same time, the experience of implementing a grading system in Russian companies has also shown the weaknesses of this system. Grading is a rather cumbersome and time-consuming procedure, and also requires the involvement of external consultants.

The main rules for the correct use of the grading system include:

1) involvement of the first person and key managers in the grading project (otherwise the grading system will be perceived as imposed and meaningless);

2) clear criteria for evaluating positions, maximally adapted to the company and clearly understood by all company managers;

3) “cascade” coordination of the developed system of grades: from the level of line managers to top managers (“top-down” and “bottom-up”);

4) mandatory linking of motivational and compensation policies to the grade system;

5) regular improvement of the grading system. A well-built grading system has a long lifespan, but, as practice shows, it requires revision every 2-3 years.

The grading process can concern both the assessment of positions regardless of persons, and the assessment of specific people occupying certain positions. Depending on the approach, grading can be divided into 2 types: formal and personal.

The formal approach is most often observed in large companies, where there are many different departments and the personnel hierarchy has many gradations. It doesn’t matter who exactly occupies this or that position. The point is to show each employee the way up the career (grade) ladder. The grade here depends on the value and importance of this particular position for the company.

A personal approach allows you to evaluate and assign people to grades personally. This is typical for organizations with small staff. This takes into account both the value of the work performed for the company and the value of the person himself, with his unique set of competencies, personal qualities, experience and talent. A personal assessment approach is very useful where each employee performs a variety of functions, sometimes indirect job responsibilities, on an ongoing basis.

Job grading, which is carried out in large, stable companies with low staff turnover, also includes a personal assessment of the employee.

The grading procedure is quite expensive. To carry it out, resources will be required, namely:

1) information (strategy, goals and plans of the company; organizational structure of the enterprise; catalog of positions and job descriptions; analysis of sector salaries, etc.);

2) people (an expert commission of 10-15 people: top management, middle managers, HR department employee; it is possible to attract an external consultant);

3) finances (salaries of members of the expert commission, as well as costs of training and services of consulting agencies);

4) time (on average 1–1.5 years for development and implementation).

The job evaluation system or grading system (job grading) is a topic that has been attracting the attention of both top managers and HR specialists for several years.

Some people praise the system, others express indignation at “another newfangled and, as usual, ineffective” management element.

The number of companies that have implemented the system and are satisfied with the results of implementation can be counted on one hand. Moreover, in every such company there will be both opponents and supporters of grading.

The main thing is that the system “does not let go.” Despite the fact that the complaints: “complicated”, “expensive”, “inflexible” and so on - sound very loud, managers nevertheless continue to study it and consider it as the main element of the personnel motivation system.

What are the problems with implementing a job evaluation system (job grading)?

Firstly, let's sort out the expectations - the purpose of the system.

The grading system is indeed part of the staff motivation system. It is a fact!

It is not motivating in itself. Or rather, it motivates indirectly - in much the same way as a job title motivates. THE SYSTEM IS ABOUT POSITIONS, not about specific employees.

Grading is, first of all, an element of systematization of positions depending on:

  • on the importance of each position in the company's activities
  • on the level and structure of remuneration for positions

For example, consider the staffing table of a trading and manufacturing company. For positions of ordinary specialists:

  • lawyer
  • economist
  • accountant

The remuneration structure is approximately the same:

  • amount of permanent remuneration
  • percentage of base variable remuneration
  • non-material remuneration may differ only depending on the organization of the activities of a specific position: those who must be constantly available on the phone receive unlimited mobile communications; for those who are supposed to look for analytical information on the Internet - unlimited Internet; And so on.

The positions listed above:

  • have equal importance for the company,
  • employees occupying these positions make equal contributions to the development of the company
  • functionality belongs to the category "supporting processes"
  • specialists for these positions have approximately the same cost on the labor market and they are equally available on the market.

In this situation, top managers whose task is to manage personnel costs have a choice:

  • or operate with three (according to the example) positions
  • or one category of positions

Secondly, nuances with the formulation of the problem - “checkers or go?”

Indeed, the job grading system was first described by E. Hay. But what is the basis of the system he proposed?

Factor description of positions and factor analysis of the importance of positions for achieving company goals

The result of the system design is a job ranking, according to which rewards and privileges are distributed among employees occupying various positions.

The table of ranks, approved by Peter I (January 24, 1722) is the same ranking of ranks by seniority with a definition of who is entitled to what. We do not know what criteria the sovereign used when drawing up the document, but he managed to establish the order of rank and hierarchy of ranks in order to explain to everyone who was at what level.

