The grading system originated in the USA in the 20th century. It was developed for government agencies. The purpose of creating such a system was to formulate wages for government workers equal professional level, implementing different tasks.

Dear readers! The article talks about typical ways to resolve legal issues, but each case is individual. If you want to know how solve exactly your problem- contact a consultant:

APPLICATIONS AND CALLS ARE ACCEPTED 24/7 and 7 days a week.

It's fast and FOR FREE!

The universal scheme takes into account many indicators that affect material compensation for any position.

In Russia, this system was first used in 1984 by DHL. They had a 4-rate labor compensation system. Then it was installed at Wimm-Bill-Dann, IBS and Rolf. An analogue of the grade system functioned in the Soviet Union. It's about about the Tariff qualification grid. However, it was applied only to certain categories of positions. In addition, she analyzed the workers formally.

What it is?

Personnel grading is the process of evaluating positions in a company according to certain criteria.

Examples of such assessment factors include the following:

• Availability management functions, number of subordinates;
• the degree of participation in the company's profits;
• independence in decision making;
• experience;
• the cost of such an employee's mistake.

This is just an approximate list that is approved at each enterprise that has adopted such a system.

The grades are similar to the categories in the tariff system. Positions are arranged in a hierarchical chain. It is formed based on the employee’s value to the business. Each grade receives a salary range and its own social package.

Thanks to grading, a number of problems can be eliminated, including linking the size of the worker with his contribution to the development of the enterprise.

When is it required?

Large or medium-sized companies should first of all think about establishing this remuneration model.

This is due to the fact that it provides an opportunity to build a career not only vertically, but also horizontally (within your current position). For example, the employee’s qualifications will be improved, which will affect his salary. The same applies to cases where the worker has undergone training. While it remains at the current level, the weight of the knowledge factor increases, which means that wages also increase.

IN large companies There are always a large number of employees working, which makes it difficult to assess their contribution to the common cause. Previously, it was necessary to resort to formal naming of positions in order to place them in the hierarchical chain and determine fair pay.

This problem can be eliminated by a grading system.

Why is it used?

Why is grading used? Why do companies implement this system?

There are several reasons for this:

• Enterprise crisis. It becomes difficult for a company to predict future earnings because the amplitude of their fluctuations has increased. Because of this, it is necessary to activate forces aimed at overcoming the crisis, which is associated with additional costs. In such a situation, there is no need to resort to reducing wages, but only to distribute expenses among employees more rationally. This can be done with a grading system.
• Commitment to equality of opportunity. Here it is important to correctly evaluate the contribution of employees who work in different directions. You can involve the employees themselves to determine the percentage contribution of their area of ​​activity.
• Commitment to transparency and visibility. Employees must understand the system for determining their salaries. If it is clear to them, as well as the criteria for increasing wages, then this will have a positive effect on staff motivation. The income received must be equal to the contribution made.
• To create clear rules, which will allow the employee to assess the prospects for growth in the company and the possibilities for his professional development.

Personnel grading and its features

The grading system is designed to evaluate jobs in terms of their contribution to achieving the final result.

It should be borne in mind that jobs are assessed, and not the activities of a specific employee.

Grading methods are quite diverse and will vary greatly both in the accuracy of the analysis and in the duration of the process itself.

Many people identify it with the tariff system. However, it is not.

The table shows the differences between these systems.

Tariff systems	Grade systems
Assess professional knowledge, skills and work experience	A wider range of criteria, which includes, for example, responsibility, complexity of work, presence of management functions, etc.
Hierarchy builds on an incremental principle	Not such a strict system. Allows the intersection of grades that belong to two nearby levels
Minimum wage multiplied by coefficients	Calculation of the “weight” of a position in points
Positions are lined up only vertically	Positions are arranged according to the principle of importance for the business of the enterprise

Techniques

The classic technique was created by Edward Hay in the 40s of the 20th century. There are other grading methods currently in use. Including those created by Mercer, Watson Wyatt and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to the classical method, the number of grades can be equal to 32; methods developed later allow a smaller number.

The creation of the system is usually entrusted to consulting firms. Some organizations form it without involving third-party companies.

Each indicator is assigned several levels. They divide positions by grade.

Rules of application

Principles of correct application of the grading system:

• involving the company's managers in creating the grading (otherwise the system will not work, since it seems that it is imposed);
• clear criteria for analyzing positions that are clear to all managers of the company and applicable in this company;
• “cascade” coordination of the grade system: from line managers to top managers (first “top-down” and then “bottom-up”);
• the grading system is in a modern way staff motivation and therefore should overlap with motivational and compensation policies;
• Regular updating of the system, which will allow it to remain relevant in new conditions. The accepted grading must be reviewed every 3 years.

Implementation stages

Implementing a system in a company involves going through several stages:

• preparing a group to form a system, studying the methodology;
• creation of documentation;
• assessment of positions through surveys, questionnaires, interviews;
• identifying the requirements that employees in certain positions must meet;
• division of factors into levels and their assessment;
• counting the number of ratings for a position;
• calculation of grades by grade;
• approval of salaries and wages;
• consolidation of the schedule in the form of a document and analysis of the results.

Results and their interpretation

After the initial information has been received - information on factors, etc. - it is necessary to form grades.

Positions are arranged hierarchically depending on the points scored. Then they are combined into grades.

The main task is to determine the range of scores at each level.

When approving wages, you should rely on two indicators:

• the average market “cost” of such a professional;
• its value to the enterprise.

Efficiency mark

Grading allows you to achieve the expected results in building a competent system of remuneration for employees.

With its help, resources in the enterprise are distributed fairly. This allows us to solve a number of problems, including those related to staff motivation.

Employees should be aware that salary increases are determined by completely understandable factors and categories.

Examples

This system successfully operates in various companies, for example, in Uralkali - Repair LLC. During the implementation of this system, the following structure of this process was developed.

Then an assessment of positions and professions was carried out. A sheet was used to record the results.

All employees of the enterprise were divided into 3 groups, and these categories and factors were assessed.

Today, the grade system is the best and only justified accrual system official salaries based on the point-factor method and matrix-mathematical models. The author of this technique is the American scientist Edward Hay. Therefore, it is often jokingly called “Hay’s salary meter.”

The growing popularity and demand for grading methods is due to the fact that they have stood the test of time.

First, let's define what is what.Grading(from English grading) - classification, sorting, ordering. Grading is the positioning of positions, that is, their distribution in the hierarchical structure of an enterprise in accordance with the value of a given position for the enterprise.

It is very difficult to find such a universal method of remuneration that would take into account the interests of both the employer and the employee. The company always tries to pay taking into account its goals, but just enough so that the employee does not leave, and the latter, in turn, strives to receive as much as possible. It is the system of grades that allows you to “link” wages and business logic, as well as untie the knot of problems associated with staff motivation.

Types of grading systems that are usually implemented

Today, the following grade systems and their modifications are being introduced into practice depending on the degree of complexity.

First degree of difficulty - a system for ranking positions by degree of complexity. It does not require mathematical calculations and can be implemented by the company's top managers after their preliminary training. It has nothing in common with the original version of the grade system. But some consultants are introducing it en masse at Russian and Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses.

Second degree of difficulty - This is Edward Hay's system, which is truly based on point-factor methods. But this is not the original version, but a system of grades that the American consulting companies modified for the CIS market. We will present its version (with some simplifications to make it easier to understand) later in this publication. Approximately this option can be implemented in companies with a small staff.

Third and fourth degree of difficulty - these are real original grading systems, which, despite their copyright protection, have found their way into the markets of Russia and Ukraine. These systems are based not only on the point-factor method, but also on correct, complex mathematical calculations of weight, pitch, matrices, profile guide tables, graphs, and most importantly - on accurate and consistent adherence to the stages of the methodology.

These methods are very labor intensive. Their implementation stretches over a period of 6 months to one year and is accompanied by a large amount of paperwork and accompanying recommendations. Therefore, here you cannot do without an external consultant.

The introduction of this remuneration system makes the enterprise competitive internally and foreign markets, since the company’s “transparency” for investors increases and, accordingly, capitalization increases.

In addition, by introducing a grading system, an enterprise can position itself as a serious player in the global labor market and attract top managers, as well as highly qualified specialists from all over the world, to work or cooperate.

