Point-factor based job grading

gradar uses job grading as the basis for building job architectures, generating AI job descriptions, as well as handling compensation structuring and benchmarking, equal pay analysis, competency management and more. Analyse and evaluate the jobs in your business by grading roles through gradar’s career paths - and have the opportunity to view a live matrix of your jobs and get a comprehensive overview of their grades in a real-time cross comparison.

Consistent, company-
specific results

Receive the full range of job evaluation information (including master data, detailed evaluation decisions, levelling information and documentation!) and create a powerful knowledge base for your business and its structures. Easily compare results across job-families, departments and other variables and build an analytical basis for a career framework by defining career paths, job titles and job descriptions - with import and export functions connecting with HRIS tools.

Job evaluation explained

Since mankind began exchanging money for goods and services, businesses and their staff have been negotiating the price of work. For the purposes of fair pay, organisations would ‘evaluate’ the jobs performed within them to determine their value to the organisation.

By considering a job’s cognitive and physical requirements, as well as working conditions and responsibilities, businesses were historically able to assess the worth of a specific role.

It became clear in the late 20th century that a system of job evaluation could bring far more benefits than just fair pay. It could boost efficiency, improve recruitment and provide a strong foundation for operations.

In the years before, two methods of job evaluation - analytical and non-analytical – became prominent. Levelling systems in collective labour agreements and for compensation surveys are often non-analytical and strongly linked to the price of labour, whereas analytical job grading schemes have a stronger focus to determine the internal relativities within an organisation.

Methods of Job Evaluation

Non-Analytical

The following methods assess the overall jobs’ requirements. The grading decision is made by assessing the job in direct comparison with other jobs by making a discretionary decision.

(Paired) Ranking:

The simplest form of job evaluation. A whole-job, job-to-job comparison which results in an internal job value hierarchy from highest to lowest. Ranking is very uncommon nowadays and is widely considered to be unreliable and biased. It would not stand up in court in a trial for equal pay.

Classification:

A qualitative form of job content evaluation that compares jobs to predefined class descriptions established for each job level. Jobs are placed in whichever classification best describes them. This approach is most common in compensation surveys and collective labor or shop agreements.

Analytical

Point factor

A quantitative form of job evaluation that uses defined factors and levels within each factor. Job requirements are compared to the definitions of the factor levels, with corresponding points assigned to the appropriate level awarded to the job and added for all factors to determine the total job score. The total job scores are used to create a job hierarchy by using either the original points (Job Ranking) or a translation into a grade structure (Job Grading). A prominent example for a job ranking method is the International Labor Organization’s Scheme of Geneva from 1950.

Point–Factor Job Evaluation Method explained

Purpose of Job Evaluation

Internal Job Evaluation:
- ensures internal pay equity & defense against equal pay claims,
- builds & maintains grade-based salary structures with pay bands
- supports a job architecture for process optimisation and digitalisation
- determines & manage job-specific competencies
- supports talent management with succession planning
This approach is not as common in the USA as it is in Europe.

(External) Market pricing:

Market benchmarking focuses entirely on determining external market prices for jobs found within the organisation.
- Under this method either the non-analytical approach of job classification or the analytical approach of a point factor system are used to determine the value of the job.
- Job content will be taken into account by matching the job against pre-defined disciplines, job families or benchmark functions. From this combination the market prices of a job will be derived.
- Additional factors may be taken into account to determine the labor market / peer group, such as region / locality of operations, company size and sector of operations.
The exclusive use of this approach is most common in the USA and much less common in Europe.

A combination of internal and external job evaluation:

This is where the internal values determine equal value of work and serve as a basis for the above mentioned use cases. Here, market rates are often used as an additional source of information to determine the height and spread of pay bands or the market going rates for specific jobs in a hiring process.

The gradar approach.

When it comes to job evaluation, the consulting industry has made the process increasingly vague and complex in recent years. And they almost always use proprietary systems that need the “secret knowledge” of their specialised staff.

Until now…

We’ve introduced an easy-to-use, affordable software suitable for every business. Considering wider factors such as professional knowledge, specific responsibilities and interpersonal skills, we offer a progressive, transparent job evaluation service.

We designed the gradar system with our clients in mind. We are committed to providing a simple, standardised service with a number of user-inspired features which your business can operate independently.

We evaluate jobs across 25 grades in three different career paths; individual contractors, management roles and project management roles.

Connect with a gradar consultant

To help you get the most out of gradar, we’ve built a network of implementation partners for when you need project support. These experts are trained in the gradar system and available worldwide to consult on job architecture and compensation. Oh - and you’ll still retain all the gradar knowledge in-house after your project!

Find a consultant near you

It’s time to optimise your
pay, productivity and performance

Just like these guys…

BirdLife International

“gradar has been revolutionary and the support we have received has been exceptional. The system is user friendly and I have great confidence in the fairness of the scoring. It’s brilliant to have clear visibility of our roles in one system and to be able to easily cross compare and benchmark them against each other. We now have firm evidence to develop our pay and grading data, and I would recommend gradar to any organisation looking to transform their job evaluation systems.”

Rachel Baker

Human Resources Manager

DKV Mobility

“gradar helped us to structure our compensation schemes and this is the foundation for a state-of-the art performance management, equal pay, consistent career paths and having the right conversations around compensation with managers and employees. I’d recommend it to anyone who needs a solution for this!”

Bentje Gruenewald

Team Manager, Compensation & HR Systems

Sparks

“We recently implemented gradar's job grading system for our business and we are very pleased with the results! The application was extremely easy to use and the interface was intuitive and user friendly. The system was also very flexible, allowing me to customize the application to fit my specific needs. I highly recommend this system for anyone looking to perform a detailed job evaluation exercise!”

Joanna Smith

Head of HR & Culture

Learn more about job evaluation

job-ranking job classification point factor method job grading

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