Bangalore: Wipro has created a grade system to ensure its employees in the entry- and mid-level categories continue to grow by giving them speedier promotions and faster wage hikes. This step is considered to be a step to slow down the attrition rate which had gone up to 17 percent in the last quarter, reports Bibhu Ranjan Mishra from Business Standards. As per the new system, Wipro's employees are clubbed under five grades 'A, B, C, D and E' based on experience and seniority. While freshers come under the entry level band A, people of the rank of vice-presidents and above belong to the E-band. Once a fresher completes one year, he is elevated to the B1-band. Employees of the rank of team leaders and similar positions, with over four years experience, mostly belong to the B2-band. Wipro has split the B1 and B2 grades, meant for software professionals, to create another grade, B3. This, it hopes, will help employees grow faster in the organization. The company took the initiative after it was found that employees in the B1-band were taking too long to be promoted to the B2-band. For this, many deserving employees had to wait long to get promotions. B-band makes up about 70 percent of Wipro's IT services employee strength of over 103,000. The selective hike and promotion comes on top of the annual hike of eight to nine percent, effective from February 1. Sourav Govil, senior vice-president and human resources head for Wipro Technologies, said the company had given selective hikes to employees taken in the new grade. "We felt there is a big gap between the earlier B1 and B2 grades. The new grade (B3) has been created to ensure junior and middle level employees, who make up the largest chunk of our employee base and belong to these two (B1, B2) grades, find their career growth and promotional prospects more appealing."