Supervisory Position Classification Series Title and Grade

Let's look at the evaluation criteria. And so when we classify any position, you know that the goal is to determine the series, title, and grade. It's the same with supervisors.

You want to be able to determine the series, title, and grade of that supervisory position. And so let's look at the series and title. The series of a supervisory position is generally based on the kind of work supervised.

The title is determined by referring to the classification standard, the guide, or the series used for the series that they're supervising. In most instances, these guidelines require attaching a supervisory title to the occupational title. An example is a human resources specialist.

And so if you evaluated that position as a supervisor, it would be a supervisory human resources specialist. Positions must meet the minimum requirements and should be titled supervisory, even if non-supervisory work is grade-controlled. All right.

And so now let's look at the title, excuse me, the level, the grade level. And so, in determining the grade level, you use the six factors to determine that grade level. And so again, program scope and effect, organizational setting, supervisory and managerial authority exercise, personal contacts, difficulty of typical work directed, and other conditions.

And so let's look at factor one, program scope and effect. This factor measures the program supervised, its scope, and the impact, which is the effect that the program has on the customer. To assign a level, the intent of both the scope and the effect must be met.

The term program used in both scope and effect is defined as the kind of work directed. It could be professional work, scientific work, technical work, administrative work, or fiscal work. The scope addresses the type of program supervised and its coverage.

The scope was assessed in terms of the organizational and geographic coverage. Again, the scope is assessed in terms of organizational and geographic coverage. The effect measures the impact of the program on the customer, activities in or out of the government, agency or other agencies, and the general public.

That's factor one, program scope and effect. Now let's look at factor two, organizational setting. This factor considers the organizational situation of the position in relation to higher management levels.

It credits accountability for results, that is, the number of levels above the supervisor decreases. Accountability for results rises, increasing the position's value. Since there are three factor levels, a single factor level definition may cover positions at more than one organizational level in an agency or activity.

Factor level three, supervisory and managerial authority exercise. This factor is sometimes called the bread and butter of supervisory responsibilities. At a minimum, all supervisory positions must meet the full criteria for factor level three dash two.

This factor also considers managerial authority through supervision plus contractor oversight. Factor four, personal contacts. This is a two-part factor that examines the nature of the contacts, and the nature of the contacts relates to the supervisory duties of the position, such as contacts dealing with organizational relationships and the level of authority.

Such contacts deal with organizational relationships and the level of authority. The purpose of the contacts addresses the reasons for the contacts and ranges from giving instructions to making commitments. The nature and purpose of the contacts are two separate subparts of factor four.

The factor level selected for the nature of the contacts is not necessarily the same factor level for the purpose of the contacts. That is, if the nature of the contacts is evaluated at 4A1, it does not automatically follow that the purpose of the contacts is 4B1. So, an example would be that if the nature of the contacts is 4A1, the purpose of the contacts could be 4B3.

They don't have to typically match. Factor five, difficulty of typical work directive. This factor measures the difficulty and complexity of base-level work.

We talked about base-level work in the leader section of module six, as well as other line staff or contract work subject to technical oversight by the position. And so, when you are evaluating first-level supervisors, you must determine the highest grade of the mission-oriented non-supervisory work that constitutes 25% of the workload. And so, what you want to do is you want to list all of your employees that do mission-critical work at the full performance level.

So, if you have positions, human resources specialists, and they're at the grade five, but their positions go to the grade 12, you want to list that position as a grade 12 when you're evaluating factor level five. To determine the base level of the positions in your organization. And so, you are to include GS and federal wage system subordinates, assigned military, volunteers, student trainees, or non-federal workers, contract employees, state and local workers, or similar personnel when determining the number of employees supervised.

You want to credit trainee and developmental or other work at grades below full performance level to the full performance level. Now, there are some things when you're trying to determine the base level of the supervisors, the base level of the employees supervised, you want to exclude from consideration any lower-level positions that primarily support the mission-oriented work and do not perform substantive missionary mission-oriented work. Supporting the work in which the grade level is based on the general schedule supervisory guide criteria, or positions that are evaluated based on the general schedule leader grade evaluation guide, you want to exclude those, also.

You want to convert federal wage system employees, military, contractors, or volunteer work that is included in the number of positions supervised to a general schedule grade level. And so, if you have a federal wage grade employee, you have to determine if that was a GS position, what level of work they perform, and convert that position into the GS scale, with a full calculation for the 25%. And so, once you have determined all of the mission-critical positions in your organization, and say you have four GS-12 positions that are doing mission-critical work, two GS-11s, and one and two GS-9s, two GS-12 positions, two GS-11 positions, and two GS-9s, if you break those down into fractions, that equals 100%.

And so, this means that you have the GS-12s at the highest level doing at least 50% of the work. And so, the base level for the work would be GS-12, because they're doing 50% of the work at the highest level, 50% of the work at the highest level. All right.

And so, you can go to the supervisory guide and explore that calculation a little bit further. Once you have determined what the base level is for that work, then the guide will tell you how to, the supervisory guide will tell you how to determine the factor level. All right.

In factor level six, other conditions, this factor measures the extent to which various conditions contribute to the difficulty and complexity of carrying out supervisory authorities and responsibilities and coordinating program requirements. It uses a factor five base level to measure the degree of difficulty and coordination required as a supervisor. And so, factor level six is very explicit.

You must read the directions in the supervisory guide and follow them step-by-step to determine the appropriate factor level to assign for that position. And so, once you read step one, you will have to understand what supervisory work may complicate some of the conditions of that supervisor. And some of those things that may complicate the situations or conditions are a variety of work, staff operations, fluctuating workforce, and constantly changing deadlines, physical dispersion, special staffing situations, impact of specialized programs, changing technology, special hazards, and safety conditions.

And so, again, you want to read the directions thoroughly regarding each situation in factor level six and determine how many are met by the position. If the position meets three or more of the special situations, then you want to add a single level to the level selected in step one. And so, again, like all classification actions, once you have determined the factor levels and the corresponding point values for each of the six factors, then you will total up your points, go to the grade conversion table to determine the grade level.

There may be a few situations where the grade level that you determine is the same grade level as the base level of your work in factor five. In that case, you want to provide the adjustment provision, which is found at the end of the document, to determine the final grade for that supervisory work. In your participant guide, we provide you with the evaluation form to use to evaluate supervisory positions.

And so, remember, when using a new standard or a new functional guide, you must always go to that guide, read it over before you attempt to start classifying the position using that new guide. You want to thoroughly understand the requirements of the guide when you start.