HR Advice needed - Restructuring and job evaluation

terrencetrentderby

I work for a medium size (approx 750 employees) private sector company in the North West of England.

The company is downsizing across the organisation, luckily the number of staff looking to take voluntary redundancy in our department of about 90 staff is such that there will be no compulsory redundancies providing we accept the roles we're matched to on the new structure.

This is the problem. I work in a small team of about 10 staff, all reporting to a single Service Manager. Staff are on a range of different pay scales.

Within this Team I'm kind of in the middle in that there are 3 staff below me on entry level grades (for the sake of clarity I'll call their grade Grade A), 1 member of staff two above them (Grade C) but 4 grades below me (on an G), one person 1 grade below me(on an F), then myself of course (G), then above me there is 1 person one grade above me(H), 3 staff 3 grades above me(I).

For the last 3 years, the staff above me have been absent for prolonged periods. Maternity breaks, long term sick, career breaks etc have taken all but one of the senior staff to me out of the office for either 9, 12 or 18 months respectively. Obviously, the service has had to trundle on and everything in their job descriptions has still had to be done. One role was covered by a secondment, but that person hasnt done as much as me to keep everything ticking along. I have covered everything these people do.

Now they're all back. And the restructure is coming up. We got given a draft structure earlier this month and it doesnt look like there is a role for me at my level. What is annoying is that it appears as though roles, which arent particularly full, have more or less been made up to make it look as though the higher grades of these people are justified. It seems as though the company is creating posts which arent really needed to keep and justify these people staying on the higher grades that they're on.

I have worked my !!!! off this last 3 years and had nothing but positive feedback from customers. A number of key projects have been highlighted for special commendation by Directors of the company, largely due to my efforts and those of one or two other people who are at or around my pay grade.

However that doesnt seem to be counting for much in the new structure.It seems as though the work I've done is going to be ignored and I will either have to accept a lower graded post or take redundancy (which I cannot even contemplate)

Are there any relevant laws, cases or HR good practice guides that might help my case?

FBaby

There should be a consultation period. This is your time to make your case. I went through a reconfiguration where the new structure proposed had no job for me identified. Me and a colleague made a case as to what that structure didn't offer the best for money for the company and proposed a different one. To our surprise, the structure was changed and even though we had to go for interviews as there were more people than jobs, we got a job.

colino

Unfortunately while companies often want external consultants to help restructure their organisations, this objective, tested analysis and implementation plan is always put through some bogus, local, "black box". Without fail people screech at being overloaded, others are whispered about as being, "looked after" and frankly, their probably right. No doubt Barbara will be given a crap grading because she is a hard worker and doesn't care about the money and Bob will be promoted because he plays golf with the owners nephew. To make headway though you have to go back to the nuts and bolts of what the organisation is all about, work out how essential your role (not you) is to the business and give weight to other essential components and see how that role fits in, above or below, those tasks. If you present it in those terms, it's difficult to argue with, but be prepared for the sycophants trying to maintain their status.