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If Tendring District Council is to attract and retain individuals with the skills it needs for the future, then it must set out how it intends to train, develop and reward those pursuing careers within its Departments. Career Grade Schemes provide an incentive not just to those starting a new career, but provide a framework to encourage mature entrants or those seeking a career change or to return to work.
Career Grades help managers to take stock of the skills available and help to identify shortages. They should help to maintain staff morale by recognising individual contribution against a set of clear, predetermined criteria.
Career Grades are a strategic Department development tool that need to be regularly reviewed to meet future needs of their Department as they help shape staff, and hence Department, capability.
Career Grades support the growth and performance development of post holders from initial entry into the job role through to high performance across the full scope of the post. Each Career Grade must be produced to meet the needs of the Department for the job role and as such are specific to a single or small number of posts.
Career Grades must provide a means to evaluate individual performance against pre-defined criteria and to progress individuals through a range of salary grades. Whilst being flexible to meet the needs of the Department, Career Grade Schemes need to reflect the following principles:
For a post to be suitable to be Career Graded the diversity and complexity of the work within the post should provide sufficient scope to allow an individual's contribution to the Department to expand as their skill, knowledge and competency grows. Where the Career Grade applies to multiple posts there should be scope for a number of individuals to contribute at different levels.
Whilst Career Grades should encourage employees to drive their own development it is important that their Line Manager takes an active coaching approach to maximise the benefits to be gained.
Need and cost are also considerations Department managers will want to assure themselves of the need for the work at the various levels and that performance and productivity justifies the salary levels. Sufficient work must exist at each level to fully occupy the number of staff available. Staff should progress through the grades according to what they actually deliver, not according to what they appear capable of doing.
Some jobs involve a set task or a fixed range of tasks and post holders are expected to display competence in these duties within a short period (e.g. 6 months) after they take up the post. Although with experience their performance will improve and they may require less supervision, the basic tasks remain the same. Posts of this nature simply do not warrant the application of wider skills or techniques and are therefore unsuitable for Career Grading.
It is the responsibility of line management to produce schemes that articulate the standards, aims and objectives of particular professions, disciplines and services. Line Managers are best placed to have the local and professional knowledge needed to create and apply the scheme in practice. The Workforce Development Manager will advise Line Managers on good practice in the design and operation of their Career Grade Schemes.
If schemes are to successfully harness the aspirations of staff and support the performance and development targets of Departments, managers need to ensure that staff understand what is expected of them. Managers should therefore involve staff from the earliest and formative stages.
Career Grade reviews help managers to plan and create the capabilities their departments need to meet future demands by ensuring that staff have the skills and abilities needed. Matching the ambitions and career plans of individuals to the needs of the department requires a broader commitment from the department towards Workforce Development.
It is also important to keep Career Grade Schemes under regular review. Managers need to evaluate, at least annually, how their schemes are performing and should refine their scheme to suit the Department’s changing needs to ensure that the scheme remains relevant. Senior management should also set aside time to consider the overall results of all the schemes within their Departments and their wider implications for other Departments.
Career Grade Schemes determine an individual's pay grade within a particular range by assessing individual performance against a range of criteria. In the interests of equality, the top of the Career Grade must be supported by the Job Evaluation for the post. There are however, subtle but crucial differences between the two. The Job Evaluation system ignores the individual and assesses the full demands of the post in terms of the duties, accountabilities and the key result areas. A Career Grade allows the assessment of how well the performance of the individual is progressing within that post.
Each Career Grade must provide a number of statements that set out the range of competency, qualification, skill and task performance, or behaviour, expected at each different level of the Career Grade. Managers should describe the requirements for each criteria in terms that are specific to the type of work involved and the actions, conduct and demeanour expected. These need to be written so that they relate to specific careers/roles and refer directly to job descriptions and person specifications for those posts covered by the scheme.
Section managers must use the Universal Competency Framework, but may choose to do at either the competency heading level or to go down to their underlying behaviours. At the discretion of the Workforce Development Manager elements from other frameworks specific to the professional area may be used when competency isn’t covered by the UCF.