The grading system evaluates all types of jobs, making it an extremely valuable tool in shaping pay structures. The criterion for evaluating positions is the level of influence of the position on the company as a whole and the type of impact on the final result.

What is the difference between the tariff system and grades?

Many compensation specialists may have the impression that grading is an analogue of the tariff system. Undoubtedly, there are similarities. After all, both the salary scale and grades represent a hierarchical structure of positions, where salaries are arranged on an increasing basis. But there are also significant differences (table 1).

Table 1. Differences between the tariff system and grades

Tariff systems	Grade systems
1. Built on the basis of an assessment of professional knowledge, skills and work experience	1. Provides a wider range of criteria, including such job evaluation indicators as: - management; - communications; - responsibility; - complexity of the work; - independence; - cost of error and others
2. Positions are built on an incremental basis	2. Grading allows the intersection of parts of two nearby grades. As a result of this, a worker or foreman of a lower grade, due to his professionalism, may have a higher salary than, for example, a labor protection specialist who is in a nearby higher grade.
3. Hierarchical structure tariff schedule based on the minimum salary multiplied by coefficients (inter-category, inter-industry, inter-position and inter-qualification)	3. The structure of grades is based only on the weight of the position, which is calculated in points
4. All positions are arranged according to a strict vertical progression (from worker to manager)	4. Positions are placed only on the basis of importance to the company

So, for example, in an enterprise that is engaged in intellectual developments, after the managers there will be a grade of IT personnel as the main earners and profit-makers, and only then will the grade of employees (lawyers, managers, etc.) be placed.

For which enterprises is the grading system suitable?

First of all, this system is convenient for large and medium-sized enterprises, since, unlike vertical career building, it allows you to build a career horizontally, within your level. For example, increasing workers' qualifications and education will affect the level of pay, since the weight of the knowledge factor will increase, and wages will increase, despite the fact that the worker will remain in his position. Moreover, on large enterprises There are a large number of positions, which creates many problems. Therefore, in previously used systems for determining job salaries, it was necessary to formally name positions in order to somehow place them in a hierarchical vertical. The grading system solves this problem.

What steps will have to be overcome to implement the new system?

The introduction of a grading system at an enterprise occurs in several stages, namely:

1. Preparation of the working group, study of the methodology.
2. Development of documentation (concept, position, etc.).
3. Job evaluation (questionnaire, interview, conversation).
4. Determination of job requirements, clarification of factors.
5. Distribution of factors by levels (ranking).
6. Evaluation of each level.
7. Estimation of factor weight.
8. Calculations of points for each position.
9. Distribution of points by grade.
10. Establishment of official salaries and calculation of salary ranges.
11. Reproducing the graph and analyzing the results.

Since points 1–3 are preparatory steps that are very extensive in description, they will not be considered in this publication. It is advisable to have a trained internal expert or external consultant assist in these stages of grading system implementation. This will avoid mistakes in the future.

Now let's move on to the main part of building a grading system.

Stage 4. Determination of job requirements, clarification of factors

This is one of the most difficult stages because it requires selecting key factors for each position. These factors should not only be understood, but also be distributed across levels of complexity. Here it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the enterprise, department, as well as the requirements for the position. For a clear example, we took a virtual company.

First you need to decide on the general criteria for evaluating positions, which can be:

skills;

knowledge;

capabilities;

value;

complexity;

responsibilities, etc.

Often there is a need to divide factors into subfactors, which allows for a deeper and more varied disclosure and, accordingly, a more accurate assessment of the position.

For a clear example, let’s take a virtual company with a total staff of 16 people.

Our virtual company has identified the following factors to evaluate positions (table 2):

employee management;

responsibility;

independence at work;

experience;

level of special knowledge (qualification);

level of contacts;

complexity of the work;

the price of a mistake.

Table 2. Key job evaluation factors

Factor levels	Level Description
Factor 1. Employee management
A	There are no subordinates, i.e. there is no need to manage employees
B	There are no direct subordinates, periodic coordination of the work of other employees within the framework of the assigned task
C	Coordination of work group activities (2–3 people)
D	Managing a group of subordinates to regularly perform functional tasks
E	Department management: influence, control, goal setting, motivation and leadership. The need for both vertical and horizontal interactions
F	Management of a group of departments, predominantly vertical power interactions
Factor 2. Responsibility
A	Responsibility only for your own work, there is no responsibility for the financial results of your activities
B	Responsibility for financial results individual actions under the control of the immediate supervisor
C	Responsibility for financial results of regular activities within functional responsibilities
D	Development of decisions that affect the financial result of a working group or department, coordination of decisions with the immediate supervisor
E	Full responsibility for the financial results of the division, for material values, organizational expenses within the budget of the unit
F	Full responsibility for financial and other results of an entire area of ​​work (group of divisions)
Factor 3. Independence at work
A	There is no need to make independent decisions, you should certain instructions, powers are limited, there is constant control
B	Standard decisions are made under the control of the manager, non-standard situations are resolved by the boss
C	Goals are determined by management, planning and organization of work is carried out independently, independent preparation of decisions, decisions are made by management
D	Only general goals are formulated; the employee independently develops methods and means of achieving goals (based on the organization’s policy)
E	The employee is practically under self-control, independently sets goals and objectives, following the organization’s strategy
F	Development general policy actions of a group of divisions, participation in the development of the company strategy
Factor 4. Work experience
A	No work experience required
B	Experience required, not necessarily in this field
C	Requires 1 to 2 years of specialized experience in this field
D	Extensive experience in this field is required (from 3 years)
E	Serious experience is required not only in this field, but also in related fields
F	Except professional experience, significant experience in practical management of large numbers of employees is required
Factor 5.
A	Secondary or higher education is sufficient, no special knowledge is required
B	Necessary higher education, not necessarily specialized, having a basic level of proficiency in special techniques and technologies
C	Higher specialized education is desirable, fluency in special techniques and technologies
D	Higher specialized education, requires in-depth specialized knowledge and basic knowledge in related fields
E	Higher specialized education, special knowledge in the field of development, the need for an academic degree
F	Higher specialized education and additional education in the field of organization and personnel management
Factor 6. Level of contacts
A	Communication is at the usual level, there are practically no contacts with clients and external organizations
B	Periodic contacts with clients and external organizations under the supervision of the immediate supervisor
C	Regular external and internal contacts, external contacts at the executive level are included in the functional responsibilities
D	Constant contacts with middle level managers external organizations
E	External contacts at high official level, requiring complex negotiations, vision of the organization's strategy and policies. Highly professional business communication skills required
F	Contacts at the level of senior officials of external organizations, the most important and large clients or partners
Factor 7. Difficulty of work
A	Monotonous work, constant performance of single operations
B	The work is more varied than monotonous, performing several functions that do not require special effort
C	Diverse work that requires the use of elements of analysis, logical reasoning and the choice of ways to solve problems
D	The work requires detailed analysis, selection of ways to solve various problems, coordination with related departments
E	Work related to a creative approach to the search and systematic analysis of information, to the identification, formulation and formulation of problems, and the development of ways to solve problems
F	Work related to the strategic vision of the development of the work area, integration of approaches to solving problems of different departments
Factor 8. The cost of error
A	Errors affect your own work and the work of employees within the work group.
B	Errors lead to disruptions in the work of employees throughout the department
C	Errors can lead to financial losses on a departmental scale
D	Mistakes can lead to financial losses on a fairly large scale
E	An error can lead not only to large losses, but also to disrupt the work of a number of departments
F	Mistakes can lead to financial losses throughout the company

A prerequisite for this stage is to determine a set of universal factors for assessing all positions (from worker to director), that is, all company personnel must be assessed according to one set of assessment criteria.

Stage 5. Distribution of factors by levels (ranking)

Factors are distributed according to difficulty levels. The correctness of the job assessment largely depends on an accurate and understandable description of each level.

The step* between levels must be the same. The number of levels themselves depends on how accurately you want to make the assessment. Thus, our virtual company used six levels of complexity to describe the factors. And she named them A, B, C, D, E, F (table 2).

Step 6: Evaluate each level

Each level is assigned points depending on the degree of difficulty and manifestation of the level. Since the staff of our conditional company consists of only 16 people, we will not assign large points to each level, so as not to complicate the calculation methodology. Therefore, in the above example, we estimated the levels as follows:

A - 1 point;

B - 2 points;

C - 3 points;

D - 4 points;

E - 5 points;

F - 6 points.

