The questions buyers ask, answered once.

gradar is a standard product. Configuration variables cover job architecture, hierarchies and access rights. Custom development is not part of the standard contract.

Web application delivered as SaaS from the T Cloud (Deutsche Telekom) in Germany. Each customer receives its own subdomain under gradar.com.

QPM Quality Personnel Management GmbH, Am Haferkamp 78, 40589 Düsseldorf, represented by its managing directors. Subsidiaries in the USA and the United Kingdom.

More than 600 organisations in over 40 countries, across 19 industries.

References are named on request, including integrations with SAP SuccessFactors, Personio and further HRIS.

Support and subject-matter advice in German and English. Technical support is delivered from Düsseldorf.

A network of certified implementation partners. A partner can be appointed as consulting administrator with company-administrator rights.

QPM is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 by TÜV Rheinland, valid 24.03.2025 to 23.03.2028, covering consulting, development, sales and operation of the systems for job architecture, job evaluation and equal-pay analysis.

QPM is not certified to ISO 9001. Quality and process documentation is governed within the ISO/IEC 27001 management system.

QPM does not run its own surveys. Market data is imported from third parties or resold under agreements with Culpepper, Lurse and Mercer.

A customer logo can be stored in all editions; each customer gets its own subdomain.

Available in German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), Catalan, Danish, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish, Greek, Polish and Turkish.

Evaluation factors, factor descriptions and job-family definitions exist in more than 25 languages.

Organisational units are modelled across several levels and drive structuring, filtering and access rights.

Legal entities are maintained for employee records, enable separate reporting and segment pay structures and access rights.

Locations and populations, for example collectively agreed staff, non-tariff staff and executives, segment employee data, market data and pay structures.

Multilingual custom hierarchies: three in SME, Starter and Professional, six in Enterprise, twelve in Ultimate.

Import as XLSX or CSV, or synchronisation through an HRIS interface.

SME to Enterprise include one tenant, Ultimate includes three. Further tenants with unlimited users can be added in Ultimate.

SME Complete and Starter Complete are limited to 100 jobs. Professional Complete, Enterprise Complete and Ultimate have no job limit.

Analytical, point-factor evaluation using defined factors with graduated levels. The result is a grade.

gradar evaluates jobs or positions. No personal data has to be transmitted to the server for job evaluation.

Factors cover skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions — the four criteria groups named in Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2023/970.

Definitions exist for every factor and level. Organisation-specific wording is possible in Enterprise and Ultimate on a time-and-materials basis.

Four career paths: professional track, management track, project management and executive.

More than 500 global job families, each with definition, typical tasks and synonyms.

Job families can be edited and newly created; additional classifications use custom hierarchies.

Grading templates capture company-specific career routes and combine with job families. Available from Professional Complete.

A standard four-factor model for working conditions is included in all editions. A custom model is possible from Professional Complete on a time-and-materials basis.

Comments at job level plus a written rationale for each individual factor decision.

Job descriptions and further documents can be uploaded and linked to a job.

Results are stored with a version number and stay consistent even after a new release of the application or the algorithm.

The cross-comparison lists results side by side, sortable and filterable.

Jobs can be assigned to organisational units, job families or locations in bulk.

Company level structures are formed from gradar grades and configured variables; the organisation's own job structure is preserved.

gradar runs without an HRIS connection. Master and pay data can be imported from files.

Drafts are generated for four fields: overall purpose, main tasks and responsibilities, technical skills and communication requirements — based on job title, global job family, career level and evaluation parameters, in every available language.

One credit per generated field, four credits for a full job description. Annual allowances: 1,000 credits (SME, Starter), 2,000 (Professional), 3,000 (Enterprise), 15,000 (Ultimate). Extra packages can be ordered.

Job profiles are exported as DOCX.

A standard model derives competencies from the global job family and the evaluation result; job-specific adjustments are possible. Competencies with graduated behavioural anchors come from the TMA method.

A bespoke model based on the customer's own job families is possible in Enterprise and Ultimate on a time-and-materials basis.

Pay and further biographical data can be uploaded and managed. The pay-analysis module is activated at no additional licence cost.

Actual pay is analysed statistically, for example as a percentile distribution.

Ranges are designed in the system and mapped to grades. The structure is modelled by the user; fully automatic derivation from imported data alone is not included.

