Job Evaluation in the Public Sector

[pelvicflawed]

Just have to vent!!! DH and I both work in LocalGov today got our JE results and between us have lost around £7K - many of my colleagues are in a similar or worse situation. Feel so p**sed off and demotivated. Am thinking of appealing - has anyone else gone through this - how did you re-motivate yourselves (thats if you did!)- any luck with appealing. Just feeling hacked off and angry today as though our work, experince and qualifications mean nothing!!! (Sorry for the rant I feel a little better already!)

[pelvicflawed]

Just to add - any other Mumsnetters out there who heard their results today (you'll know who you are and probably which Council!!!!!) thinking of you and hope the damage isn't too great.

[Tortington]

shit!thats alot of money to lose

what have youot to lose if you appeal?

[pelvicflawed]

Thanks for your comment -nothing really - just wondered whether others had had much success. Particularly fed up for DH - he has a highly technical job which supports frontline services (get his job wrong and a whole systems collapse and the organisation rapidly grinds to a stop) but because he dosen't manage budgets or lots of people he has lost 5K - I don't feel the systems used to asses his job have understood the complexities and responsibilities of technical work.

[flowerybeanbag]

pelvicflawed that does sound drastic! I expect loads of people will be appealing, have you spoken to your union? They may be advising on appeals, how to frame them etc
If lots of people are unhappy with the way jobs have been assessed, some coordination about the appeals process may be a good idea.

[pelvicflawed]

Thanks flowerybeanbag - I'm a union member so I will be going to the meetings that they are setting up re. JE. I need to think carefully about how we/I appeal - it seems like there is a large number of unhappy people in the organisation so I think there may be some ground co-ordination and support. Today I think we all just feel like we'be been given a good kick!!

[Tortington]

i work in social housingand wehave an appraisel system that is kinda on the smae par - it sounds - and i argued that certain jb competancies - i cannot be measured against becuase they were clearly not desned for my type of work

i won

if thats encouragement

?

[welshdeb]

hi i did my JE form 2 years ago and I am still waiting, although the more I hear the more depressed I get.

[NorthernLurker]

This kind of thing happened in the NHS a couple of years ago. Most people I knew ended up exactly as badly paid as they were. An unlucky few got utterly screwed. I know of one person who managed to get an improvement in grade from appeal and one group of people who are currently considering strike action because both their appeal and their grievance have been rejected. You have my sympathy!

[themoon66]

I trained as a job evaluator for the NHS agenda for change process. I did job matching and evaluating the appeals for about two years.

in the first instance I would check that the process was followed properly in your case. Did they have the right number and balance of people on your matching panel? ie: two management and two staff side (union) reps? If they ran the panel short, did they ring you and check you were happy for that to take place? Did they ring you or your line manager to ask in-depth questions about your job, or is it clear from the report that they merely assumed things (a big no-no). Check all their evidence in the report against your Job Description. Is your job description correct? Did you sign it off as correct? Should it be changed in light of any new duties?

There are loads of things you can raise a case for appeal with. I got all the medical secretaries upgraded by making small changes to job descriptions and making the panel compare them with medical secretaries in other parts of the country.

Good luck.

[elkiedee]

I'm sorry PF, don't know which Council you are though I may well hear about it as I return to my own local government job tomorrow after maternity leave. Both dp and I work in local government so we may well face this situation, particularly as I'm a legal secretary, and well paid by local government standards but not for comparable jobs in the private sector. I do feel that what I've seen of JE doesn't reflect the complexity of a lot of support roles, whether they're admin or technical in nature.

Good luck.

[pelvicflawed]

Thanks for all yor posts (good luck elkidee on your first day back!). I'm going to look carefully into all my appeal options tomorrow - which is going to be a difficult day - the local press is covering the story on their website and from the large number of comments posted on the site - I think there are going to be some big operational and motivational issues which senior management are going to have to deal with rapidly if this isn't going to go as badly as JE has done in some other local public bodies. I just feel sorry for many, many of my colleagues who have been hit even harder than us.

[TwoToTango]

I work for Local Gov which is currently undergoing major changes and implementing a pay and re-grading structure (i'm guessing similar to what you are going through). The Unions are fighting for a lot of things as if the structure is successful it will be "rolled out" to other local councils.

Not sure if this helps but I know most people who have appealed have done so in groups eg a lot of a particular grade of admin staff will be losing money so they are submitting a joint appeal which apparently will carry more weight than individual ones.

Also everyone has been offered new contracts as part of the deals, I know that a lot of people who have signed to accept are still appealing (accepting the new contract didn't take away their right to appeal IYSWIM)

It all seems very complicated and to say motivation and moral has nose dived would be something of an understatement.