The job description and person specification reflecting the top requirements of the job must be the starting point for development of a Career Grade, which is then expanded upon giving greater detail for each of the various levels being used in the scheme.
At the entry level of a Career Grade, the criteria for new entrants should reflect the essential (minimum) requirements as derived from the person specification and the core tasks of the job description. Managers must reserve the highest levels of competence for the maximum grade. Individuals at this level should display all the requirements of the person specification and carry out the full range of duties portrayed in the job description. Within these limits, Career Grades ideally 3 grades. Longer Career Grades exist but Managers should be aware that the more levels a job is being divided into the more difficult it will be to create the necessary Career Grade levels. The creation of Technical or ‘Para’ posts may be a better option than an extremely long scheme.
To establish the level at which individual members of staff actually perform, managers need to adopt a systematic process for observing and recording what staff do and how they behave. Progression decisions should be based upon evidence of achievement and performance.
The objective of a Career Grade progression review is to establish the level at which an individual operates as expressed in the specific terms of the scheme in operation and to ensure a development plan is in place. Key aims are to keep the review as constructive, objective and unbiased as possible.
Assessment is a continuous process, even though a formal interview will take place at least twice a year, it is vital that managers conscientiously observe and record an individual's behaviour and achievements throughout the year. The review interview should involve a frank but constructive two-way discussion, in which an objective assessment is supported with essential evidence. Evidence such as observations made by the manager or documents from workplace procedures, will help to make the assessment factual and objective.
Given the need for a detailed knowledge of each member of staff, it is essential that, wherever possible, the direct Line Manager should carry out the Career Grade review. If another manager carries out the review he or she must be provided with as detailed knowledge of the individual’s work as possible.
Career Grades influence the normal rules of salary progression. When an individual’s pay (Spinal Column Point) reaches the next decision making or progression point annual salary increments will stop until the conditions for the next level of the Career Grade are considered to be satisfied by the Reviewing Manager. To progress to a higher level, management must agree that the individual satisfies and is reliably operating to the pre-determined standards for the higher level. It is important therefore that the Career Grade provides clarity around which criteria apply to which decision making or progression point.
Between decision points, individuals will accrue any annual increments available in the normal manner(subject to satisfactory performance) until the next set of criteria and decision point is reached. Once a formal review identifies that an individual satisfies and is reliably meeting all of the criteria for the next level, the Line Manager may submit a request for advancement of the individual to the minimum point of the next level of the Career Grade. The Individual may then progress through any available annual increments until the next progression point is reached.
Individuals may spend a number of years developing within a Career Grade post and during that time may change teams, have a new line manager or be seconded to other Departments. To ensure an even and consistent application of the scheme, detailed records are essential.
Prior to each formal review both the manager and the appraisee need to set aside time to prepare by considering the available performance evidence and the next development steps needed. Review should result in a record outlining performance against the current grades requirements. The individual should have the opportunity to see the record, to add their own comments and to retain a copy. The record should have sufficient detail and clarity that anyone not directly involved in the review can understand where the individual is in the scheme, the future action planned and who agreed to do what.
In spite of the need to record what happens, the review process should not become a mechanical form filling process it should be a quality discussion using evidence of past performance to inform development planning. The manager needs to take care to ensure that the review does not inhibit them or the individual in discussing performance and development. When a recommendation for advancement is to be made the Line Manager completes and signs the pro-forma in Appendix 3. Recommendations should not be submitted were there are any unresolved disciplinary or performance concerns such as absence issues.
The relevant Head of Department will then review the pro-forma, sign to demonstrate their authorisation and forward it to Human Resources. It is the Head of Department’s responsibility to ensure performance consistently meets all the requirements of that stage of the Career Grade, that there is sufficient work at the higher level and that they have the necessary salary budget available.
Occasionally, management and a member of staff may disagree over a Career Grading issue and such issues are best resolved informally between the individual and their manager. However, If the individual feels that they are being judged unfairly they may raise the matter with their Head of Department. They must provide a written submission setting out the evidence to support their position. The Head of Department may elect to conduct a further review themselves or to nominate another member of their department management team.
