Comment by falsedan

How about standardised bands for competency? E.g. a software engineer level 3 step 2 has mentored three people, been the tech lead/written the OKRs for a 6-month project, and has X years of experience on other projects (in the earlier levels)?

Then it would be a simple HR policy to assign that engineer to whichever compensation band covered those levels when they joined a new company.