What if you want to change your position in the Voys Value matrix?

You can!

The TL;DR is that you need to make a well-substantiated request for reassessment to the Value Advisor and gather (at least) four colleagues who can deeply evaluate your work, including the Circle Lead(s) of the circle(s) you’re involved in. They will answer some pre-determined questions about your work, and then a decision will be made whether your request for reassessment is honored or not.

The Value Advisor role is facilitating this process. If this leads to a change in salary, that will, of course, be the domain of the Contract Extender.

The Job Coach and Mentor can help you with all career-related coaching questions.

Also, check the Product Development Hiring Vision.

The Request for Change Policy

I want to change my place in the Compensation Model, what do I do?

When there are substantial changes in your work and/or your experience, you get a chance to request a re-assessment of your position in the compensation model. You can do this maximum of once per 18 months, but keep in mind that you usually spend a few years in each position before moving on to the next and, at some point, have reached your full potential. Before you make the request, think about the specific examples in the work that you are currently doing (and have been doing for at least the past months) that illustrate your new position. The request for a re-assessment needs to be well reasoned and documented with specific examples of work that you do that fit the position that you think you ought to have. Your request must also show a logical progression, so you can’t skip levels.

For information about the levels and pathways, read the level and pathway descriptions.

Of course, it is perfectly fine to use feedback from colleagues as part of your motivation for your change request, but you can only make a request for yourself. This is because you are in charge of your career. While it can be flattering to have colleagues request a promotion on your behalf, you should make that decision and hence, the request.

We hire colleagues with a specific profile in mind, which is confirmed (or not) by their peers around the time of their first midterm evaluation (typically around 6 months).

Before you submit a change request, you must meet the following requirements:

• For EU colleagues: You must have had your first contract extension, so your new contract must have taken effect.

All South African colleagues have permanent contracts, the time of being employed must be 9 months.

• Your last successful change request was at least 18 months ago
• The request you want to submit shows logical progression, meaning your new position will be in the same pay grade or one pay grade higher than your current one

Starting date

The Value Advisors need time to process the request, and this normally takes several weeks. If for any reason (such as vacations or illness of the assessors) the time required is more than usual, the applicant will not be inconvenienced. So the same processing time applies to each requester. A complete request (if all criteria are met) will become active on the first of the month after the next month, regardless of when the session took place.

For example: if you submit your request sometime in March (the exact date does not matter) and the session has a positive result, the changes in the salary scale or step will take effect on May 1st, and will thus be visible on the May paycheck.

📃 The policy

This policy is effective from April 1st 2024  and applies to the colleagues employed by Voys, VoysOne, Devhouse Spindle and Voys South Africa.

This policy applies to any request to be plotted in a different profile (a combination of level and pathway).

We’ll talk you through the requirements, the process and all the steps that need to be taken along the way, clearly indicating who does what. The people and roles involved are as follows:

• The requester: That’s you! The colleague submitting a request for themselves to be recognized in a different profile
• The assessors: The colleagues that will assess your request, using the criteria and guidelines set forth by this policy, the Value Advisor, the Voys Value model etc.
• The Value Advisor: Processes requests, facilitates the process, and ultimately, holds the domain on the plotting of colleagues. The Value Advisor also facilitates the session with the assessors. For the full set of accountabilities, check the role in GlassFrog.

Requirements

Before starting your change request procedure there are some requirements to consider. They are outlined fully on this notion page. If you do not meet these requirements, you cannot submit a request. If you’re not sure, reach out to one of the Value Advisors and we’ll figure it out together.

The Process

1. Submitting your request: You make your formal request for change by submitting a written request to one of the Value Advisors. In this written request you must include:

• Your name
• Your current profile (both level and pathway)
• Your requested new profile (both level and pathway)
• Examples of work (projects you did, problems you helped solve, achievements you made, support you offered, insights you brought to the table, behavior that you showed etc. - use a very broad definition of ‘work’) that fits your new requested profile. Two paragraphs or five pages, it’s all okay! This serves as motivation for the change and as input for the assessors, it will be shared with them and a copy of the request will be kept in your personnel file. Need some ideas, check the how to start-page.