Use objective job scoring procedures, as subjective biases will lead to bigger problems down the road. After all, the main goal of the grade system is to ensure that the company, on the one hand, can retain its employees by paying them competitive remuneration, and on the other, maintain the efficiency of its payroll expenses;

strive for harmonization of all positions and evaluate them according to the same rules;

the step between levels should be the same.

The result of this stage of implementation of the grading system was a table with the listed factors and division into levels, with the determination of the number of points on an increasing basis (table 3–5).

Table 3

Job titleCEO

Evaluation factor							Significance of the factor on a 5-point scale	Final score by factor
	A 1	B 2	C 3	D 4	E 5	F 6
Employee management						6	5	30
Responsibility						6	5	30
Independence at work						6	5	30
experience						6	5	30
Level of specialized knowledge (qualification)						6	5	30
Contact level						6	5	30
Difficulty of work						6	5	30
The price of a mistake						6	5	30
TOTAL SCORE								240

Table 4

Job titleDirector of Human Resources

Evaluation factor	Level of compliance of the assessment factor and its weight, in points						Significance of the factor on a 5-point scale	Final score by factor
	A 1	B 2	C 3	D 4	E 5	F 6
Employee management						6	5	30
Responsibility					5		5	25
Independence at work						6	5	30
experience	1						5	5
Level of specialized knowledge (qualification)						6	5	30
Contact level						6	5	30
Difficulty of work			3				5	15
The price of a mistake				4			5	20
TOTAL SCORE								185

Table 5

Job titleFinancial Director

Evaluation factor	Level of compliance of the assessment factor and its weight, in points						Significance of the factor on a 5-point scale	Final score by factor
	A 1	B 2	C 3	D 4	E 5	F 6
Employee management	1						2	2
Responsibility						6	5	30
Independence at work						6	5	30
experience				4			3	12
Level of specialized knowledge (qualification)				4			5	20
Contact level						6	5	30
Difficulty of work						6	5	30
The price of a mistake						6	5	30
TOTAL SCORE								184

Stage 7. Factor weight assessment

Calculations at this stage are made depending on the degree of importance of each of the described factors for your company. For our virtual company, we took the importance of the factor on a 5-point scale. When calculating, you need to take into account the degree of importance by increasing points from 1 to 5 (table 3–5).

A prerequisite for this stage is the use of the same calculation rules for each factor during the assessment.

The total score for all other positions is calculated in the same way. So, in our company the total score for other positions will be as follows:

cleaning lady - 10 points;

worker - 36;

secretary - 55;

accountant-economist - 72;

master - 78;

analyst-controller - 90;

lawyer - 100;

chief engineer - 128;

supervisor technical department - 134;

head of the HR department - 145 points.

head of HR department - 164;

chief accountant - 168.

Stage 8. Calculation of the number of points for each position (formulas)

Stage 9. Distribution of points by grade

Based on the calculation results, all positions are arranged in a hierarchical pyramid depending on the total score received. Then this pyramid must be divided into grades.

Positions are grouped into grades based on the principle of receiving approximately the same number of points, based on the functions performed and depending on the degree of significance of this position for the enterprise. As a result, only positions that are similar in terms of the ratings received should be included in each grade. After the work done, our company received 9 grades (table 6).

On at this stage It will become clear that grades are positions collected into intervals (points and salary) based on certain analogies (similarity in the content of the work performed and the equivalence of positions).

Now we must “overlay” the received points on these grades. For this purpose, a formal-static method is used. For our conditional company, the entire set of total points was divided into 9 intervals (grades). Next, we determine the boundaries of the grades. The points were distributed by grade as follows:

the 9th grade included positions that received a total of 191 to 240 points;

in the 8th - from 171 to 190 points;

in the 7th - from 136 to 170 points;

in the 6th - from 101 to 135 points;

in the 5th - from 81 to 100 points;

in the 4th - from 66 to 80 points;

in the 3rd - from 46 to 65 points;

in the 2nd - from 26 to 45 points;

in the 1st - from 8 to 25 points.

We also need to categorize positions. Our virtual company has identified the following divisions and categories of personnel:

Divisions		Staff
administration		managerial
accounting		employees
personnel service		specialists
Human Resources Department		workers
production		service staff

Stage 10. Establishment of official salaries and calculation of salary ranges

A prerequisite for this stage is to determine the amount of the official salary based on the results of point calculations. It must be carried out according to uniform rules, regardless of position and unit.

To establish the official salary, it is necessary to collect information on the market value various types works In this case, it is necessary to take into account:

internal corporate policy;

financial position and potential of the company;

foreign economic policy.

In our case, these will be positions included in the staff of a virtual company with up to 20 employees. If the staff is large, then in each of the grades it is necessary to identify key positions for which market parameters will be determined and, accordingly, monetary compensation for this or a similar position.

We analyze the labor market in order to understand how much they pay on average for a similar position at other enterprises, and based on the data obtained, make an informed decision.

But before entering the collected market data into the table, it is necessary to coordinate it with the company’s financial director.

The lower limit of the salary bracket, that is, the minimum official salary, will correspond to the average level of the market value of the position. But if the financial situation of the company does not allow it, then the minimum official salary will be the same as the minimum market salary.

Then, for each grade, a salary range is established, the so-called range. Remember that it is determined not for each position separately, but for the entire grade.

Since the official salary reflects the core value of the workplace, and not the effectiveness of a specific employee, it is possible to “impose” the same range for each grade.

Ranges define the upper and lower levels. The size of the ranges depends on the company's vision of how those same ranges support career development and other organizational values. Therefore, the fork, as a rule, has a constant value. The names of the fork levels will be the categories of professional growth (scheme 1).

Scheme 1. Job salary ranges

By thus setting the average market salary as the minimum salary in our company, we automatically increase the authority and competitiveness of the enterprise in the labor market. And a 30 percent salary increase range within a single position is a strong motivating factor.

Attention!The minimum official salary of the lowest (last) grade should not be lower than state norms and guarantees, that is, not lower than the minimum wage established by the state.

Therefore, before introducing the final calculations of the grading system, it is necessary to check this official salary for compliance with its Labor Code and the Law “On Remuneration”.

The result of the work is a standard table format describing all internal corporate positions, including the names of positions, their linear affiliation, subordination, grade number, integral indicators of the value of each position, belonging to the grade level, salary range (table 6 ).

Now you can see that the size of the points corresponds to the position of the position in the grade and, accordingly, the size of the salary

Stage 11. Reproducing the graph and analyzing the results

Having done the entire amount of work and completed all stages, you can graphically depict the result obtained (schedule). This graph will unite all the positions of our conditional company into a single whole, and will also build and enter the resulting hierarchical structure into unified system coordinates

A prerequisite for constructing a graph is the intersection of pieces of grades. Places of intersection are a prospect for professional growth and, accordingly, an increase in official salary. This intersection proves that a professional worker can earn more in his grade than any specialist in a neighboring grade of a higher order.

Based on this graph, various analytical conclusions can be drawn.

This diagram explains the hierarchy of positions according to the content of the work. Each position in this structure defines the requirements for each position and also allows employees to determine:

his subordination;

measure of responsibility;

need for development (training).

But the most important thing is that immediately upon receiving the data from the final summary table and transferring it to the graph, it will be possible to determine in which places and in which departments there is a discrepancy in wages.

As an illustrative example, we additionally set virtual points No. 1 and No. 2.

Having carefully analyzed, we can conclude that these points “fall out” from the general corridor for calculating official salaries.

So, for example, point No. 1 indicates that the knowledge, authority, and responsibility required by this position are small, and the payment for them is significant. Accordingly, this position is overvalued on the salary scale and undervalued on the point scale.

Now let's look at point No. 2. The graph shows that everything here is exactly the opposite. We gave this position great powers, but determined the payment to be disproportionate to the workload. Therefore, this position is overvalued on the point scale and undervalued on the salary scale.

In such cases, it is necessary to review these discrepancies and eliminate them by recalculating again.

But if all positions fall into a non-deformed corridor, which is called the range of effective determination of official salaries, then your calculations were reliable and objective.

The routine work done will definitely bring you the long-awaited result.

What is the value of the grading system?

