Level Lists Workspace

Use this workspace to create lists of levels that define a number of skill grading scales.

This can be practical if two employees possess the same skill, but at different levels. For example, two employees might speak Japanese, but not equally fluently. By assigning a list of levels to each skill you can specify to what degree each employee possesses the skill. Skill levels could, for example, be Novice, Some, Fluent, and Expert.

When you create a skill level list, you provide a name and a grading method. The list can be graded or nongraded, depending on the nature of the skill levels that the list covers. You then create the levels in the Levels sub-tab.

A level list such as Novice, Some, Trained, and Experienced constitutes a graded list; Experienced is clearly a better level thanNovice. However, in other cases it does not make sense to grade the skill levels. For the skill Driver's License, for example, it is not necessary to indicate how well employees master the skill, but merely whether they possess the skill or not. You would likely assign to this skill a nongraded level list consisting of the levels Yes and No.

In the Levels sub-tab, for each level you must provide a calculation value. This value is relevant for graded level lists and is used to define the distance between the levels on the list when Maconomy performs a number of calculations. As you create the levels in the list, Maconomy automatically orders the levels in the list according to their calculation values, inserting the level with the lowest calculation value first. Note that for lists graded by the method Best First, a low calculation value is best, whereas for lists using the method Best Last, a high calculation value is best.

You can insert into and delete levels from a list. However, if you insert a level into a list, the calculation value of the existing levels following the new one is increased by one. If you delete a level, the calculation value of the following levels is reduced by a value corresponding to the difference between the level that you delete and the level that immediately follows it.

You assign level lists to skills in the Skills workspace. If you apply a graded level list to skills that you set up in a skill hierarchy, you can tell Maconomy to calculate a level for a skill. For more information on skill hierarchies and automatic level calculation, see the Skills workspace.