Salary review process

Every year, we conduct salary reviews where employees salaries are evaluated for adjustments based on market conditions, performance, and budgets. Here, you will find an overview of the process, who is included, and the principles governing salary adjustments.

In practice, adjustments can occur through:

1. Salary table adjustments: Where, for example, collective agreements determine wage table adjustments. This page is not relevant for that process as that is covered by collective negotiations. 

2. Individual salary reviews: Where a more personalized adjustment is made based on performance, experience, and market conditions. This page is focused only on this process. 

What is a Salary Review?

A salary review is an annual review of individual salaries, where we evaluate the need for adjustment based on:

• Market: The salary level for your role and in your region.

• Performance: How well you meet or exceed expectations in your role.

• Budget: The company's financial capacity for salary adjustments this year, which may also be tied to union negotiations. 

❗️A salary review does not guarantee a salary adjustment. The need is thoroughly evaluated, but the result may be that the current salary is fair. 

Who is Included in the Salary Review?

• Employees on an individual-based salary

• Employees who started their employment before December 1, of the year before (in Sweden, the cutoff date is November 1)

• Employees who received a salary increase after December may be excluded, depending on the individual agreement.

When is the salary review?

Different parts of the company are tied to different collective agreements and the timelines are also affected by these agreements as central and/or local negotiations need to happen before we can conduct the salary reviews. 

Group 1

• Oda Group Services A

• Oda Norway AS: Marketing, Commercial, Finance, People at Tøyen (not including roles moved from Lørenskog, as these are still covered by HK-NHO collective agreement)

• Netfresh at Tøyen

This group is partially covered by local Tekna-NHO agreement, where local negotiations are typically concluded in the fall, meaning this group is typically reviewed in March-April. 

Group 2

• Mathem AB

This group is covered by several “tjenestemenn” collective agreements. We cannot start the review before the central negotiations have concluded. This typically happens in May but may vary from year to year. Typically, we try to conclude the review in Q2. 

❗️The process is new in Mathem as of 2025, and we are still calibrating data points and ways of working. 

Group 3

• Oda Norway AS, avd. Lier

• Oda Norway AS, avd. Lørenskog

• Oda Norway AS, Operations roles at Tøyen (moved from Lørenskog)

This group is covered by the HK-NHO agreement and the salary review cannot start until both central and local negotiations have concluded. The central negotiations typically finish April-May and local negotiations are typically held shortly after. Typically, we try to conclude the review in Q2, but sometimes the review needs to happen in Q3. 

Our Core Salary Principles

• Fair and equitable pay for equivalent work: We use objective and consistent criteria to avoid unjustified differences. ❤️

• Experience and responsibility matter: Two people with the same job title but different tasks, experience levels, or responsibilities may have different salary levels. 

• Salary setting is local: We compare salaries within the market in the country and the location where you are employed.

• Role-based salary ranges: Each job has a salary range (a minimum–maximum” level) based on external and internal benchmarking.

• Total budget: There is an allocated salary increase budget. How this is distributed is determined by many factors, potentially including company performance and union negotiations.

How the process works

The salary review will take place in different stages. Most of these steps only involve leaders, we are informing you of them here in order for you to understand why the process takes some time and for transparency. 

• Performance Assessment

Leaders review their employees' performance and gather supporting documentation, this should be based on the job description and responsibilities defined there. Leaders should be talking to you about your performance evaluation for your input, as well as other stakeholders. 

• Proposed New Salaries

Leaders then submit proposals for new salaries based on individual performance, market conditions, and the budget. 

• Calibration and Overall Review

Several calibration sessions are hosted across disciplines, leadership groups, and for the group as a whole, to ensure fairness and consistency in salary adjustments. 

• Final Decision and Communication

Once all decisions are made, this is firstly shared with leaders who then inform employees about the result. Salary letters are then uploaded in Workday.

• Payment

The new salary is paid out, often with retroactive compensation from the agreed-upon date in the negotiations.

Job Architecture – The Foundation for Our Salary Levels 

To ensure fair and consistent evaluations, we have a Job Architecture which is the background structure that aims to provide fairness in our salaries. 

This takes the Role description with defined responsibilities and uses the Mercer methodology to define a numeric Job size (also called IPE – International Position Evaluation). The Job size is then combined with the specific job family as well as location to give us market benchmarks for the salary levels of the specific role in the local region. We use this to define the company salary range for that specific role (with a midpoint) that reflects the market for that role. 

Your current salary can be compared against this range using a measure called compa-ratio (your salary divided by the range’s midpoint).

The Role of Performance in Salary Setting

A key part of the salary review is how well you perform in relation to the expectations of your role. We often talk about four segments (or levels) of performance relative to job expectations:

Being at the lower end of the range does not mean you are underperforming—it may simply mean you are in the early stages of developing in your role. 

Being at or above the upper end of the range, however, means that opportunities for salary growth within the same role are limited beyond market development, and further progression may require an increase in responsibilities or a change in role.

❗️High performance, for example performing at an Exceeding level, does not mean that you will automatically be bumped all the way to that level in the salary review. It is performance over time that leads to a high salary point, not only high performance. In one review, we may only be able to lift you a certain amount based on budgets, but performing highly over several years will continuously move you to that matching point in the salary range.  

How Is My Performance Assessed?

• Role Description: The basis for evaluation is an updated description of your job and responsibilities.

• Data and Information: Your manager collects supporting materials (e.g., from performance and development discussions) showing your contributions during the year.

• Calibration: To ensure consistency, managers in the same leadership team discuss their employees' performance together.

You will generally have the opportunity to discuss your performance, ask questions, and share your aspirations in a meeting with your manager. However, note that you do not self-assess using the same scale as your manager; your manager’s role is to make an evaluation based on the company’s common principles.

The evaluation typically happens in a sheet like this one: