Frequently asked questions

lvlst grades any job role against a clear, proven methodology and shows its real market salary band — using live data for the GCC and Egypt. It helps you build a consistent salary structure and see how your people are positioned against the market. Alongside job evaluation, lvlst also includes a Performance Management module for running complete evaluation cycles — weighted goals, competency ratings, and HR-approved results — and a Leave Management module for leave policies, balances, and approvals across your whole organisation. The name reflects what it does: it helps you level-set your pay and your people, getting every role onto one fair, objective scale.

A job evaluation platform is software that grades every role in a company against a consistent, objective methodology, then maps each grade to a market salary band — work that traditionally required an expensive consulting project. lvlst's job evaluation platform does this self-serve: you answer five structured questions about a role and get its grade, salary band, and market positioning in minutes, using live data for the GCC and Egypt.

Software. lvlst is a self-serve job evaluation and HR platform — the point-factor rigour of a top consultancy, delivered as software you use yourself. There is no engagement, no waiting period, and no per-project fee: you grade roles whenever you need to, and your market data stays current.

HR leaders, founders, and finance teams — anyone who needs to set or review pay fairly and consistently across the GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman) and Egypt.

The same kind of rigorous, point-factor methodology top consultants use — but self-serve, regional, and a fraction of the cost, with results in minutes rather than months.

Seven markets: the six GCC countries and Egypt. Salary figures are shown in your company's local currency, based on the country set on your account.

Job evaluation compares roles by their relative scope, accountability, knowledge requirements, and business impact. Job grading then groups roles of a similar size into a shared grade. Put simply: evaluation helps you understand the role; grading gives that understanding a consistent home. Read the full comparison, or see how lvlst evaluates and grades roles.

There is no universal timetable. Set a review rhythm your organisation can maintain, then review a role sooner when its scope changes materially, the organisation restructures, or a genuinely new role is created. Re-evaluate the job, not the person in it. Our guide explains when to re-evaluate roles and what evidence to use.

Performance management is the ongoing cycle of setting expectations, discussing progress, adjusting goals when priorities change, and reviewing contribution fairly. An annual appraisal can be part of it, but it should not be the only conversation. Read the practical guide, or explore lvlst Performance Management.

Choose for the work, not the acronym. OKRs can suit fast-moving, outcome-led teams; management by objectives can suit roles with clear commitments; and competency frameworks help describe how work should be done. Many organisations use a considered blend. Compare the main goal-setting frameworks before deciding what your managers can apply consistently.

You evaluate the role against five factors. For each, you pick the level that best matches what the role genuinely requires. lvlst combines these into a grade (one of 14), and maps that grade to a real market salary band for your country.

A single role takes just a few minutes to grade.

Always grade the role, not the person currently in it — what the job genuinely and routinely requires when performed competently. If a role sits between two levels, choose the lower one unless the higher-level demands are a regular part of the work.

The methodology is transparent — five clearly defined factors with described levels. lvlst shows you the grade and the level you selected for each factor, so it's explainable, not a black box.

14 grades, from entry-level roles up to C-suite. Each grade maps to a market salary band.

For each role, lvlst shows a salary band (minimum, midpoint, and maximum) across Basic, Gross, and Total Earnings, in your local currency — plus where a current salary sits within the band.

lvlst compares the current gross salary you enter against the role's gross band and shows whether it's below, in, or above the market band.

Yes — bands reflect the local market for your country, and are adjusted for company size.

One credit lets you grade one role — and reveals its grade, salary band, and positioning.

Yes — every new account gets one free credit to grade your first role and see how it works.

Revealing a role's result uses one credit. You can then re-grade that same role once for free (editing your factor answers) — every later re-grade uses another credit.

Job evaluation is sold as bundles of credits:

• Starter — $1,490 — up to 10 roles
• Growth — $2,490 — up to 30 roles
• Business — $3,490 — up to 50 roles
• Corporate — $5,990 — up to 100 roles
• Enterprise — custom (contact us)

Each bundle can be bought once (valid for 12 months) or as an annual subscription that renews your credits and keeps your market data current every year. Performance Management is priced separately — see the Performance Management section below.

Your choice. Job-evaluation bundles can be bought one-time (valid for 12 months, no recurring charge) or as an annual subscription that renews automatically. Performance Management is an annual subscription. Subscriptions can be managed or cancelled any time from your profile via the secure billing portal.

Bundles are valid for 12 months from purchase. To keep your structure current with refreshed market data, you renew after that.

Yes — you can add credits any time from the pricing page.

A complete performance-cycle tool for your whole organisation. You set up your company structure (departments, divisions, branches), add employees, and run evaluation cycles: employees set weighted goals, managers review and score goals and competencies, and HR approves the final results. Every employee ends the cycle with a clear, defensible score.

