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Free HR tool

Job evaluation tool to grade every UAE role fairly

Use this free job evaluation tool to score any role on three proven factors and see its points, grade and profile instantly. Save roles to compare them side by side and spot gaps in your UAE salary structure before they become pay-equity problems.

Know-How

Know-How

The total knowledge, skill and experience needed to do the job well.

From simple routines to recognised authority in a field.

How widely the role must integrate and coordinate activities.

How important influencing and developing people is.

Problem Solving

Problem Solving

The thinking the role demands to apply its Know-How.

How far thinking is guided by rules, procedures or policy.

How novel and complex the problems are.

Problem solving = of Know-How — you can only think with what you know.

Accountability

Accountability

Answerability for actions and their consequences.

The degree of personal or procedural control over decisions.

The size of the area most clearly affected by the job.

How directly the role influences those results.

Total job size

points

Grade

Know-How
Problem solving
Accountability

Profile:

Saved evaluations

Stored in this browser only

No roles saved yet. Score a role and press “Save to comparison”.

RoleKHPSACTotalGrade

For education and internal discussion only — not an official or certified job evaluation.

Method

Three factors that explain every job

Points-factor evaluation has been used by large employers for decades because it is simple to explain and consistent across very different roles.

Know-How

What a person needs to know to do the job: technical depth, the breadth of activities to be integrated, and the people skills required to get results through others.

Problem Solving

The self-starting thinking a job requires: how defined the thinking environment is and how new the challenges are. Scored as a percentage of Know-How.

Accountability

The job's answerability for outcomes: how freely it can act, the size of the area affected and how directly it drives results.
  1. 01

    Document roles

    Start from accurate, current job descriptions: purpose, key accountabilities and scope.

  2. 02

    Evaluate in panels

    Score roles with a small cross-functional panel to remove individual bias.

  3. 03

    Calibrate

    Sense-check rankings across departments and resolve anomalies before finalising.

  4. 04

    Link to pay

    Build grade bands and benchmark them against UAE market salary data.

How the job grading system's scale works

Each factor level converts to points on a geometric series: 50, 57, 66, 76, 87, 100, 115 and so on up to 1,400. Every step is roughly 15% larger than the one before, rather than a fixed number of points higher.

A 15% step is used because it is commonly treated as the smallest difference in job size that a trained panel can tell apart consistently. Smaller steps invite arguments over detail; larger ones hide real differences between roles.

Problem Solving is not scored in points directly. It is a percentage of Know-How, from 10% for strictly routine work to 87% for abstract, uncharted thinking, then snapped to the nearest point on the same series. You can only think with what you know.

The three factor scores are added to give total job size, and grades follow the same logic: grade 1 starts at 150 points and each new grade begins about 15% higher.

Worked example: the tool's default role

Open the tool without changing anything and you are scoring a typical early-career professional: basic professional depth, activity-level breadth and important people skills give 230 Know-How points. A clearly defined environment with interpolative challenges sets Problem Solving at 33%, or 76 points. Generally regulated freedom, a sub-AED 1M magnitude and a contributory impact give 152 Accountability points. The total is 458 points, which places the role in grade 8.

Where selected grades begin
GradeStarts at (points)
1150
4228
6302
8399
10528
12698
14923
161,221

Each grade starts about 15% above the previous one (150 × 1.15grade − 1).

Timing

When to run a job evaluation

You do not need to regrade the whole company every year. These are the moments when evaluation pays for itself.

Rapid growth

Headcount has doubled and salaries were agreed one hire at a time. New joiners are earning more than established colleagues in bigger roles.

Restructure or merger

Two organisations, or two departments, have different titles and pay for similar jobs. A common grading structure lets you compare them fairly.

Emiratisation planning

Clear grades show UAE nationals a visible career path and help you plan skilled roles that count towards your Emiratisation targets.

Pay-equity questions

An employee asks why a peer earns more, or you want to check that men and women in roles of equal value are paid consistently.

New or changed roles

A role has grown in scope, or you are creating a new position and need to decide its grade before you advertise it.

Annual pay review

Before merit increases, check that grades still reflect the work so that the budget goes where it should.

How grades link to a salary structure in the UAE

A grade tells you how big a job is. A salary band tells you what that size of job is worth in your market. The link between them is a midpoint for each grade, usually set against the median of reliable UAE salary survey data for comparable roles.

From each midpoint you set a range, often 80% to 120% of the midpoint. New or developing employees sit towards the minimum, fully competent ones around the midpoint, and proven high performers towards the maximum. The ratio of someone's pay to the midpoint is their compa-ratio.

Because the grades are about 15% apart, midpoints usually step up by a similar amount, and neighbouring bands overlap. The overlap lets a strong performer in grade 9 earn more than a new joiner in grade 10.

UAE-specific points to decide

  • Basic vs allowances. Define bands on total guaranteed cash, but set a consistent basic-salary share, because end-of-service gratuity is calculated on basic pay.
  • WPS alignment. Make sure the salary recorded in contracts matches what is paid through the Wage Protection System.
  • Pay equity. Article 4 of the UAE Labour Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021) requires equal pay for women and men doing the same work or work of equal value. See the UAE Government's guidance on gender equality at work.
Illustrative example only: monthly bands in AED Hypothetical figures to show the mechanics. They are not market data or a recommendation.
Grade Minimum (80%) Midpoint Maximum (120%)
8 12,800 16,000 19,200
9 14,700 18,400 22,100
10 17,000 21,200 25,400
11 19,400 24,300 29,200
12 22,400 28,000 33,600

Reading the example: the default role above scores grade 8. In this hypothetical structure its band runs from AED 12,800 to AED 19,200 a month. An employee paid AED 14,400 has a compa-ratio of 0.90, which suggests room to grow as they reach full competence.

Avoid these

Common job evaluation mistakes

Most grading projects that fail do so for the same handful of reasons.

  1. 1

    Evaluating the person, not the job

    A brilliant analyst does not make the analyst role bigger. Score the role as it is designed, and reward individual performance through pay progression within the band.

  2. 2

    Working from outdated job descriptions

    If the description no longer matches the work, the score will be wrong. Refresh descriptions with the line manager before the panel meets.

  3. 3

    Letting titles drive grades

    “Manager” can mean anything from a team of none to a division of 200. Titles follow grades, not the other way round.

  4. 4

    Scoring alone

    One evaluator brings one set of biases. A panel of three to five people from different functions produces far more defensible results.

  5. 5

    Skipping calibration

    Rank all roles side by side at the end. Anomalies, such as a coordinator scoring above the manager they report to, are easy to spot and fix at this stage.

  6. 6

    Publishing grades without a pay plan

    Announcing grades before you know the cost of moving people into their bands creates expectations you may not be able to meet.

Once grades are agreed, use them everywhere: in offer approvals, in requisitions opened in your applicant tracking system, and in promotion criteria. If you are redesigning roles for AI-assisted work, our guide to measuring AI adoption in teams shows how to track what has actually changed.

FAQ

Job evaluation questions

How job grading works, and how it helps UAE employers build fair, competitive pay structures.

Still have questions?

Our consultants answer within one business day.

Ask our team

Job evaluation is a structured way to measure the relative size of roles in an organisation. It assesses the job, not the person doing it, and gives each role a points score that can be converted into a grade. Grades then anchor salary ranges, career paths and internal equity.

Each role is scored on a small set of compensable factors, here Know-How, Problem Solving and Accountability. Levels within each factor map to points on a geometric scale, so each step represents a noticeable (roughly 15%) difference in job size. The total determines the grade.

Fast-growing UAE businesses often set salaries role by role, which creates inconsistencies, pay-equity risk and difficult negotiations. A grading structure supports fair pay, clear promotion criteria, Emiratisation career paths and credible salary benchmarking against the market.

Enough to reflect real differences in job size, but not so many that every promotion becomes a regrade. A 150-person UAE company might use 10 to 14 grades from entry level to executive. Broader bands suit flatter organisations; narrower grades suit large, hierarchical ones such as government-linked entities.

Yes. Article 4 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 states that a woman is entitled to the same wage as a man for the same work or other work of equal value. A documented job evaluation is one of the clearest ways to show that roles of equal value are paid consistently.

No. This is an educational model to help you understand how roles compare. For a defensible grading structure, NamasteAi's HR consultants run facilitated evaluation panels, calibrate results across functions and link grades to market pay data.

Saved roles stay in your own browser on this device. Nothing is sent to our servers, and clearing your browser data removes them.

Related resources

Build the rest of your people framework

HR consultancy

Job architecture, grading, salary bands and HR policies designed for UAE employers and calibrated by our consultants.
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Emiratisation support

Plan skilled roles and graded career paths for UAE nationals as you work towards your Emiratisation targets.
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Talk to an HR consultant

Share your organisation chart and we will suggest how to approach grading for your size and sector.
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