About the workshop
This workshop uses our considerable experience in the UK and internationally to focus on key aspects of public sector pay and grading reform. Pay issues are often among the most immediate and important concerns of public sector policy makers and employees. Grading, also known as job evaluation, is no less important. We aim to identify and analyse the key areas of, and reasons for, improving, pay and grading/job evaluation systems.
What the workshop will cover
The workshop will include briefings and discussions about the following key areas:
• The legal basis – laws, regulations, etc. – of current pay and grading arrangements within your organisation
• The potential changes involved. Changing pay and grading arrangements often involves a process which can be a considerable political, as much as a legal, challenge to work through successfully
• The potential financial impact of change. It is important to have a clear and accurate understanding of the potential costs
• The methodology of grading. Different grading systems are used by different public sector institutions around the world. The most successful systems are those which are consistent with their environments and the abilities of human resources professionals to operate and maintain the systems to a good standard
• The process of implementation. Implementation must be planned well in advance and then executed both on time and to the highest possible standard
• Analysis of the impact. Careful monitoring of reform outcomes can alert policy makers to difficult issues if they arise and enable corrective action to be taken.
How participants will benefit
The workshop will:
• Enable you to understand the theoretical basis of grading systems and how individual jobs can be assessed against objective criteria to provide consistently accurate assessments of relative levels of jobs responsibility throughout your organisation
• Provide you with an understanding of pay systems in terms of how they are constructed; how the cost of reform can be calculated and these systems’ interdependent relationship with grading systems
• Let you explore the experience of relevant institutions within the UK and consider relevant international examples of our project work. You will be able to appreciate both key similarities and differences in particular approaches to the whole issue and thereby gain an informed understanding of what will be best suited to your particular context
• Provide you with an understanding of the legal issues surrounding pay and grading reform
• Enable you to have a comprehensive understanding of the practical issues surrounding implementation of any new pay and grading system, particularly in respect of building capacity within your organisation to enable proper ownership of any reform programme
• Provide you with a forum for you to review the strengths and weaknesses of your existing pay and grading system
• Help you develop an outline approach to pay and grading reform in your own organisation and consider possibilities for each of the steps required to implement that reform.