Internal compa-ratio is calculated against the midpoints of your own ranges.

External compa-ratio is calculated against percentiles and averages of imported market data.

Pay data is held per currency, country, location and population.

Matching proposals are generated from global job families, the evaluation result and the Compensation Survey Rosetta Stone. Proposals can be changed and extended manually.

Company-specific matching matrices are possible in Enterprise and Ultimate on a time-and-materials basis.

Third-party market data can be imported and integrated, with no limit on the number of datasets.

gradar acts as a reseller of third-party market data. Survey data is loaded into the customer account automatically. A separate fee applies per country-specific survey.

For surveys in the reseller portfolio (currently Culpepper and Lurse) gradar handles the participation process. For other providers benchmark codes are supplied; third-party participation workbooks are not filled automatically.

Collective pay structures can be stored as a pay structure and mapped to grades.

Analytical evaluation returns a point result per job based on skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions. Jobs with the same grade are methodologically of equal value.

The unadjusted gender pay gap is calculated and shown in the dashboard.

The adjusted gap is calculated by regression analysis. The algorithm was externally reviewed by FPI Lab.

The gender pay gap is reported by location and legal entity.

A heatmap shows pay differences, for example by job family, filterable by location and legal entity.

Analyses by category of workers based on grade, job family and career path are available. An automated report in a national supervisory-authority format is not included.

Average pay levels per category of workers can be produced and exported. A self-service portal for employees or managers is not part of the solution.

Every factor decision can be justified and commented. Results, rationales and cross-comparison are exportable.

Evaluation results, factor rationales, cross-comparison and pay structures can be exported as a report.

Integration runs through the middleware of Kombo Technologies GmbH, which provides one API to more than 40 HRIS, payroll and recruiting systems.

Connections include SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, Personio, HiBob and HR WORKS. Each integration is confirmed by technical support in advance.

Advanced Integration reads employee data and locations daily, one-way from the HRIS. Standard gradar fields are written back to the employee profile.

Premium Integration also reads the job entity and writes grades and further variables back. It requires an HRIS that exposes a readable and writable job entity. Billed on time and materials up to a capped amount.

Handled through a pass-through API, quoted in advance at the applicable development hourly rate.

Interface parameters are configured. A new pay type in the HRIS, for example, is simply registered in gradar to synchronise the data.

Jobs, grading results, pay structures, job matching, market data, competencies and working conditions are exported and imported as XLSX or CSV.

Standard reports cover job overview, evaluation results, cross-comparison, pay structures, job matching, market data, competencies and working conditions.

Reports offer filter and search functions plus column configuration, at global level and at individual job level.

Tabular reports as XLSX and CSV, job profiles as DOCX, charts saved as PDF and JPG.

A direct XML or JSON export from the interface is not provided. Data can be served in machine-readable form through the native gradar API, available in Enterprise Complete and Ultimate.

Analyses are visualised in the dashboard and in the reports.

Data held in the system is searchable according to access rights; displayed data can be filtered and sorted.

gradar has its own API for job data, evaluation results and assigned attributes, available in Enterprise Complete and Ultimate and independent of the Kombo middleware.

Company administrators manage accounts and access all stored settings and data. The first named person is the main contact.

Functional, role-based access management using standard groups is included in all editions, differentiated by read, change and delete.

Fully customisable access management using group policies for org structures, legal entities, locations or populations in Enterprise and Ultimate on a time-and-materials basis.

In Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate the number of read-only users is unlimited and free.

SSO is supported with Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace and Okta.

Two-factor authentication is available for company users and mandatory for QPM system administrators.

Logged-in users are signed out automatically after a defined period of inactivity.

Entry, change and deletion of data are logged and traceable via individual user names. A historised view of past role and permission assignments is not available in the interface.

Hosted on European servers of the T Cloud, operated by Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems International.

Certified to CSA Star Level 2, Trusted Cloud Data Protection Profile 1.0 and ISO 9001, 14001, 22301, 20000, 27001, 27017 and 27018, carrying the TÜV Trusted Cloud seal.

TLS 1.3 between client and application server; the application-to-database connection is encrypted as well.

Application server volumes with XTS-AES-256, databases encrypted statically and at tablespace level, stored objects with AES-256, keys held in a key management service.

