We believe that the movement of employees across GBUs, Functions, and Locations is a key to promoting our culture, sharing of management practices, and ensuring the necessary transfer of scientific, technical and commercial expertise across the organization.

All of this contributes to a motivated workforce, the sustainability of the Group and the employability of our people throughout their careers.

A set of Employee Mobility Rules have been defined in order to:

• Foster internal mobility across the Group in a transparent way;

• Ensure fulfillment of commitment to employees that we will enable them to develop and provide interesting career opportunities, all in a fair and respectful way.

Keep in mind that an open discussion about your career aspirations with your manager is important.

Find the Employee Mobility Rules in several languages below:

• Bulgarian

• English

• French

• German

• Italian

• Portuguese

• Thai

Job evaluation (Grading) is a process of determining the level of one position in relation to another in the context of an organisation.

If you are new to Syensqo's Wiki space, you may need to link your Google Drive in order to see embedded documents.

Follow the instructions here. 

Click in the areas below to view the Career Ladders and Job Descriptions.

At Syensqo Positions are maintained by the Managers, who ensure the correct and timely update of the Position data for their teams. 

Positions are created based on generic Jobs. As of February 2022, following a significant simplification of the Job Catalog, the Jobs represent a Domain of activity inside a Function. 

In case you have doubts regarding the correctness of your position data, please check with your Manager, who is accountable for position data accuracy.

A promotion is a very important part of the employee journey and life-cycle. It allows the employee to grow in their career by taking on more complex and challenging tasks and responsibilities/an increase in scope of the role or complete change of the role (move to another pre-existing position), and is justified with a real business need and must result in a significant increase in value created by the person promoted. 

What to do as a leader

As the manager you are directly involved in the next career steps of each member of your team, therefore, it is important to know what steps you need to take, what the best-practices and guidelines are, as well as the tools you need to use.

Promotion is a moment in an employee's journey that requires changes in the expectations of what the employee needs to do and deliver - increase in the scope and complexity for which the employee should also be rewarded accordingly.

As a Manager consider the following:

1. As a direct manager, you are the one to put in motion the promotion process - follow the step-by-step process guide below;
2. Consider what customer or organizational problem the promotion will solve. Is there a clear business case?
3. That not all changes in the role and the complexity require a promotion or a pay increase as expectations from the existing role might be higher than the employee's current contribution! In that case no pay increase should be granted and expectations towards the role need to be clarified to the employee.
4. That not all changes in the role or scope require a grade increase; promotion can also mean that the scope increases within the same grade and also pay can increase within the same pay grade. Pay grade should only increase at the times of a clear and significant change in the role. 

What a promotion should not be: 

• Used as a recognition for past achievements or tenure (while those are to be considered as an important input during Promotion planning to determine if the candidate meets the expectations);
  
• Used as a retention tool to counteroffer a move that employees is considering inside or outside of our Group to retain the incumbent in the current role;
  
• Used to reduce high compa-ratio of base salaries for employees when it is above 120%.

The following scenarios are not considered as a promotion case:

• Change in the Job Title;
• Change in Compensation Information or Pay Rate (increase of salary during the year for any reason other than change of scope or job, for example off-cycle pay increase);
• Change in Department or Team; this type of career development is referred to as "Transfer."

A Transfer is an internal move of an employee to another position in another team/site/entity as a result of internal recruitment project or in the framework of a career development plan of the employee. 

Manager planning a promotion

Before entering the promotion in the System, Managers should discuss the plan for the promotion with peer-management team and self-control on the following (when in doubt, address with your Site HR).

Press here to access this checklist

Manager + 1 to approve the promotion

Once Promotion request is recorded in the System by the line manager the manager+1 will receive an Approval request. Before approval the M+1 runs the following checklist and addresses any concerns with the Line manager.

Press here to access this checklist

At Syensqo, the promotions process is owned and initiated by the Leader/Manager who observes a business need or a customer challenge that can be resolved by an employee. Here is a step by step user guide on how to record a promotion in the System - "My HR Services."

Please note:

• For promotion processes for non-Cadre and from non-Cadre to Cadre employees, please speak to your Site HR;
• Strategic Business Partners (SBPs) are responsible for initiating the promotion and pay rate change actions in the tool for Executive (S23+) roles.

