When do I find out the salary?

united4ever

also, not sure if it's even worth raising the wfh question, this is a news article:

Hundreds of workers employed by the local council will be expected to spend most of their time at the office under a new hybrid working scheme. The council, which is now proposing an agile and hybrid working plan, shared details of the scheme that will impact a significant number of its employees. During the pandemic, approximately 60% of the workforce continued to work from the workplace, while the rest worked remotely for varying periods of time due to restrictions.

Throughout the unprecedented period, council offices remained open, allowing the provision of quality services to residents and customers. Under the new hybrid working scheme, employees will continue to work partially from home, but more than half of their working hours will be spent at the office or workplace.

During a scrutiny committee meeting the chief executive, emphasized that working in a hybrid manner is not a right. Requests for hybrid work must be approved by managers, and arrangements can be subject to short-notice changes. All staff members are required to attend in-person team meetings, as well as development and coaching sessions. If individual or team productivity or service levels decline, the decision may be made to have them return to the office. The majority of staff expressed a desire for some form of hybrid working based on a staff survey conducted.

The effectiveness of the hybrid arrangements will be subject to regular review, with an annual evaluation being the minimum requirement. The council has developed a new hybrid working policy, along with guidance and training for managers, which is awaiting approval from the council's cabinet. The plan is set to be implemented starting from Jan, 2023.

Sounds like at the very top of the council this is being monitored and a bit unpopular so may be a bone of contention if I raise it. Sounds also like it could be removed in future so would be good to have in my contract.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Local Authority HR worker here. :-) We use NJC green book pay scales, yours may not.

Regarding salary, the salary range of the grade is always advertised. Within the grade are scale points, awarded via annual increments which are not performance related. However, where you are placed within that grade is based on strict criteria according to policy, regardless of what the applicant and manager think.

All new employees commence at the bottom of the grade, with three exceptions.

1. Internal employees moving roles within the authority - you commence the new role on the closest scale point to your existing salary. Eg, if you move down a grade, you would automatically be placed at the top. Moving sideways, stay the same.

2. New employees can only start at a higher scale point following submission and approval of a business case from the head of service.

3. Some roles attract a discretionary market supplement.


WFH I can’t comment on as our authority are now all home working by default unless there is a business reason not to. However, home working will never be written into the contract as that opens the council up to additional costs. We all have an official office work base, even if we rarely attend.

united4ever

Thanks @ChasingtheWelshdream you are the perfect person to reply given your job.

He said he will seek approval from the assistant director so I suppose that is case number 2 in your list. 

If he is going to need to  seek approval for my request anyway then I wonder if I should have stated absolute top of range (about 1.8k more than what I am asking for) since if he needs approval for my request then it may not be any more involved to authorise a slightly higher figure. It's essentially a directors approval. Hmmm, I sent the email now. I suppose requesting the higher salary due to skills/experience brings some sort of added pressure to bring value from day 1 also.

I didn't know when and where to bring up WFH. If it is informally agreed I am fine with that but I suppose it leaves you exposed to some new executive demanding that everybody is in every day. The additional costs point makes sense. 

ChasingtheWelshdream

united4ever said:

Thanks @ChasingtheWelshdream you are the perfect person to reply given your job.

He said he will seek approval from the assistant director so I suppose that is case number 2 in your list. 

If he is going to need to  seek approval for my request anyway then I wonder if I should have stated absolute top of range (about 1.8k more than what I am asking for) since if he needs approval for my request then it may not be any more involved to authorise a slightly higher figure. It's essentially a directors approval. Hmmm, I sent the email now. I suppose requesting the higher salary due to skills/experience brings some sort of added pressure to bring value from day 1 also.

I didn't know when and where to bring up WFH. If it is informally agreed I am fine with that but I suppose it leaves you exposed to some new executive demanding that everybody is in every day. The additional costs point makes sense. 

I can only go from my own LA, but it is very rare for an individual’s contract to deviate from the standard T&Cs. Any agreement for hybrid working would not be included as it is indeed a local agreement with your manager that can be subject change.

Pre-covid only a few people had the option to work from home. Covid presented an opportunity to change the working model to improve recruitment and retention, particularly as we are a large rural authority with poor transport links.

Each position is now identified as a fixed location (eg libraries) or flexible. Flexible gives the option of working from your main office base (defined in your contract for mileage claim purposes), any council building, home or a mixture. That is then for your service area to agree.

In the post-covid world, some areas have realised full-time home working isn’t efficient or desirable and so the flexible model gives the ability to locally agree hybrid options.

My own area is full-time from home, but if anyone wishes to go into the office for personal reasons they are able to.

I would speak to your recruiting manager about home working arrangements but I doubt it will be contractural.

Hope that helps.

Mr.Generous

My advice would be leave out the working from home bit until you've got a few weeks under your belt and proved your worth. I think you need to know how others work before you can start pushing - If you come in at the top of the band there may be a bit of resentment from your direct boss - who may be paid less or only a tad more.

Grumpy_chap

It is starting to sound as though the OP is trying to persuade themselves out of accepting the role.

First a query on salary and wanting top of band.  If they get top of band, how do they see future pay rises happening?  Promotion to the next band up cannot be assumed to be quick.

Now the OP wants to WFH - a totally new parameter not mentioned before in the thread or at interview.

If the OP gets the top of band salary and the special case to WFH, what will be the next demand?
If the OP gets the top of band salary and the special case WFH, how does the OP expect to be received and fit in with the team and other colleagues without such preferential treatment?