Council Worker - Job Evaluation

SimpleSimon · 25-02-2008, 21:17

Hi All,

I work for the local council as an ICT Technician. Last Wednesday we received the results of the Single Status Job Evaluation that all councils have been forced to go through by the Government. For me the news was not good - they have regraded my job to be grade 8. This in effect means a pay cut (although we will have our pay frozen at today's level for 2 years). Myself and my co technicians have all decided to appeal to attempt to get them to regrade us to a level which we feel we deserve.

The questions I would like to ask are:-

Has anyone else been through a similar experience with Single Status JE?

If so did you appeal and were you successful?

Thanks

Simon

Jon T · 25-02-2008, 21:33

We're going through the single status thing at the moment, i've only been a council worker since November, and I think my job was graded with the new structure in mind.

Are you a member of UNISON, are they doing much good at your end, they don't seem to be much here.

SimpleSimon · 25-02-2008, 22:04

No I am not a member of a union. But according to the information given to us Unison locally have agreed to the new terms and conditions but it is still with Unison nationally to decide if they will ballot their members. The other 2 unions will be balloting theirs in March.

Just for your information Grade 8 spans scale points 26 to 30, my old job scale was 26 to 31 and I was on 31 thus the reason I say i have dropped in pay.

Simon

ikthius · 25-02-2008, 22:35

going through single status at the mo as well.

I am loosing out and I am appealing.

Unison agreed to everything feb 06, but they say the councils have changed terms and conditions and slightly on pay, since the agreement, so unison is going to fight this.

however, when you appeal, you need to have evidence to back up your claims........

my work totally changed after single status was primarily agreed upon, so my job in nature is totally different to what was originally evaluated.

but I have eveidence of this, as in time scales, and hard evidence as in paper trails to show what we done then, and what we do now, and the type of equipment we used then and use now.

also has more paper trails to show what reports we currently act upon as an individual where as we never had this before.

but if you have hard evidence and not just well I think I should get a 3 there but I only got a 2, you need to prove it.

ik

SimpleSimon · 25-02-2008, 22:39

I feel one of the real problems with this job evaluation is it is being done by people who don't even know what your job entails. According to my grading I scored a 4 on knowledge which means I don't have any theoretical knowledge of how PCs work, if I don't have this knowledge how can I fix them?

Simon

Octal · 25-02-2008, 22:46

It can work both ways, I used to work for the NHS and I went through Agenda for Change and I had to complete a Job Analysis Questionnaire (JAQ) and my job got graded two whole grades higher as a result, that didn't happen to everyone though and there was a lot of discontentment as a result.

Anyway, I got fed up with all their petty politics and have left all that and work for a private company in the NHS.

Good luck, I hope you get it sorted, as you are doing go to appeal with it. Just one word of advice, make sure you put down everything you do and I mean absolutely everything, the problem with these things is people don't realise their worth and end up underselling themselves. If you are not in the union, that doesn't matter, most large organisations like you work in should have a staff side representative that should be able to help you.

Have a look at the other councils that have already gone through this procedure and see if you can get hold of some job descriptions that would match the grade you are seeking and see where you are falling short.

I was a senior manager and I helped a number of people get the grades they deserve.

ikthius · 25-02-2008, 22:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleSimon

I feel one of the real problems with this job evaluation is it is being done by people who don't even know what your job entails. According to my grading I scored a 4 on knowledge which means I don't have any theoretical knowledge of how PCs work, if I don't have this knowledge how can I fix them?

Simon

well, I thought, the process was done to make people fall and to make the council save money.

so someone was asked questions, but not really told what they are expecting to here, like for example, someone said we have good knowledge of computers, or we have excellent knowledge of computers..... they were looking for key wordds.

the appeals can only be done on the evaluation front, as far as I am concerned.

but dont just put everything up a grade, try and fight to win the ones you know you can win.

we need 6 points to upgrade to our current level, but that is, in single status terms, only one area needing one more point as these points are worth more...e.g. knowledge getting from a 2 to a 3 is gaining 18 more points.

but try and win what you think you can and have evidence to back that up......