1. Before you request a promotion in the system, make sure you have reviewed and completed the “Manager checklist”
2. Find the employee you want to promote or change salary in My HR Services (type their name in the Search bar or in the Org Chart - for promotion processes for non-Cadre and from non-Cadre to Cadre employees, needs to be performed by the Site HR).
3. Open employee Profile and click “Actions” on top right corner.
4. Select option “Change Job and Compensation Information”.
5. Select type of the change (Job information (Position) or Compensation or Both).
6. Select the Change date (first date of the month in the future).
7. Adjust position (if applicable); adjust S grade and Pay grade; adjust Bonus plan; record proposed salary after the change / promotion.
8. Click “Save”.
9. In the “Comments” box record justification for the change and how it adds value to the organization or any other information that might be important for the Approvers to know before they make a decision. 
10. Click “Confirm” - notification will be sent to the Approvers according the Business rules as explained in the promotions guidelines document.
11. You can review the status of your request in “View my pending requests” (use Search bar on top right corner to find it).
12. You will receive an email notification once your request has been approved or rejected.

Once approved - you can generate the Promotion statement and communicate the change to employee.

Remark for Expatriate employees on assignment

The promotion should be initiated in the host profile of the assignee, following the steps mentioned above. In the comments section, there should be an indication of the Annual Base Salary in the home country's currency. The approval workflow will go to the Global Mobility team and they will request a new expat package calculation from the tax provider. When the package is available, the promotion is approved in My HR Services. The remuneration package will be shared with the assignee.

If the expatriate employee does not have a host profile, please follow the standard promotion process and inform the Global Mobility team of this change (globalmobility@syensqo.com).

If you are new to Syensqo's Wiki space, you may need to link your Google Drive in order to see embedded documents.

Follow the instructions here. 

A Pay rate change or off-cycle salary increase (external or internal equity) is appropriate if an employee, due to individual circumstances, is paid significantly lower than internal or external peers in the same grade with similar experience / performance. Pay rate change is not directly linked to a promotion as pay rate change is used to adjust the pay for the same work / job completed by the employee; if there is a change in the scope/complexity of the role refer to the Promotion process!

Please note: Strategic Business Partners (SBPs) are responsible for initiating the promotion and pay rate change actions in the tool for Executive (S23+) roles.

If you are new to Syensqo's Wiki space, you may need to link your Google Drive in order to see embedded documents.

Follow the instructions here. 

It is the sole responsibility of the Manager to communicate to their employees any changes related to the roles or job of the individuals, this includes promotions and pay rate changes. 

Communication should always be completed in a one-on-one environment using appropriate documentation (e.g. Promotion statement) while also paying attention to clarifying the reasons for the change and expectations from the employee in the new role (in the case of a promotion) that should be followed with a dedication meeting to review and document the objectives and deliverables in the new role as part of Performance Management process.

If you are new to Syensqo's Wiki space, you may need to link your Google Drive in order to see embedded documents.

Follow the instructions here. 

Following the leader-led model, as a manager you are responsible for taking the action towards the contract renewal/extension or termination of your direct reports.

What to do as a leader? 

Managers will now be notified about the expiring contract end date for internal direct reports, 3, 2 and 1 months in advance and be invited to take action:

1. Contract Renewal / Extension
2. Offer Permanent Contract
3. Contract Termination

Why is this important? 

It is important for managers to take the time they are notified (3, 2, 1 month in advance) to decide what action to take on their employee's contract. 

s a manager, if you decide you want to renew or extend the employee's contract you will have to do the following:

• Step one: Meet and discuss this decision with your Site HR Partner to check the legal compliance for contract extensions;
• Step two: You will have open this Service Request (click here) in Service One. 

What are the main changes in the new process of contract extensions?

• The timing of the expiration alert is improved (from 30-15-5 days in advance to 3-2-1 months in advance), giving more time for managers to check and comply with legal regulations, as well as execute the changes in My HR Services including payroll information.
• Site HR Partner is no longer responsible for maintaining the contract end date in My HR Services, but will assure the respect and the compliance of the legal local aspects. 
• The Site HR Partner will receive a copy of the expiring contract notification sent to the manager.
• The contract extension in My HR Services will now be performed by the SBS WDA team upon receiving the request.
• The Payroll teams will receive the workflow to approve, and Site HR will be notified when the process is complete. 

Important:

When a trainee employee becomes a regular employee, the recruitment process must be followed. 

The manager must take the following actions:

• 1st step: Create a new position in My HR Services
• 2nd step: Open a job requisition
• 3rd step: In the recruiting tool, change the field “Have you already identified an internal candidate” to Yes and fill in the field “Name of identified candidate” with the employee's name. - click here and follow steps one and two

Offering a Permanent Contract

• Step one: Meet and discuss this decision with your Site HR Partner to check the legal compliance on offering a permanent contracts;
• Step two: If you decide to offer a permanent contract to your employee,  you will have to follow the steps in the Recruiting a Talent section of the HR Wiki - click here and start with step one and get your hiring need validated with your manager.

Termination Process:

• Step one: Meet and discuss this decision with your Site HR Partner to check the legal compliance on offering a permanent contracts;
• Step two: If you decide to offer a permanent contract to your employee,  you will have to follow the steps in the Recruiting a Talent section of the HR Wiki - click here and start with step one and get your hiring need validated with your manager.

