Any NHS job matchers?

[snobetter]

Looking for an NHS job matcher to pick their brains please.

[Downward]

They don’t really exist as a job. It’s just staff sitting in a room discussing a job they know nothing about and scoring it accordingly.
Hence why Agenda for Change is a complete farce when job matching is all done in house.

[Neith]

Downward said:

They don’t really exist as a job. It’s just staff sitting in a room discussing a job they know nothing about and scoring it accordingly.
Hence why Agenda for Change is a complete farce when job matching is all done in house.

Tell me about it. I currently do a Band 3 position, which in reality is a Band 3 full-time position, cover for a Band 2 which I've done for nearly 2 years (because no-one is getting recruited to fill a vacant position), plus parts of a Band 4. When I asked about getting the job evaluated I was told that the quantity of work you do doesn't mean anything and that you only qualify for a higher banding if you meet the criteria set in Agenda for Change (essentially quality over quantity). I didn't bother applying for the job matching because a) there's a possibility you can be down-banded and b) regardless of outcome you can't re-apply for a year.

Job matching is a complete joke as most of the people involved will have never even seen what you do.

[Downward]

Neith said:

Tell me about it. I currently do a Band 3 position, which in reality is a Band 3 full-time position, cover for a Band 2 which I've done for nearly 2 years (because no-one is getting recruited to fill a vacant position), plus parts of a Band 4. When I asked about getting the job evaluated I was told that the quantity of work you do doesn't mean anything and that you only qualify for a higher banding if you meet the criteria set in Agenda for Change (essentially quality over quantity). I didn't bother applying for the job matching because a) there's a possibility you can be down-banded and b) regardless of outcome you can't re-apply for a year.

Job matching is a complete joke as most of the people involved will have never even seen what you do.

Agenda for Change bought in standardised banding. In reality it’s now up to individual trusts and the matchers to decide on the banding. Now we are in a place where some jobs range from Band 5 to Band 7.
Some of the senior managers range from 8a to 8b depending on trust for the same work.
Also a lot of jobs are getting downgraded to save money while more and more senior manager roles appear.
Jobs are outsourced and those working for the private companies work alongside NHS staff at a different salary.

[Countdown]

Neith said:

Job matching is a complete joke as most of the people involved will have never even seen what you do.

The people involved should have seen a wide range of jobs and therefore should be able to compare them against each other, whereas the Jobholder will only know about his/her own specific job. The unions will also be sat alongside HR so it shouldn’t be a case of senior management deciding who sits in what Band.

Bearing in mind that everybody but everybody thinks their job is quite important the Matchers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

[Downward]

Countdown said:

Neith said:

Job matching is a complete joke as most of the people involved will have never even seen what you do.

The people involved should have seen a wide range of jobs and therefore should be able to compare them against each other, whereas the Jobholder will only know about his/her own specific job. The unions will also be sat alongside HR so it shouldn’t be a case of senior management deciding who sits in what Band.

Bearing in mind that everybody but everybody thinks their job is quite important the Matchers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

But under Agenda for Change all jobs were matched nationally in 2008.
Now 11 years later we are in a position of same jobs different bands depending on NHS Trust because of the local job matching panels.
I’ve seen very small Trusts give staff a higher band than in a much larger Trust looking after less staff and a smaller budget.

[Countdown]

Downward said:

But under Agenda for Change all jobs were matched nationally in 2008.
Now 11 years later we are in a position of same jobs different bands depending on NHS Trust because of the local job matching panels.
I’ve seen very small Trusts give staff a higher band than in a much larger Trust looking after less staff and a smaller budget.

I let the NHS back in 1999 but I've been thorugh similar exercises for other Local Govt Central Govt bodies.

The problem is that, regardless of what the JD says, jobs between organisations are never exactly the same. The people doing the matching have all been through the same training and are working alongside union reps and external consultants so (in theory) the scoring should be consistent. In reality it isn't. As I said JDs dont always reflect reality and, on top of that, there's a subconscious comparison against other roles within that Trust.

My sister-in-law is a band F in old money and she works in a clinic 2 days a week. She has no management responsibility at all but (AIUI) she's graded the same as a Ward Sister.

You are never ever going to get consistency across a Trust, let alone the entire NHS. For everybody arguing that their Grade should be one higher, there is a range of people in the next grade above arguing that there should be differentials between them and the grade below because of XYZ.