Practice has shown that the grading system has the following advantages:

1. helps manage the wage fund (payroll) and makes the payroll system flexible;
2. increases the efficiency of payroll from 10 to 30%;
3. regulates the imbalance of wages in the enterprise. When the principle of calculating salaries becomes transparent, then lazy and useless employees who are accustomed to only asking for bonuses immediately disappear. At the same time, the base salary of those who really play an important role for the enterprise is automatically increased;
4. allows, if necessary, to quickly analyze the structure of both official salaries and the permanent part of salaries, as well as monitor their dynamics;
5. is a convenient tool for determining the size of the base salary new position;
6. Allows you to track levels and departments where there are discrepancies in payroll calculations;
7. allows you to compare your company’s payment levels with those of others in the same market segment or within the group;
8. allows you to compare the average salary of any position in your company with the market average;
9. allows you to eliminate significant inefficiency, as it reveals duplication of functions, inept management of line managers by their subordinates;
10. solves the problem of charging additional payments for work performed to standards that are below or above official standards;
11. facilitates the process of salary indexation;
12. allows you to determine how much a position at any level costs an enterprise;
13. is effective way integration of different-sized divisions of the holding into a single structure;
14. optimizes placement labor resources.

The optimal ratio of the fixed and variable parts of salaries after the introduction of a grading system

Now let's talk about the variable part of wages, which has existed for many decades and has proven its necessity over time.

Thus, after analyzing the salary market, we can conclude that their variable part sometimes reaches 90%. This shouldn't happen. If the bonus exceeds the constant part of the salary, then its importance will be leveled, it will play the role of “patching holes” in the wage system.

This is what the salary structure looks like before the introduction of the grade system (scheme 2).

Scheme 2

This is what the salary structure should look like after the introduction of the grade system (scheme 3).

Scheme 3

Let us explain why this should be so.

As practice shows, in modern market conditionsoptimal ratio constant and variable parts wages should be 60% to 40%. Only such a ratio, when the constant part exceeds the variable part, forces workers to fulfill the plan, and thus receive a larger part of their earnings. And the second (variable) part will establish final fairness, since it will only include bonuses that make it clear what the employee received them for (for his contribution to the results of a department or an entire company).

And all other variable part allowances (bonuses, benefits) should disappear. Because they are faceless and unfounded. The fewer additional payments in the variable part, the better worker understands what he must do in order to receive the variable part of the salary.

It is desirable that, in parallel with the grade system, a new system for calculating the variable part of the salary is introduced. This technique is calledKPI (Key Performance Indicators- Key Performance Indicators), but it is intended to calculate the efficiency and effectiveness of work as a percentage.

Today the system of grades andKPI- these are the two best salary calculation systems. Together, they completely unify the calculation of both components of the salary (fixed and variable). But until your company has a unified system for calculating the variable part, it is necessary to bring to the attention of every employee that bonuses are given not just for performing functional duties, but for quality and quantity.

In order for an employee to understand the conditions under which bonuses are awarded, there should be no more than three of them:

1. minimum and average bonuses are awarded for contribution to the department’s performance results, as well as for the quality and quantity of fulfillment and overfulfillment of obligations (plans);
2. maximum bonus - for contribution to the company's results and for individual records for super-class specialists;
3. a special bonus, which is awarded for improvement proposals, the implementation of which brought the company profit in fact. Let's say an employee came up with a plan to improve the sales system or reduce the cost of some technical costs, developed a brand or the new kind products (which others have not thought of) - management should encourage this in in monetary terms and in proportion to the effect of the result of the project implementation.

All Western companies work according to this scheme. In order for both the constant and variable parts of the salary to be unified according to a single principle and brought into line, so that there is no need to manual mode to formally determine who should receive what percentage of the bonus, they, in parallel with the grading system, introduced the above-mentioned systemKPIto evaluate work based on the results of fulfilling obligations.

Table 6. Table of job evaluation grades Download (.pdf 1.1 Mb)

_______________

* Size (distance) between the previous and next difficulty level. Expressed as a mathematical value, usually determined as a percentage or in numbers. In the given example, we took the simplest, but evenly increasing step - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 points.

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 for 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, which will allow optimizing personnel costs, not through a formal reduction in the wage fund, but through improving the organizational structure and staffing table, more efficient planning of personnel costs, etc.

An effective grading system allows you to simplify the administration of the corporate financial incentive system, determine permissible size 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

The grading system is a type of material motivation for personnel, which is based on assessing the relative value of a position in an enterprise and creating a hierarchy of positions with corresponding salaries. A fair, transparent, adequate to expectations, competitive, reasonable remuneration system is one of the main factors working to retain employees in the enterprise. The absence of such a system leads to employee dissatisfaction, decreased motivation and productivity, and staff turnover.

The introduction of grades is an internal project of the enterprise; it represents a convenient tool for regulating the wage fund and creates the basis for the introduction of various management mechanisms for personnel motivation and development.

The problem of the economic interest of workers in remuneration and improving the final results of the enterprise has always been and remains relevant. A person’s readiness and desire to do their job efficiently is a key factor in the success of an enterprise. To evaluate a position in general structure The organization carries out a special procedure for grading positions. During the assessment, the following expectations of the enterprise are highlighted:

firstly, based on the results of the assessment, you can get an accurate understanding of what kind of people work in the organization and determine their level of knowledge and skills. The success of an organization depends on the quality of personnel no less, if not more, than on other factors - such as the volume of financial investments, the cost of real estate, the structure of warehouse inventories, etc.;

secondly, thanks to assessment, you can intelligently place people in places specific to them in order to achieve the best results.

Based on the assessment, the shortest and most effective ways to change the situation in the direction desired for the enterprise are selected. Special attention is given to regular staff assessment, since this is the only way to monitor ongoing changes. If you do not systematically evaluate the internal environment, personnel, situations, there is a risk of missing important trends, not seeing in time that the company’s actions are not effective, and missing the moment for change. Personnel assessment also allows us to identify deeper and systemic problems in the organization.

Comprehensive personnel assessment is currently recognized by domestic scientists as a way to obtain economic (achieving high economic indicators) and social (coordination and implementation of the interests of the subjects and objects of assessment) effect.

When considering the issue of personnel assessment, it is important to note that there are many aspects to consider, but in this case we consider it appropriate to consider the issue of job assessment and the essence of grading as an effective way to manage personnel work.

Over a long period of time, workers' salaries various industries in our country was determined on the basis of centrally approved tariff schedules or industry salary schemes. Currently, in many enterprises, the problems of developing a fair and effective remuneration system have become particularly relevant in connection with the introduction of new positions not specified in regulatory documents, especially various specialists. Often the success and competitiveness of an enterprise depends on their activities, but this category of personnel cannot lay claim to leading positions in the tariff hierarchy.

In connection with the reorganization of business, the formation of corporations and holdings consisting of several companies, the task of carrying out a unified corporate policy in the field of labor incentives, which is solved by a grading system that makes wages uniform, transparent and fair.

The grade system is the best and only justified remuneration system based on the point-factor method and matrix-mathematical models. The author of this technique is the American scientist Edward Hay. Over time, Hay’s methodology has varied several times, acquired many additions and imitations, but its essence has remained unchanged: grades are necessary, first of all, as a tool for streamlining employee base salaries. A grade is a group of positions of similar importance with a similar salary range, which allows you to compare the internal significance of a position within a company with the value of a specific position on the market and determine the conditions for material motivation of employees. This understanding of grade is most suitable for organizations developing and implementing a remuneration system based on grades.

The grade system is a grouping of positions on certain grounds in order to standardize wages in the company. The process of grouping positions itself is called grading - this is the positioning of positions, that is, their distribution in the hierarchical structure of the organization into groups (grades) in accordance with the value of a given position for the company.

You can grade positions or jobs when positions are distributed according to grades, regardless of which employee occupies the position. It is possible to subject the employees themselves to the grading process, when employees are assessed and assigned to grades individually.

Grading is not an analogue of the tariff system, despite some similarities. The tariff scale and grades represent a hierarchical structure of positions, where salaries are arranged on an increasing basis. The significant differences between these systems are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Differences between the tariff system and grades

Tariff systems	Grade systems
1. Built on the basis of an assessment of professional knowledge, skills and work experience	1. Provides a wider range of criteria, including such job evaluation indicators as: control, communications, responsibility, complexity of work, independence, cost of error and others
2. Positions are built on an incremental basis	2. Grading allows the intersection of parts of two nearby grades. As a result of this, a worker or foreman of a lower grade, due to his professionalism, may have a higher salary than, for example, a labor protection specialist who is in a nearby higher grade.
3. The hierarchical structure of the wage scale is based on the minimum salary multiplied by coefficients (inter-category, inter-industry, inter-position and inter-qualification)	3. The structure of grades is based only on the weight of the position, which is calculated in points
4. All positions are arranged according to a strict vertical progression (from worker to manager)	4. Positions are placed only on the basis of importance to the company

When using a grading system in an organization, positions will be distributed in such a way that after managers, first there is a grade of positions that earn and make a profit, and only then a grade of employees (lawyers, managers, etc.) will be placed.