Contingent workers deliver services to the company on a non-permanent basis, therefore an estimated assignment end date (contract end date) is added upon creation. 

Once the end date is reached, the contingent worker will be terminated by the system. Unlike with a regular employee, for contingent workers the Employment Details portlet is managed in the background by the Work Order. To make a change on the end date of if your Contingent Worker got their access revoked follow the steps below.

Assignment end date is the same as contract end date (field available in My HR Services).

2a. If the end date has been reached and the Contingent Worker is already terminated in the system and the access have been revoked, if the decision is that the contingent worker will continue to work at Syensqo, the Manager needs to open a SyRa to request the reactivation: 

(Click on the image to go the the ticket)

The Manager also needs to open a ticket to the IT Team to request that the access are reactivated as well.

2b. If the end date has been reached and the Contingent Worker is already terminated in the system and the access have been revoked but the CW will no longer work the Manager only needs to open a SyRa for “Offboarding”.

Why this Moment Matters

Connecting today’s actions and development efforts to the longer term aspirations bring awareness and motivation. Be sure to coach the employee in building a view on possible career paths, working on employability and exposure to new domains or activities.

What to do as a leader

• Invite transparent sharing by employee on career aspirations and potentially concrete positions, based on self-reflection and exchange with peers.
• The Career discussion should take place at least once a year in order to discuss immediate and longer term career aspirations. For further guidance and support on developing your team and having development discussions, please see this article
• Transparent feedback by manager on aspirations based on capabilities/ experience/ performance with potentially new suggestions
• Does the employee have potential for an accelerated career path?
• Discuss concrete and immediately realizable next steps if applicable.
• Hence focus on development, supporting opportunities that may arise;
• To prepare - discuss the promotion intentions or needs for your Team with your superior & your Site HR Partner for promotions and off-cycle salary changes for cadre roles in grades S15 to S22 and your Strategic Business Partner for S23 and above.

Why and when will you give an employee a promotion?

A common reason and a very important moment that matters in the journey of an employee at Syensqo, that allows the employee to grow in their career by taking on more complex and challenging tasks and responsibilities.

At Syensqo, the promotion process is owned and initiated by the Leader/Manager who observes a business need or a customer challenge that can be resolved by an employee. Promotion, besides allowing the employee to grow in their career, should bring a solution to the named business need or to the challenge of the customer. 

A promotion is also:

1. An increase of responsibility or Syensqope (with or without a change in the S grade) within the existing role or a move to a completely different role with a higher level of responsibility within the same Team. 
2. Usually is accompanied with an increase of compensation, but it is not required, especially if the change in the role is relatively small.
3. One of the most important “moments that matter” in the employee's journey - it matters to individuals and it matters to the organization - it must be a “win-win” situation! 
4. Always justified with a real business need and results in a significant increase in value created by the person promoted and as such it should be rewarded with an increase in the Rewards package.

Why this Moment Matters

As managers you are co-responsible to develop the skills and competencies of the employee, encourage them to develop a broad internal network, and to support their career growth by fostering their exposure and mobility. A transfer is an internal move of an employee to another position in another team/site/entity as a result of an internal recruitment project or in the framework of a career development plan of the employee. 

What to do as a leader

It is important to remember that employees are members of the Syensqo group and as such do not belong to your team, your business or your function. That sounds obvious, though employees moving jobs can of course bring some practical challenges.

• What can be done upfront when an employee expresses the wish to change roles ? Can activities/accountabilities be co-shared and knowledge transmission started ?
• What needs to be done to organize the knowledge hand-over and assure business continuity ?
• Think rapidly about opening the right job to cover the replacement or to reshuffle the team’s activities and accountabilities.

The following Key Talent Concepts are essential to a Talent Discussion. Please use the expandable menus to learn more about this topic. 

Site Critical Positions are positions that are key to delivering the site’s Star Factory roadmap and are directly linked to the GBU’s strategy:

• Site Critical Positions are identified by Site Leadership with Site HR Partners. 
• Site Critical Positions are not limited to Leadership positions and should not be based on hierarchy.
• Sites should use the Critical Position Questionnaire to help them determine whether and articulate why a given position is critical.  
• Once identified, the list of Site Critical Positions should not change significantly, unless the GBU or Group strategy changes. 
• Site Critical Positions should have a documented succession plan that is validated with the potential Successor, their Line Manager, and Site HR on a regular basis to ensure they have a relevant development plan to progress their readiness.

