Department of Human Resources
February 2006

Given the vast number of jobs within the University, a decision was taken not to evaluate every job, as it would not be an efficient and effective utilisation of resources.
Job Evaluation has been used therefore, to underpin the development of a job family approach which will demonstrate career pathway options for staff and provide an efficient means of matching posts to levels.
Job Families provide an efficient means for matching individual posts to levels or grades and can help to articulate career and development routes. They can also be used in performance and development reviews, in considering any training needs and when writing job description and person specifications.
Four Job Families have been developed in partnership with and agreed by the trade unions, representing broadly distinctive groups of staff in which the main features of the roles share similar characteristics. They are:
1. Research and Teaching
2. Management, Professional and Administrative
3. Technical and Related
4. Operational
1. Research and Teaching
Roles in this family are wholly or mainly focused on research and teaching. They may combine elements of research, teaching and administration or management, however the relative emphasis on these elements and the nature of the contribution will vary. Some roles will be more orientated towards research, while others will tend to concentrate on teaching, administration and/or management activities. In the higher levels, there will be considerable reputation in the UK and internationally, with a significant impact on the subject discipline and research income.
2. Management, Professional and Administrative
Roles in this family are engaged in the provision of professional, managerial and/or administrative support services to university staff and students and sometimes to the wider public. The work might involve clerical or administrative support, developing and implementing policy and processes, providing specialist/expert advice and support, or carrying out project management and support. All roles require an understanding of the
University’s systems and processes and many at higher levels will also require specialist or professional skills. The higher levels often combine professional qualifications, managerial experience and involve a substantial role in the management of functions within the
Institution.
3. Technical and Related
Roles in this family provide technical and/or scientific support to research and teaching. They offer research support to academic staff and students, for example by setting up and operating equipment, running analyses and tests, providing technical design services and
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giving technical advice. They support teaching, meetings, lectures and seminars, by setting up and operating equipment, and providing technical input to teaching programmes. Working as part of a support team is a common feature. At higher levels the roles involve either highly specialised technical/expert advice and support or management responsibility for a substantial technical service or group.
4. Operational
Roles in this family are concerned with operating and running the facilities and services of the
University. They involve direct or indirect service provision for students and staff, through maintenance, grounds, security, portering, residences, catering, cleaning and other site services or sporting activity and related services. Some roles are about providing these services personally; others’ enable or manage the services.
Each family has up to 9 broad levels, which demonstrate career pathway options for staff and provide an efficient means of matching posts to an appropriate level.
Each level of work within each job family has a description describing the representative work activities, key responsibilities and outputs required as well as detailing the level of knowledge, qualifications, skills and experience required for the role.
Each level captures the key elements that differentiate and/or distinguish between work at the different levels based on a description of all of the relevant features or work at that level.
Posts that fit within each level, regardless of family, are broadly of a similar job size.
Role profiles/ level descriptors have been developed over recent years by the Hay Group, working with a number of Russell Group Universities. The University has been in the fortunate position of being able to use these descriptions as a starting point, however a considerable amount of work has gone into developing them at a local level, working closely with the recognised trade unions to tailor them to the University of Glasgow. These descriptions are now referred to as our Job Family Level Profiles.
Information for these profiles has been gathered from sources including: job information from posts evaluated during the Job Evaluation benchmark process and job descriptions from existing roles.
To ensure that the job family level descriptors are fit for purpose, these have been tested against the job evaluation benchmark results, and a number of benchmark job descriptions have been matched to a level within a job family to ensure their validity and reliability. This process has been ongoing throughout the development process.
Job Family Level Profiles are generic rather than specific in describing any particular role and it would not normally be expected that staff would carry out all of the activities described at a particular level. In addition, staff may carry out a small number of duties which are not explicitly described within a job family level descriptor to which they appropriately match.
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Objective:
The objective of the job matching process is to apply/determine/establish the best possible match of individual job descriptions against job family level profile summaries, in order to establish the correct grade for jobs.
It is inappropriate to simply transfer every role across to the new structure based on current grade, which would essentially duplicate any existing grade anomalies in the new structure, hence the development of a new job family structure. It is therefore necessary to adopt a fair and defensible process to “match” current roles into the new structure.
Job Families/Job Matching Pilot Exercise
A Pilot exercise was carried out between June and December 2005, to test out the job family level profiles and determine the extent to which they provided sufficient information and clarity to enable jobs across the University to be matched to levels. In addition, the pilot exercise was designed to provide a mechanism to demonstrate/display the job matching process followed an appropriate format and provided an efficient, yet defensible, fair and transparent job matching process. As a consequence of this piloting process, the job family level profiles have been amended and reviewed accordingly.
The Departments listed below participated in the pilot exercise, and were selected on the basis of staff numbers and the representative nature of the staff categories:

Civil Engineering

HATII

Music

Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery

Planning Office

Division of Environmental & Evolutionary Biology

Education and Administration, Faculty of Medicine


Nursing & Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine
Urban Studies
The Job Matching Process
A job description will be required for each unique post to enable the job matching process to take place.
These job descriptions may be either Unique or Generic. Unique job descriptions are individual, relating to one post with only one post-holder. Generic job descriptions relate to one post but have many post-holders e.g. cleaners. There are a variety of means by which
Departments can arrive at an appropriate job description for all posts within the Department.
The completed job description will thereafter be “matched” against the most appropriate grade via the job family level profile summary , to determine the “best fit”. i.e. not all people will be matched – however all job descriptions will be matched.
All job matching outcomes will be documented. Recorded decisions and their justification will be retained and made available as required through the Modernisation Agenda Steering
Group.
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JOB DESCRIPTION PREPARATION
One of the most important roles played by the Line Managers in the job matching process is coaching/helping their staff complete the job description form, either unique or generic.
All staff involved in the exercise should be made aware that guidance material and example job descriptions and presentation slides used at the coaching/ briefing sessions are available on the Modernisation Agenda Web-Site in order to assist them in the job description writing process. If additional information/assistance is required, staff should contact the Project team. An on-line job description writing training package is also available on the web-site .
A number of coaching/briefing sessions are being been set up throughout the process by the
Modernisation Agenda Project Team to assist staff in the completion of their job descriptions.
Staff should be given time, during working hours where required, to complete their job description in discussion with their Line Manager.
Staff should be given at least a 2-week timeframe to complete the job description or alternatively given enough time to review and agree a generic job description. Where possible, each job description should have an up to date departmental/divisional organisation chart attached. The job description should then be passed to their Line Manager to complete and sign their section of the form. The form should then be passed back to the job-holder for them to sign.
The completed job descriptions should then be forwarded to Miss Tia Bryan, Project
Assistant, Modernisation Agenda Project Team, 12A the Square, University of Glasgow.
Ensure that their staff are fully briefed on the process either directly or through their individual line managers, and are made aware of the assistance for job description completion within the Modernisation Agenda web-site.
Ensure that all Line Managers are aware of their responsibilities in relation to the preparation of job descriptions for their staff and also their involvement in the subsequent job matching meeting(s).
Determine/discuss with staff where required, the unique/generic roles within the Department and the process for completion of these job descriptions e.g. one person complete on behalf of a group of staff/ arrange for the group to complete together etc.
If there is a member of staff on long-term sick leave, maternity leave or any other authorised absence, then this should be discussed with a member of the Modernisation Agenda Project
Team.
The role of the line manager at the approval stage is to ensure that the job description is an accurate, up-to-date and representative reflection of the duties and responsibilities of the post, i.e. care should be taken to ensure the post is not under represented or embellished.
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JOB MATCHING PROCESS
Job Matching Group
Membership
The Job Matching Group will consist of the appropriate Head of Department/Division or their representative, Territorial Human Resources Manager, a member of the Modernisation
Project Team (Chair) and a Moderator. A Trade Union representative involved in the
Modernisation Agenda will be invited to attend the meeting, the Trade Union to be involved being determined by the staff category of the majority of the jobs being matched. An additional member of HR/Project Team may occasionally join the Job Matching Group.
In addition to the core group members, the appropriate Line Manager may join the jobmatching group for the matching of each role that he/she supervises, in order to assist the core job-matching group with their understanding of the role. The line manager may be asked for his/her view on the level to which they see the role fitting, but line managers will not be involved in the final decision. Departments/Divisions are responsible for liasing with the line managers and advising them of the dates and times that they will be required.
It is important that the Group has a good working knowledge of the Faculty/ Division/
Department and the posts contained therein. Those involved should be able to understand the context and terminology of the job descriptions and feel confident undertaking this activity, particularly where traditional and historical ideas of grade may be challenged.
In advance of the Job Matching Meeting
It is the responsibility of the Project Team to ensure the Head of Department/Division receives all relevant documentation approximately one week in advance of the Job Matching meeting.