As practice shows, in modern market conditions the optimal ratio of the constant and variable parts of wages should be 60% to 40%. Only such a ratio, when the constant part exceeds the variable part, forces workers to fulfill the plan, and thus receive a larger part of their earnings. The variable part will establish the final fairness, since it will only include bonuses that make it clear what the employee received them for (for his contribution to the results of the department or the entire company).

The salary structure before the introduction of the grade system is shown in Fig. 1. The salary structure after the introduction of the grade system is presented in Fig. 2.

Figure 1. Salary structure before the introduction of the grade system

Figure 2. Salary structure after the introduction of the grade system

Based on grading, a compensation and benefits policy is built, which allows optimizing personnel costs through improvement organizational structure and staffing, more efficient planning of personnel costs, etc.

There are certain prerequisites for grading within an enterprise. Problems related to the management and remuneration of personnel at Uralkali - Repair LLC:

• fragmentation of company divisions in remuneration;
• the principle of distribution of the wage fund is not transparent;
• labor assessment based on the subjective opinion of the manager;
• professional skills, business qualities, and work experience are not always taken into account when translating;
• groups of positions of the same category, but in different departments sometimes differ significantly in the complexity of the work performed;
• there is no relationship between the level of income and the complexity of the work performed;
• there is no understanding of what results need to be achieved in order to receive greater rewards for work.

The identified problems make it difficult to manage and control the enterprise’s personnel and prevent them from achieving their goals. If several of these shortcomings are noted, then it is advisable to begin developing a grading system.

Society with limited liability"Uralkali - Repair" (hereinafter referred to as "UKRM LLC") was created on the basis of the repair divisions of the Open Joint Stock Company"Uralkali". The area of ​​responsibility of UKRM LLC is the repair of mechanical equipment of the surface complex and the repair of all equipment of the underground complex in Berezniki and Solikamsk. The company includes the following production divisions:

• Repair and mechanical control;
• Department for repair of electromechanical equipment of the surface complex, which includes centralized repair shops;
• Department for repair of electromechanical equipment of the underground complex, which includes underground repair services;
• Mining management - installation work, consisting of a production and technical department and mining workshops.

In order to ensure uniform principles for organizing remuneration and standardization of labor for employees of the enterprise's divisions, a regulation on remuneration and standardization of labor for employees of UKRM LLC was developed. The main components of remuneration according to the regulation are:

• regulatory documents: labor cost standards, instructions on the workplace and labor protection, job descriptions, regulations on divisions, etc.;
• a tariff system that determines the differentiation of pay depending on the complexity of the work, the qualifications of the employee, and working conditions in the workplace;
• a bonus system that links wages to the performance of the Company, its divisions, as well as the degree of personal contribution of the employee;
• additional payments and bonuses of an incentive nature, linking the amount of remuneration of an employee with personal business qualities;
• additional payments and allowances of a compensatory nature, guaranteeing the employee payment in the amounts provided for by law;
• one-time bonuses and remunerations applied for the purpose of material interest of the employee.

To fulfill production tasks, UKRM LLC has the following remuneration systems:

• time-based - bonus and salary - bonus wages;
• piecework - bonus wages and individual wages.

Employees' wages consist of two parts: constant and variable. The permanent part includes wages calculated on the basis of the base salary, bonuses and additional payments paid under the law. The variable part consists of various bonuses for the quality of work and the effectiveness of individual indicators, bonuses based on the results of the department’s work, bonuses for personal participation in projects.

The grading system is convenient for large and medium-sized companies, since, unlike vertical career building, it allows you to build a career horizontally, for example, increasing workers' qualifications will affect the level of payment, since the weight of the knowledge factor will increase, and the salary will increase, although the employee will remain in his position .

Grading has the following goals:

• reduction of personnel costs, optimization of payroll;
• a transparent and understandable relationship between the employee’s income level and the value of the position for the company among all positions;
• easy determination of pay levels for new positions;
• the employee has an idea of ​​possible changes in his income under various career development options;
• increases the level of staff motivation and promotes their retention;
• increases manageability, as each employee begins to understand that his income directly depends on the assessment of his position;
• increases the company's transparency for investors.

Achieving these goals forms an effective system of management, motivation and remuneration of personnel at the enterprise.

Grading principles: economic feasibility, clarity and transparency, fairness, homogeneity.

The grading process diagram includes the following steps

1. Job descriptions. Positions are described through job analysis methods such as interviewing, questioning, and observation. Based on the results of the job analysis, a description of positions is carried out, which may contain the following data:

• general information (position title, date of preparation of the description, title structural unit; manager's name, etc.);
• standards of performance of duties and working conditions;
• personal qualities, character traits, skills and level of education and more.

2. Determining the value of positions. To do this, in practice, two types of procedures for determining the value of a position are used, shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Comparison of methods for determining the value of positions

NON-ANALYTICAL METHODS				ANALYTICAL METHODS
Ranging- Each job is considered as a whole and arranged in order according to its importance or contribution to the organization. After all the works are arranged in order, dividing lines are drawn in order to divide the resulting sequence of categories into corresponding classes. After division into classes, salary levels are established.				The factor method is used in combination with the scoring method, which makes it possible to quantify the importance of positions based on a number of factors and compare them with each other. This approach is called factor-score evaluation of positions. 1. Determination of job evaluation factors. The factors must take into account the specifics of the company's activities, be simple to understand and uniform for all positions. The following factors are usually used: employee management, responsibility, working conditions, work experience, qualifications, communication skills, complexity and novelty of tasks, cost of error. 2. Develop descriptive levels of job evaluation based on factors. The number of levels may vary; it is important to know that a small number of levels reduces the accuracy of the results, and too many complicate the description procedure. The same number of levels is used for all factors. 3 Each assessment level must be assigned a certain number of points, so that a rating scale is obtained: 0,1,2,3,4, etc. 4. Establishing the weight of factors using a scoring method by distributing a certain amount of points (100 or 1000 points) between factors taking into account their significance. The weight of each factor is determined by the sum of points given by experts for each factor. 5 It is necessary to evaluate all positions on key factors
Simple; Easy to implement.	Difficulty in matching each class; Assessors must have sufficient knowledge of all work to be assessed.
Classification- similar to ranking, the difference is that the class structure is first determined, after which the work is assessed and assigned to the appropriate classes, here positions are grouped by certain characteristics: category of personnel, management level, qualification category etc.
Easy to use; Easy to understand; There is no need to develop a procedure for individual ranking of all works			Subjective assessment by experts; Experts must know the organization well
Paired comparisons- each work is compared in turn with other works. To do this, you need to create a table of possible pairs of positions. The more important position in the pair must be indicated using the signs “+” and “-”. If the positions are of equal value, then the “=” sign is used. After this, it is necessary to determine the amount “+” for each position.				Applicable to all positions in the organization, and to different jobs, regardless of the organization’s profile; Easily adapts to the organization's objectives; Quickly mastered even by non-specialists	Difficulty in choosing factors by which positions will be evaluated; Duration of the event; Requires sequential execution of work
It is easier to identify a more important position out of two than among the entire set of positions		Knowledge of all works to be compared is required; The process is complex for a large number of positions

3. Construction of grades. Depending on the number of points scored (using the factor-score method) or established ranks (using non-analytical methods), positions can be arranged hierarchically. After this, they need to be combined into grades. A grade is a range of points or ranks of positions in which they are considered equal and of equal value to the company and have the same pay range.

Grades are formed in a variety of ways. When using non-analytical methods, grades are formed based on the ranks established for positions. The ranks are divided into ranges based on the subjective understanding of managers and specialists and acceptable for a particular company. When using the factor-score method the main task The problem that needs to be solved to combine positions into grades is to determine the ranges of scores in each grade.

