HR professionals in the NHS have welcomed a new job evaluation scheme that
will form the foundation of the new Agenda for Change pay system.
The Agenda for Change package, which is initially to be piloted at 10 NHS
trusts in the UK, is designed to raise wages and modernise pay scales. It will
also provide incentives for NHS staff to develop their skills.
Under the scheme, 200 national profiles are being prepared for all jobs,
except for doctors, dentists and senior mana- gers, to help calculate scores to
determine where staff should be placed in the new pay bands.
Elaine Way, president of the Association of Healthcare Human Resource
Management, believes the initiative will boost morale by ensuring equal pay.
"In terms of staff morale, it is essential that staff know they are
paid fairly, relative to others in the organisation. The NHS job evaluation
system will support this – particularly as it has been developed openly on a
partnership basis," she said.
The job evaluation process involves the creation of a ‘matching panel’,
comprising local staff representatives and employers who will gather job
descriptions of all their staff.
Every person’s job will be fed into a computer programme to determine a
points score for their job description, which will be matched to the national
job profile, determining basic salary