It is also the responsibility of the Project Team to ensure The Head of Department/Division (or their representative) be fully briefed in order to gain an understanding of the Job Matching process. The Head of Department/Division should then brief any line managers who are attending the Job Matching meeting.
If an individual role-holder has more than one line manager, then a judgement should be made as to which line manager has an appropriate understanding of the whole job. If necessary, both line managers can attend the group.
Preparing for the Job Matching Meeting
Members of the Group should have read the documentation supplied by the Project Team and possess a working knowledge of the job family level profiles in advance of the jobmatching meeting. All members of the group should be able to relatively easily and quickly identify approximately which job family and level would be an appropriate match for each of the jobs being considered (preparation sheets included).
Group members should therefore have familiarised themselves with both the job descriptions under consideration as well as all the job family level profiles.
The Job Matching Meeting - Procedure
A checklist has been prepared to assist the job matching process and ensure consistency of approach in conducting the meeting .
The order in which each role is looked at will invariably depend upon the availability of line managers, as they should be available to join the panel when the roles that he/she supervises are being job matched, in order to answer any questions about the role. Therefore, the order will be discussed/agreed between the Head of Department/Division and the Project Team member prior to the meeting.
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Jobs will be matched in logical batches (e.g. sub-Departments or staff groups within the
Department/Faculty, where work has a similar purpose and focus, but at a variety of levels, starting with the most senior posts). This should make the process easier and quicker.
The Modernisation Project Team Member will complete and sign the job matching rationale forms outlining the decisions of the group.
The Chair’s role will be to:
1. Confirm the jobs to be matched at the meeting.
2. Confirm all group members have the required documentation and if required, recap the purposes of the exercise.
3. Facilitate and guide discussion, maintain overall progress of the meeting and ensure that thorough and objective discussions take place focussing on the facts to enable the matching of each job to the appropriate job family level.
4. Ensure that all group members participate in the debate, that all views are expressed or challenged as appropriate, that full understanding of the role is reached and that the discussion concludes with consensus.
5. Confirm that where agreement cannot be reached, the job will be subject to a full job evaluation exercise.
Alternatively, the group may agree to defer their decision to allow further information to be sought.
The Job Matching rationale outlining the decisions of the group will be completed and signed by the Modernisation Agenda Project Team member.
The Moderator and the Trade Union Representative’s role will be to:
1. Oversee the job matching meeting to ensure that there is consistency of application of the job family levels to all posts, and the match is based on the content of the job description and not on assumptions about the role.
2. The Trade Union Representative will have an overview of job matching in the appropriate staff category across the University, and will therefore be in a position to comment from a University wide perspective.
The group should:
 remember that the objective of the exercise is to match jobs appropriately and not bring any other “axes to grind” to the table.
 focus and evaluate the facts and evidence presented within the job description and not rely on pre-formed subjective opinions or assumptions.
 look at the requirements of the job and not the personality or performance of the jobholder. The group should not allow individual performance to colour their judgement of the contribution of the job to the University/Department/Faculty.
 base the level match on fully acceptable performance in the job. An individual in a role may be an above or below average performer. To ensure consistency of the process, all matches should be based on the job requirements and demands of the
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role as outlined in the job description as expected of a fully competent postholder. A group should not allow their knowledge of individuals and their levels of performance to sway their judgement.
 disregard current pay and status and do not permit any preconceived notions of the job title, the value of the job, or the work carried out to influence judgement. It is not safe to assume that the CURRENT grading of one job relative to another within the
“old” graded structure, to explain where it should sit within the “new” evaluation process.
Quality Assurance
Prior to any Job Matching process, job descriptions will be quality assured by the
Modernisation Project Team to ensure they contain sufficient information to enable the job matching group to undertake the process effectively and efficiently.
Failure to Match
It may be the case, that a “best-fit” match to a job family level descriptor cannot be determined. The reasons for this decision will be recorded on the rationale form and the post will be forwarded for full job evaluation.
Appeals Procedure
Should the level to which a job has been matched cause concern to the post holder, in certain circumstances there will be grounds for appeal. The appeals process will be developed in close consultation with the recognised trade unions.
Campus Wide Consultation
The job family level profiles documents will be circulated on a campus wide basis via
Deans/Heads of Departments to seek wide input with comments requested during the month of February.
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