Where this re-review fails to resolve the matter the individual may appeal in writing to the Workforce Planning Team. The team will appoint a manager with relevant department / professional knowledge, who supported by a HR Officer, will investigate the matter on their behalf. The investigating officer will report back to a panel of the Workforce Planning Team whose decision will be final.
The Career Grade policy is not intended to replace the normal processes of supervisory control where managers allocate work, monitor performance, provide feedback or plan and support personal development. Instead it supports these processes by providing a planned pathway to developing high performing staff.
Where there are on-going performance issues or failure to meet development objectives the Line Manager will need to consider further action under other Council Policies as appropriate to the situation. For example, where there is a deliberate failure on the part of the employee to undertake the required development or perform to the standards they are capable of the Disciplinary Policy may be appropriate. While the Capability Policy would be more appropriate where there is a genuine lack of capability, which can be for a variety of reasons, for example, changing job content, health issues or personal factors affecting the individual’s performance.
Following action under the appropriate policy the decision making panel may elect to down grade the individual to the point within the Career Grade scheme that best matches the performance being achieved.
All matters relating to Career Grade reviews and the decisions reached should receive confidential treatment. While management teams will need to view collective performance and development information to enable workforce development planning Departments should avoid allowing unrestricted access to review records. Files should be retained securely and unwanted items disposed of with care.
However, in order to encourage personal career planning the requirements of all Career Grade Schemes need to be made easily accessible to all staff from across the authority.
The costs associated with the operation of a Career Grade Scheme will come directly from department budgets. Managers need to ensure that budget estimates take the costs of accelerated increments and external development into account.
Bids for support from the Corporate Qualification Sponsorship scheme are invited by Human Resources each May. While due weight is given to bids related to a Career Grade requirement each bid is assessed on its merits, matched with wider organisational priorities and the most effective use of available funds.
All those involved in the Career Grade Scheme should receive appropriate learning and development support from their department, which may include;
Clearly the Line Manager has a key role to play in supporting, guiding and coaching their staff and must ensuring their staff have the scheme, its objectives, expectations, benefits, documentation and procedures made clear to them.
Refer to the Universal Competency Framework for details of each competency’s behaviour requirements.
Option to use whole competency headings or individual behaviours.
Initial Competency requirements from the person specification
Remaining Competency requirements from the person specification
Additional Competency requirements for full effective performance of the role
Observation, Examples needed, Project files, Working records
Professional/training and qualifications held., Vocational training and qualifications held, Internal courses, Training in the use of equipment or techniques specific to the department or profession, Management development.
Essential requirements from Person Specification.
Intermediate qualifications and or desirable qualifications, Appropriate vocational and or internal training courses.
Full professional and/or intermediate qualifications and/or desirable qualifications, Further, appropriate vocational and/or internal training.
Personal file, L&D records, Course certificates, Post learning evaluation records
Specific skills needed for tasks, General skill; numeracy, literacy, keyboard, dexterity, Professional/technical skills relevant to discipline or department, Depth & Range of skill/Task, Use of specific tools, equipment, techniques or packages, Extent of direction needed, Degree of professional input required, How work is allocated, How priorities are determined.
Minimum task/skill Requirements, Simple tasks Close supervision and continuous professional guidance or assistance, Work allocated by supervision, Progress closely monitored, Priorities determined by supervisor, works with other more experienced staff.
Mid-level task and skill requirements from person specification, Regular supervisory sessions are assignment based, An input from other professional staff is a regular feature, Performance and work output is monitored, priorities are pre determined by the work or client, Makes effective use of other peoples skills and abilities.
All task/skill requirements from person specification, Low error rates Managed by "exception", Self reliant in most professional areas., Exercises discretion and seeks second opinion/advice when necessary, most work received direct or self generated, Determines own priorities within supervisors ground rules, If appropriate, assists with development/supervision of junior or less experienced staff, May have delegated project management responsibilities.
Observation, Examples needed, L&D records, MDPP records, Observation, Examples needed, Project files / work records.