Saying I have a degree does not help, as it might not be relevant to the job, however, if you say you need to be qualified in, for example, windows server 2003 as essential for the job, then you can say that you have the necessary qualification (if you have) and that this area of expertise needs to be kept up to date with training., but have evidence

superbiatch · 25-02-2008, 22:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Octal

It can work both ways, I used to work for the NHS and I went through Agenda for Change and I had to complete a Job Analysis Questionnaire (JAQ) and my job got graded two whole grades higher as a result, that didn't happen to everyone though and there was a lot of discontentment as a result.

Anyway, I got fed up with all their petty politics and have left all that and work for a private company in the NHS.

Good luck, I hope you get it sorted, as you are doing go to appeal with it. Just one word of advice, make sure you put down everything you do and I mean absolutely everything, the problem with these things is people don't realise their worth and end up underselling themselves. If you are not in the union, that doesn't matter, most large organisations like you work in should have a staff side representative that should be able to help you.

Have a look at the other councils that have already gone through this procedure and see if you can get hold of some job descriptions that would match the grade you are seeking and see where you are falling short.

I was a senior manager and I helped a number of people get the grades they deserve.

Have total sympathy with you, been thru agenda for change and then job reviews to only end up like yourself - looking for a better job

Anyway, with regard to the orginal post: AFAIK you can appeal and be interviewed to present reasons as to why you think your post should have been graded higher. Similar (as in almost identical) job descriptions from surrounding other councils at the higher grade would put you in with a good chance of success. Good luck with it

Octal · 25-02-2008, 23:02

Just one other thing regarding qualifications. Don't be put of by wording saying you need such an' such qualification to do the job, you probably have already attained the equivalent of the required degree through experience and on the job training and OEM training, a lot of people panic over that when there is no need to.

**Hugh** · 25-02-2008, 23:02

At the review, there should be (at least) three assessors - HR, management rep, and Union Rep

SimpleSimon · 26-02-2008, 19:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by superbiatch

Have total sympathy with you, been thru agenda for change and then job reviews to only end up like yourself - looking for a better job

Anyway, with regard to the orginal post: AFAIK you can appeal and be interviewed to present reasons as to why you think your post should have been graded higher. Similar (as in almost identical) job descriptions from surrounding other councils at the higher grade would put you in with a good chance of success. Good luck with it

Thats the problem, the letter we received with our regrading states that when we appeal it will be accessed by a HR Representative and a Trades Union Representative both trained in JE. If they feel it necessary they may ask myself or line manager further questions. It is only if they can't agree that it goes to a stage were I will be asked to make my representation.

So it looks like I will need to get all my evidence down in writing and as complete as I can make to stand any chance of getting a positive out of all this.

For those of you that have been through this did you appeal and did you win.

Simon

superbiatch · 26-02-2008, 20:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleSimon

Thats the problem, the letter we received with our regrading states that when we appeal it will be accessed by a HR Representative and a Trades Union Representative both trained in JE. If they feel it necessary they may ask myself or line manager further questions. It is only if they can't agree that it goes to a stage were I will be asked to make my representation.

So it looks like I will need to get all my evidence down in writing and as complete as I can make to stand any chance of getting a positive out of all this.

For those of you that have been through this did you appeal and did you win.

Simon

I'm in the process of a JE at the moment, and it is looking successful because of the overwhelming evidence i presented. Preparation is the key, so start looking for any similar jobs in local councils to use to back you up. I know our IT lot are very underpaid, seems to be the same across the public sector. Maybe if you're not successful, look towards the private sector

SimpleSimon · 27-02-2008, 19:48

Thanks for all the guidance so far guys. I will be spending the next couple of weeks gathering the evidence I need.

Simon

SimpleSimon · 06-03-2008, 20:04

Just a quick update. As part of my prep for the appeal I asked for the evidence they used to evaluate my job and guess what? They only went and used the job spec of our Service Desk Assts to evaluate myself and my colleagues. So my line manager has now got to sort out what job spec they will need to then re-evaluate our jobs. So there is some chance that we may get a decent re-evaluation and my then not have to appeal.

Simon

Nugget · 06-03-2008, 20:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimpleSimon

Just a quick update. As part of my prep for the appeal I asked for the evidence they used to evaluate my job and guess what? They only went and used the job spec of our Service Desk Assts to evaluate myself and my colleagues. So my line manager has now got to sort out what job spec they will need to then re-evaluate our jobs. So there is some chance that we may get a decent re-evaluation and my then not have to appeal.

Simon

Good stuff for finding out, and fingers crossed for the re-evaluation