Recruitment and starting salaries

Departments may determine the starting salaries of new academic-related and university support staff subject to the guidance below.


Guidance for departments

  1. Appointments should normally be made to the bottom point of the appropriate grade.

  2. Whenever it is proposed that an appointment is made to a salary above the bottom point of the appropriate grade, departments will wish to verify, inter alia, the stated current salaries of appointees before confirming any salary offer. This will normally be by asking an appropriate referee to confirm current salary in advance of an offer of appointment, or by asking a successful candidate to provide evidence of current salary, for example a recent pay-slip.

  3. Departments considering an appointment above the bottom point of the substantive grade should base any salary offer on the prospective employee’s existing salary, aiming to recruit at the minimum point necessary to secure the appointment.

  4. Superscale discretionary points points may be deployed with the approval of the head of department in the following circumstances:

    1. when a post is advertised, providing that the head of department is satisfied that there is sufficient evidence, for example from a recent recruitment exercise, to demonstrate that it is unlikely that a suitable candidate would be found unless the availability of the discretionary points is advertised;
    2. where it is considered necessary to appoint to the discretionary range in order to appoint a clearly exceptional candidate.

  5. When exercising their discretion to determine salaries within the scale, departments will, of course, have to take into account the position of existing comparable staff within the department as well as the requirements in respect of gender and ethnicity of the Equality Act 2010. Departments should contact the Reward team for guidance on addressing any pay anomalies that arise as a result of awarding recruitment increments.