Skill premiums inside a grade structure, eighteen months on: what held and what did not

We introduced pay for skills for maintenance technicians at a food manufacturer in the Netherlands, about 1,400 employees across three sites. The grades stayed. Inside grades 5 to 7 we added up to four skill blocks, each worth 2.5% of the grade midpoint, paid as a separate allowance.

What held: multi-skilling went from 22% to 61% of technicians holding at least two blocks, and overtime call-outs fell. What did not: we never built a rule for skills that go unused. People hold a block for a line that was decommissioned last year and still receive the allowance.

If I started again I would agree the recertification rule before paying the first euro.