Each cycle follows a structured flow: the employee drafts weighted goals, their manager approves them, the employee submits a self-assessment at the end of the period, the manager scores goals and competencies, and HR reviews and finalises. Manager scores stay hidden from the employee until HR finalises the result, so conversations happen at the right time.

Each goal and competency is rated by the manager on a clear 1–5 scale, weighted by the importance you assign, and combined into a final score out of 100. Goal weights must add up to 100%, so every score is transparent and defensible — no black box.

Competencies are the behaviours you rate alongside goals — things like communication, leadership, or quality of work. lvlst comes with a ready-made library, and you can add, edit, or remove competencies and set how much they count towards the final score.

A guided setup walks you through it step by step: company settings, locations, structure (divisions, departments, branches), grades, competencies, people, and reporting lines. You can add employees one by one or import your whole organisation at once from an Excel file.

No — manager scores and comments stay hidden from the employee until HR reviews and finalises the result. That keeps the process fair and makes sure feedback conversations happen at the right moment, not mid-review.

Yes — you invite employees by email, and each signs in securely with their own login. Employees only see their own goals and results; managers see their team; and HR sees the full picture.

Pricing is based on how many employees you manage, billed annually:

• Essential — up to 50 employees — $4,990/year
• Team — 51–100 employees — $8,990/year
• Business — 101–200 employees — $14,990/year
• Corporate — 201–300 employees — $21,990/year
• Enterprise — 301–500 employees — $35,990/year
• Custom — 500+ employees — contact us

That works out to as low as $6.25 per employee per month. Prices are also available in local Gulf currencies and EGP.

Each plan covers a set number of employees under performance management. If you grow past your limit, upgrade to the next plan — or contact us if you have more than 500 employees.

Yes, any time — from your profile via the secure billing portal. Your access continues until the end of the period you've paid for.

No — they're separate modules with separate pricing. They work well together (fair grades and fair reviews on one platform), but you can use either on its own.

A complete leave tool for your whole organisation. You define your leave types (annual, sick, maternity, and any custom types) with days per year, accrual, carry-over, and document requirements; employees request leave from their own account; and requests are approved by the line manager first, then HR. Balances are tracked automatically.

Each request follows your reporting lines: the employee submits a request, their line manager approves or declines it, and HR gives the final approval. Everyone sees only what they need — employees their own leave, managers their team's, and HR the full picture.

Yes — alongside company-wide defaults, you can set policy overrides for a department, a grade, or an individual employee. The most specific rule wins, and a built-in preview shows any employee's resolved balance before you commit.

A guided setup walks you through it: locations, your organisation structure (optional), people, reporting lines, leave types, and any policy overrides. You can add employees one by one or import your whole organisation at once from an Excel file — and if you already set up Performance Management, your organisation carries over automatically.

Pricing is based on how many employees you manage, billed annually:

• Essential — up to 50 employees — $2,490/year
• Team — 51–100 employees — $4,490/year
• Business — 101–200 employees — $6,990/year
• Corporate — 201–300 employees — $9,990/year
• Enterprise — 301–500 employees — $15,990/year

Leave Management is billed separately from Performance Management — each product has its own subscription.

No — Leave Management is a standalone product with its own subscription. You can use it on its own, alongside Performance Management, or not at all. The two products share your organisation structure, so setting up employees once serves both.

Securely by card at checkout. Payments are processed by Stripe, our payment provider, which issues your receipt. Card details are handled by Stripe; lvlst does not store your full card information.

Because a role's result is delivered immediately when you reveal it, revealed evaluations are non-refundable. If you think there's been a billing error or technical issue, contact support@lvlst.com and we'll review it in good faith.

An on-screen result, plus a company report you can export to PDF and Excel, and a read-only share link that expires after 30 days.

lvlst is built on market data for the GCC and Egypt, refreshed quarterly so your structure reflects current conditions.

With your email — you'll receive a one-time code to verify. After signing up you'll add your company details (name, country, city, organisation size), which set your salary currency and report context.

Yes. The company and salary data you enter is stored against your account and is accessible only to authorised users of your account. Shared report links are read-only and expire after 30 days. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes. Goals, ratings, and review comments are visible only on a need-to-know basis: employees see their own finalised results, managers see their team, and HR sees the organisation. Performance data is never shared outside your company, sold, or pooled into benchmarks. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes — lvlst gives you the market band and shows exactly where a salary sits within it, so you can make every pay decision with evidence behind it. The final call is always yours: lvlst equips you with consultant-grade data to make it confidently. For legal or regulatory questions specific to your situation, your own advisers remain the right port of call.