Job Evaluation

There has been a lot of movement on Job Evaluation (JE) in the past two or three months.

 Joint Steering Committee (JSC) 

The JSC comprises two members each from UNISON and management, and the appointments have been confirmed as Brian Williams and Pete Saunders for UNISON and Jonathon Guscott and John Foxworthy for management.

The steering committee role will be to ensure the smooth running of the process, ensure timetables are kept to, etc. The group will also make recommendations to CMT about pay scales etc at the end of the evaluation phase of JE.

One of the first acts will be to adopt an agreed framework for the JE process, which will include the scope of JE, timescales to be adopted, grade protection and implementation arrangements, appeals processes, and as mentioned above, suggesting new pay scales.

In order to maintain the momentum the first 50 jobs to be evaluated have been chosen, comprising a wide selection of jobs across every section and grading level. The chosen employees will be sent their Job Questionnaires shortly.

These so-called “benchmark” posts will then be used by the steering committee to produce “ball park” figures on the likely outcome of JE, and to test allocating points to pounds. This information will help give a better idea of the likely cost of implementing JE, although no final decisions can be made until the JE evaluations are completed.

Some jobs will be evaluated as a group, for example where there are a group of employees all doing the same job, with one or two members completing the Job Questionnaire and the remaining members of the group then sitting down and agreeing the form between them.

Other employees may be evaluated in “families” of related jobs, in order to clearly understand the close relationships between them.

Assessor training 

Teams of evaluation assessor from UNISON and management sides have been training and preparing to start the JE process. Panels are due to start assessing in Mid September.

Around 15 assessors from both UNISON and management have been trained, around 30 in total, allowing a cross section of employees to be involved from all sections and levels.

Technical Advisor

The council has appointed Norma Davies, formerly of the Central Services section and recently retired, as a Technical Advisor who will work closely with the evaluation panels, giving advice and guidance on maintaining consistency across the various panels.

Norma’s vast experience and knowledge, as well as her level-headed nature, will be invaluable to the project.

Administrative Assistant

We also welcome Alison White who has been appointed as admin support for the JE process, which will be vital over the coming 12 months.

Timetable

The JE project  timetable can be found here at __________________