At this stage, it is important to determine the boundaries of the grades, so approximately equal steps are taken to mark the boundaries between grades. For convenience, larger categories of personnel are also being introduced, including several grades. For example, employees (occupying grades 10 to 6), highly qualified employees (grade 7-9), managers (grade 3-5), top managers (grade 1-2).

4. Establishment of interqualification ratios (official salaries) for each grade. When establishing a salary range for each grade, enterprises are guided by market (external) wage values ​​and internal factors(the value of the relevant positions, the financial capabilities of the company, etc.). A variety of approaches are used:

• the lower value of the official salary should be at the level of the market average, the upper value should exceed it, for example by 30%;
• The average official salary should be at the level of the market average, the maximum should exceed it by 15-30%, and the minimum should be below the average by 15-30%.

Ranges can be formed in two ways:

1. establish a range of official salaries for each grade;
2. determine intervals of interqualification ratios (coefficients).

These coefficients show how many times the official salaries of the corresponding grade are greater than the minimum wage established at the enterprise. The established intervals of coefficients are translated into the “fork” of official salaries by multiplying the minimum and maximum coefficients in the “fork” by the minimum wage established at the enterprise. An example of constructing coefficients of interqualification relationships is discussed in Table 3.

Table 3. Example of constructing interqualification relationships

			Average value in the range, K avg.	Absolute height, K avg.	Relative growth, K avg. ,%	range	Overlap in the range

The final procedure of this stage is a comparison of the actual official salaries of the company’s employees with the “forks” of official salaries established for the corresponding grade. Based on the comparison, it is necessary to adjust official salaries: raise them for those positions whose salaries are lower than those provided for by the “fork”. As for salaries above the upper limit of the “fork”, they should in no case be reduced. These positions should also be revalued or temporary increases introduced. Gradually, salaries should level out as the minimum official salary increases.

5. Introduction of a grading system. At this stage, it is important to inform the company’s employees about changes in official salaries. The implementation of the grading system is carried out according to the Deming cycle, which includes planning, testing, making adjustments and implementation.

The result of grading should be a rating of positions at the enterprise, which can be used to streamline base salaries, distribute social packages, draw up personnel development plans, and more. The rating can be presented in a standard format that describes all positions within the enterprise. The format should include: the name of the position, its linear affiliation, indicators on work evaluation scales, an integral indicator of the value of the work, grade number, requirements for standards of labor behavior, salary range, possible benefits.

The Department of Labor Organization and Wages (hereinafter referred to as UOTiZ) is a structural division of UKRM LLC. The following are directly subordinate to the head of OSH: the department of labor organization and wages (hereinafter - OLOiZ) ​​and the department of labor standardization (hereinafter - ONT). The OTP is assigned the following tasks:

1. improving the organization and regulation of labor in the company’s structural divisions;
2. organizing payment and incentives for workers;
3. accounting for the use of working time.

Thus, OSH has all the necessary powers and has sufficient information to develop and implement a grade-based remuneration system at UKRM LLC. The entire process for this work was divided into stages:

1. Preparatory;
2. Conducting assessments of positions and professions;
3. Determination of grades of positions and professions based on assessments;
4. Establishing tariff rates for each grade of workers and salary ranges for grades of specialists and managers;
5. formalization of the grading system at the enterprise.

The main feature in the development of the grading system for UKRM LLC was the establishment of occupational grades separately for each structural unit of the enterprise. This is due to their fragmentation geographically, in terms of work performed and services provided. For each stage, the following scope of work is allocated, indicating the period for their implementation, shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Structure of the grading process at UKRM LLC

Stage name	Scope of work
1 Preparatory	Establishment of the wage fund (hereinafter referred to as payroll) Defining Target Values economic indicators by work Compiling a list of all positions and professions in the company
2 Conducting job descriptions and professions	Developing employee assessment questions Carrying out a description and systematization of the information received
3 Conducting assessments of positions and professions	Identification of the most significant factors for assessment Description of assessment levels for each factor Determining for each category the factors relevant to it Filling out the position evaluation sheet by columns
4 Definition of grades	Assigning weight to each evaluation factor Determining the grade point for each position and profession Establishing a grade
5 Establishing tariff rates for employees and salary ranges for specialists and managers	Salary analysis (internal and external trend) Setting tariff rates and salaries Assessment adjustment Development of a procedure for establishing tariff rates and salaries for transfers and hiring of positions and professions
6 Formalization of the wage system based on grades in the company	Preparation and issuance of an order on the introduction of a new wage system and the development of a new regulation on the system of wages and labor standards Transfer of employees to new salaries and tariffs Adjusting employee pay
TOTAL for the entire process, weeks		52

Preparatory stage. The transition to a new wage system leads to changes in the wage fund, its size and structure. OOTiZ determined that the transition to a new wage system will lead to an increase in the wage fund by an average of 8 to 15 percent. Afterwards, a list of all positions and professions is compiled based on the current staffing table of UKRM LLC. This type of personnel such as top managers are included in the grade system; for the category of specialists, the difference in remuneration will be taken into account when setting the salary within the range of the grade. As for the categories of workers, the grade of the profession will be established taking into account the category in this profession.

Conducting job descriptions and professions. All necessary information is taken from the regulations on departments, departments and divisions, as well as job descriptions of enterprise employees. For each position and profession, the following information is collected:

• general information (job title, date of compilation of the description, name of the structural unit; name of the manager, etc.);
• duties, responsibilities and powers;
• relationships with other employees and external organizations;
• standards of performance of duties and working conditions.

Conducting assessments of job positions and professions. Positions are evaluated using an approach based on the content of the position, i.e. positions are evaluated based on their value to the enterprise. To assess the position of UOTiZ, I chose from many factors the most significant for UKRM LLC:

• The cost of error;
• Working conditions;
• The need to search for non-standard approaches;
• Number of subordinates.

OSH specialists carry out a preliminary assessment of the company’s positions and professions in the following order:

1. Positions are assessed on a scale, i.e. The position assessment sheet is filled out in columns; a sample sheet is presented in accordance with Table 5.

Table 5. Position evaluation sheet

2. Each position is assessed in accordance with the described level for each of the factors. All employees of UKRM LLC are divided into three categories - managers, specialists and workers. The relationship between the category of personnel and the factors related to it is shown in Table 6.

Table 6. Position rating scale

		Managers (middle and line managers)	Specialists
Impact on the result	The price of a mistake
	Working conditions
	The need to search non-standard approaches
	The need to work with complex equipment
Information handling and interaction	Volume of information collected and processed
	The need to update knowledge
	Intensity of internal interaction
	Intensity of external interaction
Control	Autonomous decision making
	Number of subordinates

3. The assessed position is compared with already assessed positions on the factor under consideration;

4. A sheet with preliminary assessments of positions is transferred to the head of the department for expert assessment;

5. The position assessment sheet with the expert assessment of the head of the department is transferred to the position assessment committee (hereinafter referred to as the COP). The KOP includes chief specialists and heads of departments in all areas of activity.

The assessment is carried out without the participation of employees occupying these positions. In order to ensure greater accuracy in assessing positions, OSH and KOP specialists have the right to invite experts. When assessing the positions of middle managers, the expert is the head of the department. When assessing the positions of line managers, specialists, workers, the expert is the head of the unit or the employee to whom the head of the unit has delegated his authority (head of department, head of the workshop).

Determining job grades and professions based on position assessments includes a number of steps:

1. Each assessment factor is assigned a weight that determines its importance relative to other factors in accordance with Table 7.

Table 7. Weights of position evaluation factors

Factor name	Weights of position evaluation factors, %
	Middle managers	Line managers	Specialists
The price of a mistake
Working conditions
The need to search for non-standard approaches
The need to work with complex equipment
Volume of information collected and processed
The need to update knowledge
Intensity of internal interaction
Intensity of external interaction
Autonomous decision making
Number of subordinates
Total:

2. For each position, a grade score is determined as the sum of scores for factors, taking into account the weighting coefficient of each factor. The range of grade point values ​​is determined in accordance with Table 8.