Priority Positions are positions that require attention and action in the short term (3-6 months):

• Priority Positions are considered a priority due to a risk associated with the people in the role, whereas Site Critical Positions are considered “critical” due to the accumulative aspects of the role itself.
• Priority Positions differ from Site Critical Positions in that a site’s list of Priority Positions should evolve over time.
• Ideally, Site Leadership identifies Priority Positions, then takes action to mitigate the risk.  Once addressed, the position is no longer considered a “priority.”
• The use of the Priority Position Risk Assessment will help the site determine the level of risk and plan to mitigate the risk appropriately.
• Directionally, no more than 5% of total positions at a site should be considered “priority” at any given time.

Talent commitments are short-term, specific, and focused action plans (accomplished within 3-6 months):

• Leadership Teams make Talent Commitments during Talent Discussions based on insights and feedback from Line Managers. 
• Leadership uses Talent Commitments as a way to collectively enrich and accelerate an individual’s development plan. 
• Site Leadership is accountable for delivering on Talent Commitments, and, at a minimum, should revisit and update the plans quarterly.
• Talent Commitments may also address a broad, multi-site need, via collaboration with Talent Attraction or L&D to develop relevant programs as necessary.
• Talent Commitments should be limited in number, at both the site and business levels, in order to spend time where we can make the biggest impacts.
• Leadership Teams can make Talent Commitments for any employee, and are not limited to “top talent.”

Traditional Succession Planning relies on identifying one successor for one position, whereas a Talent Discussion provides a dedicated forum to take a wider view of Talent:  what are the current and future critical skills and how do we take deliberate, proactive measures to develop a pool of qualified, motivated candidates to take on future roles?

What to do as HR

Regular talent discussions (at least twice a year), present an opportunity to anticipate and highlight critical needs and skills for the future, recognize early talent, and identify opportunities and risks that can be addressed locally or raised to the GBU/Function.

Start by reviewing and understanding the Key Talent Concepts.  It is your role as HR to introduce Key Talent Concepts to your Leadership Teams, share templates and tools, and engage as an active participant in Talent Discussions.

While this toolkit was developed with the needs of Industrial and R&I sites in mind, Campus and Administrative sites can use the concepts and best practices, and adapt the toolkit for use within an intact team.  

→Learn more about Succession & Development Planning Best Practices clicking here

→Learn more about Key Talent Concepts clicking here

Promotion is a moment in an employee's journey that requires changes in the expectations of what the employee needs to do and deliver - increase in the scope and complexity for which the employee should also be rewarded accordingly. 

• Site HR is responsible for initiating the promotion action in the tool for Non-Cadre roles or Transfers to another Team or country;
• People/Line Managers are responsible for initiating the promotion and pay rate change action in the tool for Cadre roles;
• Strategic Business Partners (SBPs) are responsible for initiating the promotion and pay rate change actions in the tool for Executive (S23+) roles;
• The Workforce Data Administration team is responsible for checking & approving those requests at the last step of the workflow;
• The Payroll team ensures requests are processed following payroll rules & calendar;
• Promotion / Pay rate change statements are available in the System (unless local legislation requires another document to be used - in this case document to be provided by the Site HR) and promotions / pay rate changes must be communicated by People/Line Managers.

Remark for Expatriate employees on assignment

The promotion should be initiated in the host profile of the assignee, following the steps mentioned above. In the comments section, there should be an indication of the Annual Base Salary in the home country's currency. The approval workflow will go to the Global Mobility team and they will request a new expat package calculation from the tax provider. When the package is available, the promotion is approved in My HR Services. The remuneration package will be shared with the assignee.

If the expatriate employee does not have a host profile, please follow the standard promotion process and inform the Global Mobility team of this change (globalmobility@syensqo.com).

The following scenarios are considered as a promotion case: 

• Scope increase (no grade change) - tangible additional responsibility that is above the existing scope of the position, but below requirements of a higher grade according to Generic Job Descriptions (increase in pay with no change in S grade or STI plan);

• Same position with a higher S Grade - significant increase or change in the role as defined with Syensqo Job grading methodology and Generic Job Descriptions that justifies increase of S grade (by 1 or 2 levels);
• New position within the same Team / Department - change in the scope, role & responsibility and remaining part of the same Team (reporting to the same manager);
• Internal move (or transfer) to another Team / Site / Entity - as part of internal recruitment or career development plan employee has been offered and the employee has accepted a new position in another Department / Entity.

The following scenarios are not considered as a promotion case:

• Change in the Job Title;
• Change in Compensation Information or Pay Rate (increase of salary during the year for any reason other than change of scope or job, for example off-cycle pay increase);
• Change in Department or Team; this type of career development is referred to as "Transfer." 

A Transfer is an internal move of an employee to another position in another team/site/entity as a result of internal recruitment project or in the framework of a career development plan of the employee. 

Please note: Ensure that prior to proceeding with the promotion action, a vacant position with new job grade information has been created first. Also, a vacant position is required only in cases of complete change in the employees role / job. A vacancy is not required in cases of increase of scope or increase of responsibilities of the employee.