Companies that have decided to implement a grading system must create their own report card. And here there is no task to comply with all the methodological recommendations of Mr. Hay.

The task is to create a rating in which it will be convenient for the company to carry out its activities, without being distracted by the long process of distributing “jointly earned money” among employees. There is a template in which distribution is carried out conditionally automatically, the main thing is to keep this template up to date:

  • regarding the company’s activities (positions have the competencies necessary to carry out the activities)
  • regarding the market value of labor resources - here you mainly need to concentrate on the issue of availability of the necessary specialists in the labor market. Don’t miss the moment when key specialists for the company suddenly become scarce, as happened with engineering specialties.

Concentrating on creating an up-to-date job ranking, and not on implementing the recommendations of the technology for its construction, is really important. Moreover, the method of forming a library of factors proposed by Mr. Hay, to put it mildly, does not pass “customs control.” More on this further...

Third, technology for building a grading system - it needs to be done to make it convenient!

Technology for implementing a grading system

Contains a large number of small (elementary) calculations. In order not to lose interest in the system during its implementation, you need to prepare several calculation tables that will reduce the time for routine/tedious calculations and provide an opportunity to enjoy more the beauty and elegance of the final results.

Let's consider the main stages of building a job evaluation system

And we will analyze the difficulties that accompany each step and recommendations for eliminating them:

1. Formation of a library of assessment factors is a key element of the system

Problem:

If the factors are not “understood” by the company, their application may produce complete nonsense. When you evaluate positions, you will receive an estimated remuneration, which may not only be very different from the current one, but also absolutely not correspond to the market value of specialists. This shouldn't happen. This is economic nonsense!The company operates and pays remuneration to employees, which was determined by sensible people. Yes, there are overpaid and underpaid employees. Only these employees will not fit into the final system. As practice shows, their share is no more than 15% of the total number of employees.

Refuse the two-level hierarchy proposed by E. Hay (factors and subfactors). The prefix “sub” puts the Russian-speaking population into a kind of reverent stupor.

Avoid using the fixed list of factors proposed by E. Hay. “Know-how” in the Russian-language interpretation always remains “know-how” and the subfactor “education”, correlated with the factor “know-how”, perpetuates the stupor into which we entered when contemplating the prefix “sub”.

The above-mentioned “nonsense” occurs precisely when you try to “hierarchically rank” the resulting set of factors and subfactors. Twice incomprehensible (on each hierarchy) will give curved final weights of subfactors, which will be used in evaluating positions.

Instead, use clear company slang, introduce the concept of a “group of factors”: knowledge and skills, level of responsibility, working conditions, type of organization (for holding structures). Moreover, the purpose of the group of factors is to catalog those factors that you will first rank and then use to evaluate positions. You should not separately rank groups of factors in order to take into account the weight of the group when determining the final weight of the factors - work with the factors immediately.

Describe the factors that you will use, again, in language that is understandable to company employees. Create a rating scale for each factor so that it is clear from the first reading and reflects the company's real values ​​regarding job requirements.

If a certain category of employee needs a foreign language, enter the factor and create a scale. If a foreign language is used in the current and near future by only one specialist (translator), then the significance of this skill for the company as a whole is none and, therefore, this factor has nothing to do in your library.

But if a company plans to expand its partner network at the expense of foreign companies, the factor is needed, despite the fact that, at the moment, things may be very bad for employees with this skill. This factor will allow you to put forward reasoned requirements for the competencies of employees in certain positions.

2. Ranking of job evaluation factors

Problem and Solutions:

All the problems here are made up!

To determine the weight of each factor, you only need the expert opinion of the company's top managers.

The only recommendation is to organize a meeting to which you invite all the company’s experts so that they express their (each their own!) opinion on the significance of each factor.
Let them hear from all their colleagues. You shouldn't force them to come to a consensus.

Form a final rating of factors based on the weighted average assessment of all expressed positions. The main thing is that they see WHAT HAPPENED in the end.
At this stage, experts (top managers) finally agree on the interpretation of each factor and everyone can see where the final rating comes from.

3. Evaluation of positions by factors

Problem:

It’s just technical tedium to give ratings for each position for each factor.

Then there will be a long process of agreeing with experts on a table full of numbers.

