Senior Professional Services (Grade 10) Staff Reward Strategy

Senior Professional Services Staff Reward Strategy PDF

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Reward Strategy 

3. Salary Boundaries

4. Salary Placement

5. Salary Movement

6. Rewarding Contribution

7. Market Supplement

 

1. Introduction

Senior professional services staff fulfil a leading and instrumental role in the realisation of the University's strategic goals and ambitions. Further, it is essential that institutional practice is competitive and strategically aligned, effectively recognising excellence and rewarding outstanding and sustained performance of senior staff given the global HE market and increasingly challenging funding environment.  Grade 10 performance and reward strategy aligned to University strategic imperatives, provides the framework through which this is achieved in the effective delivery of performance and development, career progression and reward, founded upon enabling the University to:-

  • increase competitiveness;
  • attract and retain high quality staff;
  • apply fair, transparent and equitable pay and performance mechanisms;
  • provide a clear career structure;
  • build and enhance leadership capacity and capability;
  • facilitate succession planning; and
  • reward excellence.

2. Reward Strategy

The Remuneration Committee is responsible for formulating University remuneration policy with regards to Grade 10 staff, annually determining any performance-related reward applicable.  Whilst the University is committed to rewarding exceptional performance, value and practice varies from year to year influenced by budgetary and institutional performance considerations. The principles outlined below have been agreed by Remuneration Committee within this context:-

Principles

  1. Grade 10 staff should as a matter of course benefit from any nationally negotiated annual award.
  2. University level recognition and reward for this group of staff should be informed by: annual PDR process; sustained service performance outputs; budgetary considerations; and comparative Russell Group professional pay trends; and
  3. Any annual reward that may be applied as outlined by the provisions of bullet point 2 above, will not be payable in addition to any out-of-cycle pay increase awarded in year.

For the avoidance of doubt, Remuneration Committee may determine that there are not to be additional payments (consolidated and/or one-off sums) payable in any given year.

3. Salary Boundaries

Hay Job Evaluation principles underpin the salary boundaries applicable to each band which are reviewed annually, although are not limited by such (i.e. boundaries may or may not be amended each year in accordance with any award agreed at national level).  The current salary boundaries, effective from 1 August 2024, are outlined below:

Grade 10

Band 1

£73,945 to £115,058

Band 2

> £107,448

4. Salary Placement

Senior professional services staff are normally placed within a particular band on a basic salary following external recruitment or internal promotion to Grade 10.  This is normally the lower limit of the salary boundary within the relevant band unless current salary level exceeds this sum, in which case salary level is determined as current salary plus 3%. This is consistent with the percentage differential that exists between scale points on the University’s substantive scale.

5. Salary Movement

Any annual consolidated award, currently agreed at national level, has the effect of influencing salary movement upwards within the salary band. This applies to all Grade 10 staff with the exception of those where the level of performance has been assessed below the normal level of expectation i.e., overall performance has been assessed as Improved Performance Required in the most recent PDR round.

6. Rewarding Contribution

Salary increases will relate to performance in the preceding year based on individual delivery against strategic performance objectives set and, where applicable, delivery and progress against team targets and objectives.

Our approach is aimed at facilitating greater flexibility and autonomy at a local College/University Services level, whilst ensuring high performing individuals/teams are duly recognised and rewarded within predetermined budgetary parameters.   

This includes: -

(i)   provision for consolidated salary uplifts on an annual basis where it is justified on the basis of performance consistent with remuneration practice applicable to members of the senior executive team.

(ii)  a maximum budget available for reward and recognition purposes at grade 10 level, provided to each College and University Services, based on headcount of Grade 10 staff at unitary level.

(iii)  the value of any one-off payment or consolidated salary uplift at senior professional services level will be subject to a minimum baseline/maximum cap to be determined annually.

(iv) an expectation that those with leadership responsibilities for managing staff will have at least one performance objective that relates to leadership and effective staff management/engagement for the forthcoming year.

The level of awards will be reported annually to the Remuneration Committee.

The annual PDR process informs whether or not a professional services Grade 10 member of staff is eligible for a Rewarding Contribution salary uplift/one-off payment in addition to the level of any national award.

 

7. Market Supplements

There will be occasions when the total reward package may not match equivalent remuneration levels offered for comparable posts in the wider labour market, which can on occasion, lead to recruitment and retention difficulties. In such circumstances, where there is a clear business need supported by objective market data, the University will consider and apply as appropriate a market supplement payment, in addition to the normal reward package for such a post, in accordance with the University’s Market Supplement Policy.