Discretionary pay for academic-related and university support staff

Summary

Providing that the Personnel Committee's guidelines, as set out in the following sections, and criteria for the award of such increments are adhered to, heads of department have the discretion to appoint staff into the discretionary salary range.

They also have discretion to award an individual member of university support staff or academic-related staff up to four additional in-scale or discretionary increments for retention in any one year.

Where heads of department wish to recommend advancement in excess of the above limits, an application setting out the grounds for the award should be sent to the Head of Personnel and Related Services, via the Reward team, for the attention of the Personnel Committee.

Recruitment and starting salaries

Providing that the Personnel Committee's guidance is followed departments may determine the starting salaries of new staff in any university support staff or academic-related staff group.

Subject to this guidance being followed a starting salary in the discretionary range may be used, with the approval of the Head of Department.

Retaining unique experience or very specialised skills

Providing that the Personnel Committee's guidelines and criteria for the award of such increments are adhered to, and subject to the limits set out above, departments have discretion to award additional in-scale or discretionary increments in order to retain members of the university support staff and academic-related staff who can be demonstrated to have unique experience or very specialised skills.

With the exception of awards made to academic-related departmental administrators whose appointments are made under the authority of the Personnel Committee, individual Personnel Services' approval is not required for such awards.

In the case of academic-related departmental administrators whose appointments are made under the authority of the Personnel Committee, individual approval of awards is required and heads of departments should forward recommendations for such awards to the Head of Personnel and Related Services, via their Divisional Secretaries.

Addressing pay anomalies

When exercising their discretion to award additional increments for recruitment and retention, departments will need to take into account the position of existing comparable staff within the department as well as the requirement in respect of gender and ethnicity of the Equality Act 2010. Departments should regularly review the distribution of salaries within grades for their staff and seek to address any anomalies. Departments should contact the Reward team for guidance on addressing any pay anomalies.

Additional increments for recruitment, retention or additional responsibilities

• To recognise additional duties taken on by staff (either temporarily on an on-going basis) which do not warrant regrading.

• Cases should be made to the Division providing a clear rationale that there is a business need for the work to be carried out.

The case would include:
- An explanation of changes in operational structure and/or requirements.
- An indication as to whether the work should be carried out on a temporary/permanent basis.
- How the individual has demonstrated the ability to take on the additional responsibilities.
- That consideration has been given to regrading the post to paying an acting up allowance (refer to generic grade and category descriptions).

• The complexity and/or areas of responsibility rather than simply the volume of work needs to have increased. Additional workload (e.g extending the scope of the role to manage another administrative area at the same level) may increase the complexity of the role in terms of planning and management.

• Up to 4 additional increments can be awarded (either in scale or into the discretionary range).

• Consideration needs to be given to resourcing and stress.

• Consideration needs to be given to the pool of potential individuals who might wish to take on additional responsibilities. If necessary a selection process may need to be followed.

Legal requirements - the Equality Act 2010

Departments are asked at all times when exercising their discretion in respect of individual salaries to keep in mind the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.