Bringing Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value to Workforce Management in a Regional Network of Civil Society Organizations in Africa
What’s the context?
A regional network of civil society organizations in Africa is committed to advocating for fair, equitable, and transparent tax systems across the continent. Through grassroots organizing, capacity building, policy advocacy, and research, the organization empowers communities and institutions to challenge tax injustices and promote sustainable and inclusive development. Coordinating these efforts is its Secretariat, strategically located in Nairobi, Kenya. Given its mandate, attracting, retaining, and developing a multidisciplinary and multinational workforce is essential for the organization to effectively realize its vision of an Africa where tax justice prevails. To achieve this, it partnered with Birches Group to design a grading structure that clearly articulated the differentiation and progression of work in the organization, along with a pay scale guided by a compensation philosophy defining its target market and position.
What was the challenge?
The newly established grading and pay structure provided the organization with a solid foundation for managing its diverse workforce based on the principles of equivalent worth and significant difference. To fully utilize this structure, the organization recognized the need for a comprehensive framework to manage individual pay progression within salary ranges, inform promotion decisions, and recognize employees’ varying levels of experience and knowledge.
The challenge was two-fold: bridging the structural framework with the people within it, and establishing sustainable pay equity practices to maintain fairness and effectiveness over time.
What was the solution?
Guided by the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, the organization, in collaboration with Birches Group, implemented a clear and transparent framework to address both challenges. This framework, Community™ Skills, expands upon the principle by explicitly defining the knowledge gained through experience as the primary determinant of value. In this approach, equity involves consistently and transparently measuring and remunerating the value of experience—recognizing that individuals have varying levels of experience and should be compensated proportionately.
Through Community™ Skills, the organization established a framework with clear criteria for pay management by articulating the progression of knowledge across five distinct stages—Basic, Proficient, Skilled, Advanced, and Expert. Each stage directly aligns with specific pay points: Minimum, 1st Quartile, Midpoint, 3rd Quartile, and Maximum, respectively. By adopting this structured approach, the organization has achieved greater clarity, consistency, and precision in managing workforce compensation and career progression.
What was the outcome?
A persistent gap in HR has traditionally been the disconnect between structure and capacity—the divide between what is considered “hard” vs “soft” HR. By building upon a solid job-based foundation and integrating a skills-based approach, the organization effectively bridged this gap. This resulted in a systematic and efficient approach to managing resources for salary increases and provided actionable insights into workforce capabilities. It also positioned the organization to make informed promotion decisions and to strategically reinforce skills growth through targeted learning and development.
What’s the takeaway?
Now in its fifth year of implementing the Community™ Skills framework, this regional network of civil society organizations in Africa serves as a prime example of how there is an alternative to the conventional, often imprecise practices of utilizing time-based steps or performance as proxies for experience. Instead, it explicitly measures experience for what it is—knowledge, expertise, and skill—enhancing transparency, fairness, and effectiveness in workforce management.
You can learn more about Community™ Skills here.
