Grade Structure

Create and manage salary grades with steps, increments, and allowances for consistent compensation across your organization.

What is a Grade Structure?

A Grade Structure defines how salaries are organized in your organization. It follows the standard Nigerian salary framework used across healthcare facilities, schools, and public/private institutions.

The system has two core concepts:

• Grade Level — Your rank or job category (e.g., GL 07, Grade A, Level 1)
• Step — How long you have been at that rank. Each year of service moves you to the next step within the same grade.

How Grades and Steps Work

Each Grade Level contains multiple Steps. A staff member starts at Step 1 when assigned to a grade, and progresses one step per year (annual increment) without needing a promotion.

Example: GL 07 — Nursing Officer

Step	Years at Grade	Monthly Salary
Step 1	Entry (Year 1)	₦143,000
Step 2	Year 2	₦148,000
Step 3	Year 3	₦153,000
Step 4	Year 4	₦158,000
Step 5	Year 5	₦163,000

In this example, the Base Salary is ₦143,000, there are 5 Steps, and the Step Increment is ₦5,000. The nurse earns ₦5,000 more each year without needing a promotion.

When Does a Staff Member Change Grade?

Moving to a different Grade Level requires a promotion or regrading. This is done through the Salary Changes workflow with approval. Common reasons:

• Promotion — Staff demonstrated higher competency or passed exams
• Regrading — Job role was re-evaluated
• Probation Completion — Moved from probationary grade to confirmed grade

Grade changes require approval and have an effective date — the old salary continues until the effective date.

Creating a Grade

1. Go to HR & Payroll → Grade Structure
2. Click + Add Grade
3. Fill in the fields:

Field	What to Enter	Example
Grade Level	Name for this salary band	GL 07, Grade A, Level 1
Description	Who this grade is for	Nursing Officers, Senior Teachers
Base Salary	Starting salary at Step 1	₦143,000
Number of Steps	How many yearly increments before max is reached	10 (means 10 years to reach top of grade)
Step Increment	Amount added to salary each year	₦5,000
Grade Allowances	Fixed allowances everyone in this grade receives	Housing: ₦30,000, Transport: ₦15,000

Typical Grade Structure (Healthcare)

Grade	Typical Roles	Base Salary	Steps
GL 04	Cleaner, Porter, Security	₦60,000	8
GL 06	Health Assistant, Records Clerk	₦100,000	10
GL 07	Nursing Officer, Lab Technician	₦143,000	10
GL 09	Senior Nursing Officer, Pharmacist	₦200,000	10
GL 12	Medical Officer, Consultant	₦350,000	15
GL 15	Chief Medical Director	₦550,000	10

Note: These are examples. Private facilities set their own salary bands. You can name grades however you prefer (Grade A/B/C, Level 1/2/3, etc.)

Assigning Staff to a Grade

Once you create grades, they automatically appear in the Grade Level dropdown when:

• Registering new staff
• Editing a salary profile
• Creating a salary change request
• Importing staff via CSV (use the grade name in the GradeLevel column)

What Happens at Payroll Time?

When you run payroll, the system calculates each staff member's salary based on their assigned Grade + Step:

Monthly Pay = Base Salary + ((Step - 1) × Increment) + Allowances - Deductions

This means you don't need to manually enter salary amounts for each person — assign them a grade and step, and the system handles the rest.