Logical, software-side tenant separation with dedicated subdomains; all relevant database tables are tenant-separated.

Backups of production data are created regularly, stored encrypted and retained for 210 days. Recoverability is verified by restore tests.

99.95 percent annual average availability, contractually assured to QPM by the hosting partner. Maintenance and update windows are excluded.

The DPA is Annex 2 of the licence agreement; the current version is available in the data-protection section of the application.

TOMs are Annex 3 of the licence agreement, structured by physical, system, data, transfer, input, instruction, availability and separation control, extended by AI usage and AI instruction control.

Subprocessors are named in Annex 2. Controllers are informed in text form before addition or replacement, with a three-week objection period.

Personal-data breaches are normally reported within 48 hours of becoming known, containing the information required by Article 33(3) GDPR.

After contract end all personal data processed on instruction is deleted within 90 days unless a statutory retention duty applies. Deletion is confirmed in text form on request.

External DPO: PROLIANCE GmbH, Leopoldstraße 21, 80802 Munich.

Inspections by the controller or an appointed auditor take place on notice during business hours, limited in principle to one day per calendar year. Evidence can alternatively be provided by certificates.

Processing in third countries only on the basis of an adequacy decision under Article 45 GDPR or appropriate safeguards under Article 46 GDPR.

Production and test systems are separated; test data is pseudonymised.

Two functions use generative AI: drafting job descriptions and interpretation support for gender pay gap analyses. The evaluation methodology itself is rule-based and uses no AI.

OpenAI for job-description content, Mistral AI for pay-gap interpretation support and Langdock as an alternative access path to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral and Google. Processing takes place in the EU/EEA.

Under the agreements with the AI providers, inputs, prompts and generated results are not used to train, fine-tune or improve models.

Transmitted: job title, global job family, career level, language selection and context such as company name, industry and size. Users are reminded not to enter personal data into AI fields.

AI functions produce proposals and drafts presented to the user for review, editing and approval before use.

The AI functions constitute neither automated decision-making nor profiling within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR.

On QPM's current assessment the AI functions are not high-risk AI systems under Regulation (EU) 2024/1689. QPM monitors the regulatory development and updates the assessment as needed.

A new category of AI processing, a change in the data types processed or a change of AI subprocessor is communicated with reasonable advance notice.

Technical support is included in the licence fee, by phone and email, covering usage and availability questions, incidents, error reports, access problems and general usage queries.

The licence agreement contains no separate SLAs. Unless expressly agreed otherwise, no specific response or recovery times are owed; the 99.95 percent annual availability commitment applies. SLAs can be agreed in the Ultimate edition.

Included: an initial briefing plus a review of the first independent evaluations — one hour each in SME and Starter, two hours each in Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.

One annual customer-success advisory session: one hour in SME and Starter, two hours in Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.

Workshop delivery and facilitation, conceptual work, data analysis, customer-specific configuration and user training are not included in the licence fee and require a separate agreement.

An online manual is available at docs.gradar.com.

QPM performs regular updates that may extend the functional scope. Updates are included in the licence fee.

Annual licences: EUR 3,000 SME Complete, EUR 4,000 Starter Complete, EUR 7,000 Professional Complete, EUR 10,000 Enterprise Complete, EUR 35,000 Ultimate, each plus VAT. SME Complete is reserved for organisations with at most 250 employees.

Two users in SME Complete and Starter Complete, four in Professional Complete, eight in Enterprise Complete, unlimited in Ultimate.

Each additional write-enabled user costs EUR 300 per year plus VAT. Read-only users in Professional and Enterprise are exempt.

No set-up fee for the licence. One-off costs arise only for HRIS integration: EUR 750 for Advanced Integration and up to EUR 5,000 net on time and materials for Premium Integration.

One-year term, renewing automatically for another year unless terminated four weeks before expiry. An email to support@gradar.com is sufficient.

Adjustments only at renewal, with notice in text form three months before the period ends, capped at ten percent above the previous twelve months. Disagreement gives a four-week termination right.

Upgrades are possible at any time and charged pro rata for the current term.

The customer receives a simple, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right of use for the contract term. All rights in customer-entered data remain with the customer; rights in software, methodology, evaluation logic and job-architecture design remain with QPM.

German law applies, excluding the CISG and German private international law. Venue is Düsseldorf where the customer is a merchant.