Unified Reward Project
Management and Staff Update
June 2014
This update provides managers, Head Teachers and staff with an update on the unified reward project.
What are we doing?
The Council is developing a new pay and grading structure for all Council employees, except for those on Teachers and Soulbury terms and conditions. We are also reviewing the range of allowances and additional payments such as overtime, standby arrangements, travel allowances etc…
The new pay structure will replace the current arrangements of almost 400 unique grade ranges with around 20 grades to cover the whole organisation. The new structure is based on robust job evaluation. In developing the pay structure consideration will be given to the job market and whether to move from national to local pay negotiation.
We are also looking to implement a new set of terms and conditions that aim to streamline pay in the Council. This means modernising the current arrangements that have developed in local government and the Council over many decades.
We have already introduced new pay arrangements for the Council’s senior managers as part of the senior managers’ restructure we did during 2012/13. The Unified Reward Project continues and extends these same principles throughout the organisation.
The council also wishes to introducean employee benefits scheme.This will give employees access to discounts at many high street stores and shops from regular food shopping to holidays and more. We’re working hard to introduce this as soon as possible and will let you have more details as soon as possible.
Why are we doing it?
It’s been more than a decade since the Council looked at its pay and grading structure. Many things have changed in that time. The way we work, the nature and structure of the Council and employment ‘case-law’ have changed considerably during thistime and what was right thenis no longer appropriate for the Council as it moves forward.
Also, the results of the staff survey showed that only around a third of employees who responded felt that their pay was fair, were satisfied with the total benefits package and felt their pay was reasonable in comparison with similar jobs in other organisations. The responses varied slightly between services but the overall response shows us that there is a long way to go to improve.
We are not seeking savings from the redesign of the pay structure. We are introducing changes to make the pay structure fairer, more equitable and simpler to understand. Clearly the modernisation of allowances and terms and conditions of employment has the opportunity make savings and the council will want to see a contribution to the financial challenges it faces from this review.
How are we doing this?
Clearly a large project such as this has several stages or phases. The project activities broadly fall into five main stages, as follows:
Stage one – job sizing
In order to develop a new pay and grading structure we need make sure jobs are fairly ‘sized’ – in effect we need to create a rank order from the smallest job in the council to the largest.
To do this we are using a combination of job evaluation and a series of generic role profiles that we’ve put into job families. Job evaluation measures jobs by assessing a number of common elements or ‘factors’ for each job such as the level of knowledge required, the amount of planning, organising and controlling and how accountable the job is for end results.
Using job families will ensure that the new grading arrangements are fair, robust and that grades are consistent.
During Junewe will be starting a process to assess the size of a set of ‘benchmark’ jobs. These include the council’s most highly populated roles and represent a good cross-section of all employees. These benchmark roles will cover the majority of people employed by the council and community schools.
Stage two – reviewing allowances and terms and conditions
During the summer months we plan to review all of the council’s allowances and additional payments. This includes standby arrangements, premium payments for working non-standard hours or overtime, travel allowancesetc…
Stage three – developing the new pay structure
When we have completed the majority of thejob sizing we will design and develop a new pay and grading structure for the council. Consideration will be given to how many grades to have, how employees might progress through a grade and the potential for linking pay to individual employee contribution.
Stage four – a package of proposals
Once we’ve developed a new pay structure and considered the changes we need to make to terms and conditions we will put these proposals to the council’s recognised trade unions for formal consultation and negotiation.
We will be aiming to achieve a collection agreement with the trade unions that then allows us to change everyone’s terms and conditions whether they are a member of a trade union or not.
Stage five – implementation
We are aiming to implement these changes witheffect from 1 April 2015 for council employees and 1 September 2015 for community schools’ based non-teaching staff. However, the final implementation date will be a matter for consultation and negotiation with the trade unions.
Working with the trade unions
We are working jointly with the two recognised trade unions (GMB and Unison) on the project. Union representatives have been trained on job evaluation and will participate in the job evaluation and job sizing process. At the end of the project we will engage in a period of formal consultation and negotiation.
Which employees will be covered?
All Council employees, including non-teaching staff in Community Schools will be covered by the new arrangements.
Those not in scope are Teachers, employees on Soulbury conditions and non-teaching staff in non-community schools.
Next steps
The immediate task we need to do is to start evaluating the benchmark roles. To do this we need up to date role profiles. Therefore during the rest of Juneand Julywe will be talking to the managers of the benchmark roles to make sure we get an up to date role profile that accurately reflects the job people are doing. Employees will be given the opportunity to contribute to this process. We obviously need to be aware of other potential changes as the council continues to develop and restructure and we will do our best to work alongside other council plans and initiatives to ensure that effort is not duplicated.
Communication
Following this update we’ll be providing regular updates to managers, Head Teachers and employees throughout the project over the coming months. There’ll also be updates available on the Council’s intranet site and on notice boards etc…
Shortly we’ll be developing a set of FAQs, which we’ll publish on the intranet site and distribute to schools/depots.
Feedback/comments
If you have any feedback, comments or queries then please contact the Unified Reward Project team at :-
or if you are a member you can contact your trade union at:-
John Burgess
Unison Branch Secretary
Paul Coles
GMB Convenor