Table 8. Table of correspondence of the grade score to the grade of position and profession

Number of grade of position and profession	Range of grade point values
	Middle and line managers	Specialists

3. Determination of grade for different categories of workers. The job grade of managers and specialists is determined in accordance with formula 1:

GradeRiS = ∑(position rating on a scale 1* weight 1+ position rating on a scale 2* weight 2 + ... + position rating on a scale N*weight N) (1)

The grade of workers' positions is determined in accordance with the formula:

GradeRAB = ∑(profession rating on a scale 1 * weight 1 + profession rating on a scale 2 * weight 2 + … + profession rating on a scale N * weight N) + rank (2)

Establishing tariff rates for workers and salary ranges for managers and specialists depending on the grade they occupy. Hourly wage rates for workers were determined depending on the length of the working week. The level of payment for managers, specialists and employees depends on the level of their competence. Differentiation of remuneration for employees within the salary bracket of a grade is carried out in accordance with the procedure for establishing salaries:

1. three levels within the salary scale for specialists and employees;
2. five steps within the salary range from grades 4 to 15 for managers (line managers and middle managers);
3. nine steps within the salary range from grade 16 for managers (top managers and middle managers).

Newly hired employees are assigned the first (minimum) salary level within the salary range of the corresponding grade. In the event of a permanent (temporary) transfer to another position, the employee is set the first (minimum) salary level within the salary range of the grade for the new position. When transferring within a department to a new position with career growth The employee is given a new grade salary that is one step higher than the current salary.

Employees of the movement and personnel development department must make appropriate salary changes in employment contract employee in the form of an agreement to the employment contract.

The procedure for reviewing salaries within the salary range of a grade is carried out, as a rule, no more than once a year. The head of the department creates a list of department employees recommended for a salary increase. When selecting candidates for a salary increase, the manager must follow criteria such as: sustainable production results, achieving maximum efficiency, high level of production and labor discipline, an increase in the volume of work performed, in addition to those specified in the job description, the experience and length of service of the employee in the position.

Formalization of the grading system at the enterprise. The introduction of a grading system entails changes in personnel documents. In this case, there is a change in organizational working conditions. The employer is obliged to notify the employee in writing no later than two months in advance of a change in salary or tariff rate.

In addition to the organizational formalities of the grading system in the organization’s documents, it is necessary to introduce the system into the consciousness of the staff, show all its advantages and teach department heads to work in this system. The introduction of a grading system at UKRM LLC should occur through the creation of a new remuneration system in the company, which should include:

• order to introduce a grading system;
• regulations on the payment system and standardization of labor for workers based on grades;
• the procedure for introducing a new position into the staffing table;
• procedure for evaluating/revaluing positions;
• measures to update the grading system.

Practice shows that a grade-based remuneration system has the following advantages:

1. helps manage the wage fund and makes the payroll system flexible;
2. allows you to quickly analyze the structure of the wage fund, official salaries and track their dynamics;
3. a convenient tool for determining the base salary of a new position;
4. allows you to track levels and departments where there are discrepancies in salary calculations;
5. solves the problem of charging additional payments for work performed to standards that are below or above official standards;
6. allows you to determine how much a position at any level costs a company;
7. is an effective way to integrate different-sized divisions of a company into a single structure;
8. optimizes the allocation of labor resources.

The grading system increases the transparency of career prospects for employees and helps to attract attention potential candidates in the job market. There are two options for how a worker can increase his tariff:

• due to a change in qualifications, when improving your qualifications and receiving a higher rank or changing your profession to a more significant one for a company with a grade higher than the previous one;
• by changing working conditions when they become more dangerous.

For specialists, there are also options to increase their salary:

• due to a change in grade, when moving to another position that belongs to a higher grade, involves more complex work or with harmful conditions;
• by increasing the level within the grade, if the specialist has no disciplinary sanctions and has worked for at least 3 years.

Thus, employees confirm their grade with their results, it becomes possible to have a flexible approach to job evaluation in accordance with the importance of the workplace for the company, and the composition of the team is stabilized.

The organization does not stand still, it develops, and previously established priorities can be changed. These changes should be reflected in the composition and number of labor assessment factors.

To keep the developed grade-based remuneration system up to date, a regular “upgrade” of the system is required. To begin with, determine the frequency of monitoring; usually the adequacy of the system is checked once a year: on the one hand, this allows you not to let things get out of control important changes both within the company and on the labor market; on the other hand, such frequency will not allow it to change beyond recognition.

Adjustments can be either soft or hard. Soft changes in the grading system include changes in the weights of compensated factors. For example, previously it was important to focus on such a factor as “labor content,” but after a certain unification of activities, the emphasis may shift, for example, to “work experience.” Hard methods of adjusting the system usually include changing the quantity or content of the factors themselves, or the scale of severity of an individual factor. In this case, it is necessary to re-evaluate all positions and professions based on new factors. This is almost a complete overhaul of the system.

Situations arise when there is no need to revise the grading model as a whole. For example: it is necessary to review the classification of a separate position or determine the place of a new position in the system. In this case, a procedure for adjusting grades and situations that can be considered a signal about the need to make changes to the grade system are determined. As a rule, the following events lead to adjustments to the model:

1. The emergence of a new position, which must undergo the same assessment procedure as all positions and professions in the company and is assigned to one grade or another.
2. Changes in the market value of individual specialists - which is associated with the opening of new competing companies in the region or mass layoffs of personnel, excess or shortage of university graduates, etc. It is better to do this by introducing bonuses, transferring employees to contracts, or revising the salary portion.
3. Changing the content or composition of work for a position or profession.

You should keep a log of adjustments or record all deviations from the accepted methodology for constructing grades, using Table 9 as an example.

Table 9. Example of the “Adjustments Journal” form

A well-built grading system has a long lifespan, but, as practice shows, it requires a complete revision every 2-3 years.

For UKR LLC, the introduction of a grade-based remuneration system will allow:

• optimize the wage fund and make this group of costs manageable;
• streamline wages and eliminate disparity in the distribution of the wage fund between departments;
• make a simple determination of the level of payment for new positions;
• increase the level of staff motivation and promote its retention;
• increase the transparency of career prospects for employees, which helps attract the attention of potential candidates in the labor market;
• tie in a system of bonuses and distribution of social benefits among employees;
• take into account the complexity and working conditions when setting the salary or tariff rate for employees.

Just as any project contains risks, the process of developing and implementing a grading system in an organization carries the following risks for which management must be prepared: it requires high costs for development and implementation; the system needs to be constantly kept up to date; there is a danger of a subjective approach when developing and assessing grades; difficulty adapting to new system remuneration from staff

Literature

1. Mark A. Hugheslid, Dave Ulrich, Brian E. Becker. Measuring the performance of the HR department. People, Strategy, and Performance = The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy, and Performance. M.: “Williams”, 2007.
2. Services. Staff motivation. Development of a grading system [electronic resource]. URL: http://www.ft-group.ru (date accessed 06/17/2013)
3. Career. Personnel Management. Salary distribution: grading [electronic resource]. URL: http://strana-sovetov.com (date accessed 06/17/2013)
4. Volkov V.P., Ilyin A.I. Enterprise economy: Tutorial M.: New knowledge, 2007.
5. Encyclopedia of a manager. Category Management. Prerequisites for grading and stages of its implementation [electronic resource]. URL: http://www.e-xecutive.ru. (date of access: 06/17/2013)
6. Labor Code Russian Federation: the federal law dated December 30, 2001 No. 197 - Federal Law (as amended on July 28, 2012). [electronic resource]. Access from the reference legal system "ConsultantPlus".
7. On approval of the Instructions on the composition of the wage fund and social payments: Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated July 10, 1995 No. 89 [electronic resource]. Access from the reference legal system "ConsultantPlus".
, Yazeva M.A.

Grading system as a tool of the “Uralkali - Repair” personnel labor management

In the article the authors on the basis of an analysis of documents and statistical data to assess the effectiveness of the application of the system of grading, its impact on the health of staff.

Key words:

Just a few years ago, all specialists glorified grading, criticized tariff schedules in companies and called on everyone to become adherents of the Western model of job descriptions. Now, I see more restrained statements on this matter online; moreover, some authors have expressed the opinion that the use of grading is justified only for those business sectors or areas of activity for which there are no descriptions in the old ETKS or newly emerging professional standards. Why did this happen? Have we “fed up” with innovative methods or have they not justified themselves, or have we studied what is available about grades, taken note, and in fact use the tool based on expediency in a given situation? Let's try to figure it out.

We repeat what grades are and analyze them calmly

Grading is essentially the ranking of a company's positions depending on the value of the work performed on them for the company, with wages tied to them depending on this criterion. Simply put, this is a breakdown of the list of positions available in the company into groups depending on their weight and significance for the organization, on the basis of which each group is assigned a certain minimum wage when performing job responsibilities at an acceptable level.

