Job evaluation

Single Status is about making sure we all get equal pay for work of equal value.

Our job evaluation programme is the key to helping us do this, as it allows us to compare jobs of very different types in order to understand where any inequalities exist within the current pay and grading structure.

All jobs graded up to and including chief officer grades have been included in the job evaluation exercise. This has enabled us to put in place a seamless pay and grading structure throughout the council.

We have adopted a job families approach to job evaluation - this approach significantly reduces the number of evaluations required as it identifies 'benchmarks' against which other jobs can be evaluated or matched to. Approximately 1,400 benchmark jobs have been evaluated against which others have been assessed through slotting or matching processes.

Job Families will also help us modernise our HR policies and the way we work in the future.

We have used the Hay job evaluation scheme for all grades of job. This has enabled us to develop a new fair and equal pay structure which we also hope will minimise the reductions in pay required for some jobs.

The Hay scheme is designed by the Hay Group management consultancy (opens in a new window), who provide consultancy services to both the public and private sectors across the world. Their job evaluation system is well known and used by a wide range of different organisations. Councils throughout the country are implementing single status agreements using this system of job evaluation.

The Hay Scheme

The Hay scheme evaluates each job using common elements, each element being measured on a separate matrix guide chart:

  • Know how
    The knowledge, skills and experience required for fully acceptable job performance

  • Problem solving
    The span, complexity and level of analytical, evaluative and innovative thought required in the job. This is expressed as a percentage related to the Know how score

  • Accountability
    The discretion given to the job holder either to direct resources of all kinds or to influence or determine the course of events, his/her answerability for the consequences of decisions and actions and any financial responsibility or impact

  • Additional work elements
    This assesses the physical and working environments in which the job operates over and above a normal office environment 

You can find out about this in the What is HAY JE explained document in the related documents section.

The Job Evaluation process used by the council

If you are in a job graded up to SO2 and your job has been evaluated, information about your job will have been collected using the NJC process.

If you are in a job graded Principal Officer or above, and your job has been evaluated, information will have been collected about your job using the Hay process. Job Evaluation panels have scored all jobs evaluated using the Hay rather than the NJC evaluation scheme. Job Family Leads supported the job evaluation process by helping clarify the context of the job within the family and the departmental setting.

Not all jobs have been evaluated - where there are a lot of the same or similar jobs, a representative sample were evaluated. Unique (one-off) jobs also have been evaluated. These are known as benchmarks. Others have been slotted or matched to these benchmarks in agreement with departmental senior managers.

For administrative and secretarial jobs, a Template was developed from approximately 180 evaluations carried out on a representative number of different types and grades of jobs across the council.

This template outlines the typical accountabilities, knowledge, skills and experience required at each level.

You can download the template from the related documents section.

Other administration and secretarial jobs have then been matched, through a desktop evaluation of the relevant Job Description/Person Specification, to one of the levels.    

Only your job has been evaluated - not your performance.

You can find out more about this in the job evaluation document in the related documents section.

Rank Order − Relativities Schedule

The job evaluation results have been produced in a format which shows where benchmark jobs are positioned on the pay and grading structure, by new grade and job families.   

If you would like to discuss or have any questions please contact:

Related documents

The following documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can download the PDF software for free from the Adobe website (opens in a new window)

Also on our website

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