2. Intake: One of the Value Advisors will plan an intake with you. The intake is meant to talk about the process, give you space to ask any questions, and make sure both you and the Value Advisor have all the information needed to proceed with the rest of the process. At this point we also go through the questions that will be asked to the assessors as a way for them to measure if you fit your requested profile. The results of the intake will not be shared with the assessors and are meant to help you confirm for yourself if this is the right time to progress with the profile change request.

After the intake, you’ll still be able to make changes to the examples you have included in your written request.

3. Colleague selection: You select four relevant colleagues that you feel can make a useful contribution to your assessment. These colleagues need to have been working at Voys for at least six months. Add the reason why you selected these colleagues to your request. The Circle Lead(s) of the one or two core circle(s) in which you energize role(s)must be included since it is ultimately their accountability to assure a good fit for the role(s).

The Value Advisor will check with this group whether they consider themselves the right group of colleagues to assess your request. You can already think if there is a specific colleague that you would like to get the collected feedback from, after the session.

4. Session scheduling: The Value Advisor invites all the assessors, as well as a second Value Advisor, to a meeting about your profile. Your written request will be shared with the assessors. The Value Advisors will also collect the answers to the extra questions in Appendix I.
5. The session! Two Value Advisors and the assessors will discuss your requested profile change. You, as requester, are not present during this discussion. The Value Advisors will facilitate the conversation and guide the assessors through the questions (see the next step).

• The assessors go through the questionnaire for the profile that you have requested. For each question, the following steps are taken:
1. The Value Advisor allows for clarifying questions about the content of the question, and helps the assessors with the interpretation of the question when necessary.
2. The Value Advisor asks every assessor to answer the question with “Yes” or “No” with an explanation. Everyone shows their answer simultaneously to minimize bias based on other people’s answers.
3. The Value Advisor asks if anyone wants to change their initial answer.
4. If the question is answered with a unanimous “Yes”, the answer is given. If not unanimous, the question will be answered with “No”.
5. Any feedback for the requester will be captured by the notetaker.
• The Value Advisor will ask the assessors if the process was fair and free of peer pressure, and may decide to take appropriate measures based on the answer.
• When the questionnaire is finished, the Value Advisors use the input from the assessors to make a proposal about the profile. As a rule-of-thumb and soft threshold, a minimum of 70 percent score on the questionnaire indicates a fit with the profile.
• The proposal is followed by an objection round where all participants in the session (the assessors and Value Advisors) can raise an objection to the proposal. In case an objection is made, the Value Advisors and objectors will explore whether and how this can be integrated. The Value Advisor will make the final decision.

6. Result: You will be invited to hear the session’s outcome with the Value Advisors. The feedback that was surfaced during the session will be shared with you by one of the assessors (selected during the session, but you can request a specific person).

The Outcome

After this you submit your request for change and following the process above, there are two possible outcomes: you’ll get plotted in your requested profile, or you do not.

If you get plotted in your new profile, congratulations! The Value Advisor will inform the roles that handle the personnel- and salary administration. If your new profile leads to a compensation adjustment the necessary changes will be made [link to page outlining the terms and conditions here] to reflect that. You will receive an addendum to your employment contract. Of course a new profile is more than only an adjustment in your pay; it also marks the next step in your professional development and comes with new expectations. Don’t forget to celebrate!

If you do not get plotted in your requested profile, there is no diplomatic way to say this: that sucks! You’ll likely have a lot of questions about the path forward, and together with you, a Value Advisor, and the assessors (or a spokesperson) and possibly with other colleagues, we will explore what the options are. Your ambition is clear; now the question is on what you need to get there, and how Voys can support you. There is not a single unified process for this because every person and every situation is different. The Value Advisor can involve other roles to make a plan, and that plan can include a date from when you can submit another follow-up request, which will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

Feedback

Regardless of the outcome of the session, you will receive valuable feedback from your session. Integrate this feedback when moving forward in your work. If you have questions on how to do that, or could use some support, there are roles that can help with this.

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