Threat - it is impossible to qualitatively check the results of job evaluations using a huge printed table!!! Experts may completely agree, as long as you take “this passion” out of their office.

You can add dynamics to the process and ensure the formation of an agreed decision if experts (top managers!) are forced to evaluate positions independently.

For this feat you will need:

  • preparation of a table in which you can put ratings for positions for each factor, and a summary rating for the position is generated automatically
  • gift of persuasion, the main argument should be the slogan: “This is a unique opportunity to get everyone together once and take an inventory of the company’s staffing table: decide on job titles, highlight rudimentary positions and ... (other symptoms that burden your company’s staffing table).” Note that this is not a trick! This is indeed a very useful exercise. Give the Commercial Director the opportunity to once and for all find out for himself the question: “Why is there such a crowd of people in the Financial Block?”

NUANCE: make sure that positions are discussed, not employees! You should get an estimate based on the company's needs, and not on the basis of "what we have available." You will deal with employees as part of assessing their competence.

Problem and Solutions:

If it was possible to implement point 3 in accordance with these recommendations, the experts are already involved in the work and will be happy to “cut”for gradesranking of positions, built on the basis of the final grades obtained in paragraph 3. They will put all positions “on the shelves” in accordance with the resulting hierarchy of value for the company’s activities.

The main thing, again, is the plate, which is formed immediately based on the data in step 3. All you need to do is sort the positions by the “Final position rating” column in descending order.

5. Design of grade tables

Problem and Solutions:

Problem "about money". If information about salaries in a company is not available to everyone, then you need to say goodbye to the experts, and then gather only those who have access to this confidential information.

At this stage, together with a dedicated group of experts, it is necessary to determine the size and structure of the basic remuneration (fixed and variable parts) for each grade. You should focus on reference positions that can be found in each grade.
The structure and amount of remuneration is always clear:

  • at the lowest grade - mainly filled by couriers and loaders
  • at the highest grade - the first person of the company (the size and structure of remuneration are set)
  • increase in average permanent remuneration when moving from lower to higher grade
  • determine the constant remuneration scale (percentage deviation from the average remuneration)
  • determine the base percentage of variable remuneration from the constant part (salary)

Attention! In almost every company, positions in the commercial block are allocated from the general remuneration system, for which the main share of remuneration falls on the variable component. Positions may not “fit” into the grade table that determines the remuneration of office employees. How to deal with this?

Everything is very simple - make an additional table of grades, built on the same ranking of positions, in which create a remuneration structure that meets the specified requirements for the distribution of fixed and variable parts. At the same time, make sure that the final value of the basic remuneration, determined by the grade table, where the main share falls on the bonus component, is not lower than the final basic remuneration in the grade table of office employees.

That is, if the sales manager and the leading economist are in the same grade, and it is clear that the permanent remuneration of the leading economist will be higher than that of the sales manager who earns from the volume of personal sales, then in the grade tables (let’s call them “office” and "commercial") in the "commercial" grade table should be set to:

  • the permanent remuneration scale is lower than in the "office" table,
  • and the percentage of variable remuneration should bring the final remuneration for the grade considered in the example to an amount no lower than in the “office” table. The final base remuneration for a commercial position may be higher than that of a service department position assigned to the same grade, but not lower!

This is because commercial positions share all commercial risks with the company, unlike service positions, where the bulk of the reward comes from salary, which must be paid regardless of the company's performance.

6. Analysis of deviations of the current employee remuneration structure from the calculated one

Problems and Solutions:

After the remuneration structure has been determined by grade, it’s time to return to the positions behind the grade numbers and the employees already working in the company and receiving some kind of remuneration.

The task is to compare what is currently paid to employees with what they will receive/earn in the new grading system.

Deviations arise here due to:

  • actual employees whose work is undervalued
  • real-life employees whose work is clearly overvalued
  • mistakes made when forming a job rating or at the stage of job evaluation (too many numbers that dazzle your eyes)
  • errors in understanding the real functionality that an employee performs, as an example - the actual combination of positions, often found among Security Directors. The Security Director is often also the Chief Advisor, which they forget to indicate on the business card and reflect this combination in the staffing table.

Errors in calculations need to be corrected.

Undervalued employees need to increase their remuneration - this will form a team that will protectchanges,carried out in the motivation system.

It is necessary to negotiate with overvalued employees, or say goodbye, or “inflate” their importance. The latter is less preferable, but, unfortunately, sometimes you cannot do without it. The only consolation can be that now top managers already know exactly the list of overrated individuals and they will no longer fall for any blackmail on their part.

