Gauge^TM consists of two components:

Gauge^TM Evaluator
Performs on-screen evaluations, provides the capability to re-evaluate part or all of a job and prints the Job Overview report. Where more than one copy of Gauge^TM is in use, evaluation data can be downloaded and passed to a central Administrator system.

Gauge^TM Administrator
Provides search, sort, selection, printing and data management options, in addition to all functionality of Evaluator.

A Grade Designer is also available as an ‘add-on’ to the Administrator system and allows for grading structures to be modeled; including studying the impact on the total pay bill etc.

Question Answering
Having logged in and entered details of the job, a question/answer screen is presented. A single question is presented on screen at any one time, with a number of available answers. Help is available to clarify the question by clicking on the button marked Question Help. (Key Question Help screens can be pre-set to automatic mode so that they are presented as soon as the relevant question appears on the screen, without first being called up by the evaluator(s).) Answer Help is also available.

Answers are confirmed by highlighting the answer and selecting the "Next" button, or by double clicking on the answer. The process of selecting an answer causes the next logical question to be displayed. The option to return to the previous question and select a different answer is available via the "Back" button.

Comments can be added by clicking on the "Comments" button. An empty box is presented into which comments can be typed. This is typically used to record evidence to support the selected answer. Comments are not taken into account during the scoring of an evaluation but may be of value to any Audit Panel. Some organisations, for example, establish Audit Panels to review scores which differ from the score for a benchmark or comparison job.

Evaluation Process
The action of confirming an answer to a question has three results:

• The evaluation of the job is progressed by the elimination of one or more of the levels in the factor to which that question is related
• A statement (phrase or sentence) about the content, demands or attributes of the job is added to the Job Overview (from a table of statements linked to each answer)
• The next most logical question (based on the selected answer) is identified by the system from the question library and presented on screen.

The logic of the question sequencing is structured to achieve the eventual elimination of all but one level in the factor as economically as possible, while ensuring that adequate cross-checks and robustness of evaluation are built in.

This approach also ensures that:

• no superfluous questions are presented
• no inappropriate questions (which could be seen as irritating, demeaning or deflating) are asked.

As the evaluation of each factor is completed, the score is transferred to the Evaluation Result table. Here, the factor score is converted into points. The total points score for the job is also recorded at the bottom right of the table.