Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the procedure is in his Department for assessing grade boundaries and job roles; and how often such assessments take place.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) uses grading guidance as a tool to help managers and job holders determine the grading of a post. The guidance applies to all BIS staff, except the Senior Civil Service (SCS) and Fast Streamers, who have central grading structures.

Job evaluation is used when the grading guidance alone is insufficient for the manager and job holder to determine the grade of a post. BIS uses a systematic job evaluation system called JEGS (Job Evaluation and Grading Support) for non-SCS staff and JESP (Job Evaluation for Senior Posts) for SCS staff. These have been developed specifically for the Civil Service. It is a systematic process for defining the relative worth or size of jobs in order to establish internal relativities.

The procedure for assessing grade boundaries using job evaluation are:

1. Form a clear picture of the job

2. Refer to grading guidance and where possible allocate to a grade

3. If not, a trained evaluator will evaluate the post

4. The evaluator’s conclusions are quality assured by an appropriate panel which includes trade union representatives

5. HR will communicate the outcome to the line manager

We do not keep records of how often the grading guidance are used or when job evaluations have taken place. Possible reasons for formal job evaluation might include:

· the recruiting manager, Independent Panel Member (IPM) and Deputy Director cannot agree on the appropriate grade using the BIS grading guidance;

· a new post has arisen and there are limited comparator posts within which to agree the grading;

· a substantial and material change has been made to the weighting and responsibilities of the post;

· an area has been restructured and the boundaries for responsibility and weighting have changed significantly;

· there is sufficient doubt of grading when similar roles are compared across the Department; or

· the Department is undergoing a full grading review.