Based on this, I see the undoubted advantages of this procedure, namely:

· The emergence of a standardized description of work;

· The ability to build a relatively justified system of tariffs, as well as total remuneration and benefits for employees based on the resulting hierarchy of grades.

That is, the main advantage is the construction of a systematic list of positions indicating possible remuneration, in which the company administration becomes clear who should receive how much and at least approximately for what.

Advantages that grading does not have, but which are constantly attributed to it

For some reason, many people attribute a certain motivating component to the construction of a grade system. In particular, in every second article they write that it:

· Makes it clear to employees what exactly in their work brings the greatest results to the company;

· Forms in them a “sense of fairness” of the remuneration system;

· Creates distinct prospects for career advancement.

And everything in this spirit, the essence comes down to one thing - we introduced the grades (only correctly, with the obligatory involvement of an external consultant), all employees immediately had a feeling of the advent of universal justice, and they received a charge of cheerfulness and unbridled motivation. I’ll try to dispel a little, at least the myths listed above:

1. Most methods for constructing grades provide a fairly formatted description of the work. Based on the existing approaches, a worker on the shop floor does much less for the company than the head of a non-core department. However, if we take a manufacturing enterprise, what is more important for it: the person making the product or, say, the person purchasing cleaning products? Of course, making a product is more important, but a purchasing department specialist who buys, say, powders for cleaners, as a rule, ranks higher than a worker. Therefore, everything is relative and sometimes excessive formalism of grading can even be harmful.

2. I don’t really understand how the fairness of a well-structured tariff schedule is inferior to the fairness of a remuneration system based on grading. Many criticize tariff categories for lack of transparency, when in order to single out one engineer and give him more money they write an engineer of the highest category or such and such category, or add the prefix leading, supposedly without an objective assessment. But even when building a grade system, essentially the same thing happens when a position with new unknown functionality is introduced and “wedged” into the existing hierarchy. This also applies to the “fork” of salaries; formally, it is prohibited, and if in Russia it is necessary to introduce a similar position for the horizontal growth of an employee within a certain rank, one will also have to resort to tricks, introduce categories, make a reference to qualifications in the job title.

3. Advancement up the career ladder is limited by the number of available positions for a certain position; everyone will not get there, so no feeling is created for the employee about what needs to be done to get a different status. Yes, they see that there is a position with a higher salary where they could work, they understand what knowledge they need to acquire in order to get into it. But as long as this position is occupied, the employee will remain in his previous position, no matter how harmonious the grading system is built. A horizontal career, as a rule, does not entail a significant increase in the employee’s well-being (the author himself has changed several positions with a similar accounting and economic focus), so interest in it among staff is very low.

Many point to a certain “scientific validity” of grading, but listen, gentlemen, most of the methods used today were developed by consulting firms in the 20th century and were created solely to get money for their implementation. That is, this is still more of a commercial product, an applied tool, and talking about its scientific basis, in my opinion, is not entirely correct.

Disadvantages of the grading system

If the implementation mechanism used is not original and is not developed by the company independently, then in most cases this procedure is quite expensive, cumbersome and time consuming. On the other hand, “in-house” approaches within companies are often overly subjective and rarely produce acceptable results. In addition, it is worth moving on to grading only if the company already has a thorough description of all processes; most procedures are described in job descriptions. You also need to take into account that the labor market does not stand still, and often the salary hierarchy at the next moment may turn out to be inconsistent with the market due, for example, to an increase in demand for specialists in a certain area. In this case, grading brings some loss of flexibility in the field of remuneration, since the company will not be able to sharply move up any specific position in the already built hierarchy.

Main stages of grading

Suppose you were unable to dissuade management from such an adventure, or a fire broke out inside you that required an immediate transformation of the universe, and you chose grading as a tool for formalizing the remuneration system. What are the main stages you will have to go through for this? In a standardized form, the process can be broken down into the following stages:

Stage	Short description
1. Analysis of the content of work.	Perhaps the most useful, but very labor-intensive and time-consuming procedure. Job descriptions and process maps are collected, managers are interviewed, and information is collected with a detailed description of who is doing what. In addition, you can go the other way by simply sending out special, pre-prepared questionnaires to managers and employees. Some Western methods generally immediately propose to evaluate positions in these sheets according to the criteria on the basis of which they will be described: knowledge and skills, communications, level of physical activity.
2. Selection of reference (control, key) works.	At this stage, a list of characteristics is selected that are important for a particular company and by which positions will be evaluated
3. Determining the significance of reference work using one or another method for assessing the complexity of work.	Calculations are carried out on selected key criteria, with each criterion for each position assigned a numerical, measurable value. The higher it is, the higher the position will be in the grade system and the higher the base salary for it will be.
4. Development of a payment system:	The final stage, at which “boundaries” of wages, minimum and maximum values ​​are formed for each group of grades. At the same time, it is very important to correlate the formalized hierarchy obtained in the company with the real position on the labor market, since it may turn out that a position that has received average importance for the company may turn out to be much “more expensive” on the labor market. In addition, you need to consider whether the company can financially afford the resulting amounts.
– distribution of factors on the scale;
– “weighing” factors by importance;
– study of market wages;
– taking into account the collective agreement and agreements;
– determination of the salary range (“bracket”);
– determination of grades and groups of grades, as well as salary amounts.
5. Application to non-standard works.	Types of work that cannot be formally described, individual for a particular position, are assessed.
6. Investigation and correction of inconsistencies.	Trial calculations, checking for inconsistencies or incorrect comparisons, adjusting the final result

Source: N.Yu. Bayer, L.V. Sviridova Grading as a modern method of personnel motivation

However, the above list of procedures is standardized; we will try to change it and bring it into line with the actual order of work that we would begin to carry out in the company if we decided to take the desperate step of introducing grades.

How do they generally propose to build grades?

In the most general form, approaches to building a system of grades could be described in the form of the diagram below

The rad method in most cases is represented by the usual ranking of positions. That is, in the list of available positions, based on the assessment, a rank is assigned, depending on the content of the work. With the classification method, they proceed from the opposite: first, a certain structure of classes and categories is formed (for example, worker, employee, specialist, manager, top management) and then they include certain positions in the company.

Analytical methods require a comprehensive study each position according to a list of key criteria, creating a profile for each position. Perhaps the most “hardcore” version of it can be considered the Hay method, but there are other methods of varying degrees of complexity. Now it is stereotypically written everywhere that analytical methods give the most substantiated and best results. But, as always, I will argue a little with this. This may be true, but I always strive to evaluate each approach from the perspective of labor costs (monetary costs) / results. And oddly enough, practice often tells me that this factor is not always in favor of analytical grading methods. Let's now look at what we have in practice.

Summary grading methods more details

Among the simplest and most accessible summary grading methods for everyday use is direct ranking, which is related to the series method. With this approach, employees (positions) are distributed hierarchically according to any indicator from the most significant to the least significant. For clarity, below we present a table of direct ranking of 5 positions, according to 6 criteria selected as a result of a meeting of managers, each of which can be assigned a value from 1 to 5 points. Thus, a maximum of 30 points can be assigned to a position. After ratings by selected experts, the result was:

Job title

Key Indicator being assessed

Final result

Maximum possible value

Summary result

Responsibility importance

Self-sufficiency activity

Difficulty of tasks

Criticality of errors

Level of physical activity

Level of mental fatigue

Conductor

8/30

Security guard

9/30

Turner

13/30

Loader

9/30

Accountant

15/30

Formally, after such a simple procedure, we can say with a clear conscience that we carried out express grading and received the following result

Job title	Grade
Conductor
Security guard
Loader
Turner
Accountant

All that remains is to distribute salaries, bonuses, compensation and social packages. Well, it’s not lovely, isn’t it? It’s not clear why this method is so disliked; in small companies (50-100 people), I would just do it “without any problems.”

Another variation of the series method is paired comparison. In this case, they build a matrix of positions, comparing them with themselves. If one position, according to experts, is superior to another in his subjective assessment, he puts + or any other sign; if not, he puts 0. As a result, for each position, the number of signs other than zero is simply summed up. Let's use the conditions of the previous example and get the following table

Positions	Conductor	Security guard	Loader	Turner	Accountant	Total amount +
Conductor