Equal Pay Review for IT Managers (Phase 2) Salary

[dhassen]

I probably shouldn't be sharing this, but I've just had a meeting with our SBM and Head.

There will only be one level of ICT Manager. It will be Grade 7. £26200 (ish)

Absolute ****

So it doesn't matter what your level of skills or expertise are or the size of your school, you will all be paid the same. I'm sure this'll be great for some people. Not for anyone who isn't a monkey though (that's a peanut reference).

[Millgate]

That seems a bit unfair. It's not encouraging people to go better themselves by getting more qualifications! I think a reward system ( such as increasing salary ) would benefit the schools in the long run. It give people something to work towards

Ta!

[broc]

I probably shouldn't be sharing this, but I've just had a meeting with our SBM and Head.

There will only be one level of ICT Manager. It will be Grade 7. £26200 (ish)

Absolute ****

So it doesn't matter what your level of skills or expertise are or the size of your school, you will all be paid the same. I'm sure this'll be great for some people. Not for anyone who isn't a monkey though (that's a peanut reference).

It is very unfair. They are applying a system designed by HR 'experts' to cynically meet budget/accountants needs.... nothing to do with skill or experience. School Head Teachers (very few) would have been invited to comment about the roles & responsibilities of people they employ then everything gets levelled(downwards). Typical job evaluation exercise, I am afraid it is happening all over the country.

[SimpleSi]

So it doesn't matter what your level of skills or expertise are or the size of your school, you will all be paid the same.

AFAIU what it means is that there is only one class of IT/Net manager and that if you fall within that class then that is the Grade for the job.

Which since its an equal pay review - it wouldn't seem too daft.

Some people are doing the job a of net manager and not getting this sort of pay and they'll be really happy

But, if someone's getting more pay that Grade 7 but doing a net manager job then they are not going to be happy

Your qualifications don't matter in this respect as its the job that matters and not the capability of the employee.

Now, if your job goes substantially beyond the remit of a net manager, then you should be arguing that you shouldn't be put into that classification but a more suitable one for your role.

Unfortunately there are always winners and losers when this change process happens.

I'm one of the lucky ones - my head looked at the job descriptions and went - blimey - your really undergraded aren't you!
regards
Simon

[broc]

What it doesn't allow for is greater responsibility/role diversity ; for example a NM at a school with 700 students & 2 technicians running say native CC4 vs a NM at a school with 1400 students and 4 technicians running a mix of Server 2008, Linux, all virtual? One size 'fits all' doesn't always work......

[dhassen]

One size definatley doesn't fit all. What we do is so much different to smaller schools. I agree with millgate, why bother improving your skills and knowledge?

If you've been underpaid, then great you get a pay rise, but it's still no-where near what certain managers should be paid, myself included. I think and hope there'll be more than just myself following this up.

Also, if you look at the job description to go with the role, if i just do what's on there, there will be massive gaps all over the place, I'm not over-selling but the school won't run very well, and massive gaps in knowledge and skills will be come apparent.

[GrumbleDook]

How the heck can they presume to fit everyone into this? The idea of single status was to look at common jobs and needs, to fit in a single structure which is flexible enough to take in a range of jobs but also put in some sensible layers.

What worries me here is that they will get those people with the decent amount of experience / skills / qualifications and expect them to have all 3 ... and if you haven't then they will drop you down at a later regrade, or when you have gone replace you with a lower position.

False economy.

[ChrisH]

Hmm I haven't heard anything yet. I will be very interested in my classification as my responsibilities went far beyond the ICT 3 (Network Manager) description and we sent plenty of extra paperwork to back this up. I think I will go and enquire now see if anything has come through yet. I suspect I will have to do some other kind of paperwork or interview before mine though.

[ticker]

we haven't heard anything, i know the LRC manager has already had her review and she was phase 2 like us. If thats correct about the grade then i am going to be one of the winners thats a big wage jump for me.

[SimpleSi]

@dhassen
Your attacking the wrong target
You don't want to be arguing over the Net Man being Grade 7 - your sig says your an E-Learning Manager - you want the Grade of an E-Learning Manager

As far as size of school/number of staff - it is very very common for managers/people to be on same grade but having more kit/people to look after so that's not a good one to argue with either

regards
Simon

[broc]

Part of the assessment for determining an individuals job grade in this process is supposed to be to consider their level of responsibility; the whole process is formula (points) driven, and having responsibility scores points. The more responsibility you have the higher your score is supposed to be. This can work where there are a range of 'grades' within a role but falls to bits in a situation like this. It is because HR deliberately take too simplistic a view of the whole process in order to keep the number of roles/levels to a minimum. I have seen situations in other LAs where an assistant caretaker ends up on a higher scale than the caretaker at the same school because of HRs blind obedience in following 'the formula'.

[dhassen]

The weird thing is, there is NO Network Manager job description - I find that a bit odd, the only one available is 'ICT Manager'.

We're sending off a job eval questionnaire. Basically, I don't do the job listed as 'ICT Manager', so we try and make a new one. A lot of stress here though.

Oh Simon,

As far as size of school/number of staff - it is very very common for managers/people to be on same grade but having more kit/people to look after so that's not a good one to argue with either

that's kind of my point, the fact that there is no accountability for that (number of users, number and type of kit) is a problem, and should IMO be taken into account.

Regardless of what happens with me personally, I don't think it's a good thing for Lancashire, it pushes all the schools towards a managed service. The job in the JD is a very simple Net Man, so no reason to do anything different or 'better'. May as well get CLEO to do everything

[ChrisH]

Good luck with the paperwork. I already did one of those and at one point I thought to myself that it would just be easier to apply for another job but I stuck with it.

[dhassen]

I will be applying for other jobs! But heck this paperwork is like you're actually applying for your own job, just to prove to the EPR board that you do lots more than the narrow JD. I knew that working in education wouldn't last for ever, but I'm suprised that my move outward would be pushed on like this

[ChrisH]

Well lets just say that the extra responsibilities have been ignored so mine is still work in progress