7. Correction of errors made during the formation of the grading system

If you have taken the trouble to make calculation tables, you will correct errors within a few minutes, which your experts will kindly provide to you and even take an active part in making the adjustments. “Corrected here, recalculated there” - great!

If everything was done mainly by hand, then you can spend several days, after which, most likely, you will need to carry out additional approval of the new results.

8. Formalization of the job evaluation system

After everyone has seen the numerical result and everyone is satisfied with it, you can spend 2-3 days describing the system, not forgetting about:

  • The procedure for assessing a new position, which needs to be integrated with the procedures for selecting and hiring new employees or introducing a new position into the company’s staffing table (it all depends on the configuration of the current regulatory framework)
  • Position revaluation procedure
  • Some procedure for updating the job evaluation system. It is better to conduct it once a year, as part of a budget company. The task is to check the relevance of: the list of factors, ranking of factors, job evaluations, grade tables. Updating should not take much time (can be completed within a few hours, if, again, the system is stored in the form of linked calculation tables)

Benefits from implementing a job evaluation system:

  1. Systematization of a remuneration structure based on a reasonable assessment of the importance of each position for the successful implementation of the company’s activities. This simplifies the management of payroll throughout the company.
  2. Strict rules for the formation of employee remuneration, excluding the possibility of “bashing” the manager for a salary increase. The manager decides little - “everything is in the system.”
  3. The ability to build a coherent system for describing the requirements for employee competencies (based on job evaluation factors).
  4. Cleaned up company staffing table. The only caveat is that the grading system does not indicate the required number of employees for each position, but this problem can be technically solved within the framework of the personnel assessment system.
  5. It’s easy to get an answer to the question: “How much should an employee cost in a new position?” - there is a position evaluation mechanism that will accurately “tell” both the scale of permanent remuneration and the size of the variable part of the remuneration. If it seems that the answer is incorrect, then, sorry, that’s how much the functionality that should be performed by this position costs. Perhaps a new position (and employee) is not needed, then there is only one way out - outsourcing.

Of course, in this topic many nuances were not covered, but there are no problems to discuss them in other topics. Write, ask, and I will do everything to ensure that this important topic is fully covered.

The presence of a fair remuneration system and the objectivity of the wage differences inherent in it affect the attitude of employees to work, their behavior, and the efficiency of their work.

Internal fairness in the remuneration system is achieved by developing or adjusting the permanent part of the salary, taking into account the value of the position and its impact on the company's performance. The higher the value of the position, the greater the permanent part of the salary.

One of the methods for developing a salary system is the method of assessing the value of positions using the point-factor method by Edward N. Hay (grade system).

Grading(from English grading) - classification, sorting, ordering.

Grading- this is the positioning of positions, that is, their distribution in the hierarchical structure of the enterprise in accordance with the value of this position for the enterprise.

Grade system is a system for calculating official salaries based on a point-factor method for assessing the complexity of work in a specific position.

Grading- this is a method of creating a universal hierarchy of positions (ranks) for all company personnel; an assessment system that allows you to determine acceptable levels of compensation for all employees based on a comparison of the relative value for the company of different areas of work (positions). The main advantage of grading is the “measurement of the immeasurable”: the translation of the intangible indicator “the value of an employee’s work” into a monetary equivalent.

The grading system came to us from the USA, where in the early 60s of the last century Edward N. Hay developed a method for assessing positions of various professional profiles based on universal criteria.

Based on grading, it is possible to build a corporate compensation and benefits policy that will allow optimizing personnel costs, not through a formal reduction in the wage fund, but through improving the organizational structure and staffing, more efficient planning of personnel costs, etc.

An effective grading system allows you to simplify the administration of the corporate system of material incentives, determine the acceptable amount of remuneration for newly introduced positions, in addition, it is a tool for influencing the main components of personnel costs.

The company's job evaluation system is based on the assertion that in any position, even a unique one, a set of common factors can be identified and measured.

Principles of the grading system:

Specialists who are equally valuable to the company should be paid equally;

Positions (jobs) are evaluated, not the employees who occupy them;

It is not the person who needs to be assessed, but the sum of qualities required for this position in the first place.


The differences between the tariff system of remuneration and the system developed on the basis of job grading are presented in Table 13.

Table 13. Differences between the tariff system and grades