Message from Annemarie O'Donnell, Chief Executive March 19

I want to keep you updated about the implementation of a new pay and grading scheme to replace Workforce Pay and Benefits Review (WPBR).

A new pay and grading scheme will make sure that everyone is paid fairly for the work they do. Everyone who works for the council family and whose pay and grading is determined by WPBR will be affected.

Job evaluation is the route to creating a fair grading and pay scheme. All jobs in the council have to be evaluated so that each job is fairly categorised in the first instance, and then a pay and grading system will be chosen to determine the pay for each job category. This will make sure that everyone is paid fairly for the jobs they do.

The job evaluation process the council has chosen is used by the majority of Scottish councils to assess jobs and complies with the Equal Pay Act.

Today, Thursday 7 March the City Administration Committee, approved a two year implementation plan and timeline for the process of job evaluation. The pay and grading scheme will be developed over the same timeline but detailed in a separate report for committee to consider.

You can read the committee paper here but an outline of the process is set out below.

Proposed implementation plan - March 2019 to March 2021

March to April 2019

A dedicated team will be established to plan the job evaluation process and staff will be trained on how to carry out job evaluations. The team will be made up of job analysts from council staff, including HR teams and trade union nominations.

April to June 2019

The first step in job evaluation is to create a list of all jobs in the council to be evaluated (these are called discreet jobs). This will largely be a desk top exercise with input from service HR teams and senior management teams.

The list of jobs will then be benchmarked against other Scottish local authorities to make sure that our job categories are as detailed as they can be (these are called benchmark jobs). For example, we know that there are various types of home care jobs and benchmarking will make sure we capture as many categories as we can before we start evaluating jobs. This makes sure that jobs are evaluated in the correct way, as described below.

July 2019 to December 2020

Job evaluation will begin in July and be phased. The phasing in each area of the council has yet to be agreed. By the end of 2020 everyone will have received a job outcome describing the key tasks and skills required to do their job.

December 2020

Everyone will receive a statement of particulars detailing the grade and pay applicable to their job outcome.

March 2021

The new pay and grading scheme will be implemented along with any changes to payroll.

April 2021 to March 2022

You'll then have the right to appeal your job outcome and grading.

Involving you in job evaluation

There are thousands of jobs in the council family and we don't need to interview everyone individually. Jobs will mainly fall into two categories:

· Generic jobs - a number of jobholders who do broadly the same work, these groups can be covered by a single evaluation with a representative number of staff being interviewed for each category.

· Unique jobs - all other jobs are more likely to be evaluated with one-to-one interviews.

Interviews will be carried out by trained job analysts and information will be captured using an electronic questionnaire - the same questionnaire is used for everyone.

By June we will be able to tell you more about the detailed plan to evaluate jobs in your area and how we will keep you updated about the implementation. In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions you can email me at Annemarie@glasgow.gov.uk

Annemarie O'Donnell

Chief Executive