Making sure the job’s worth it 

5 October 2005
Hilton Birmingham Metropole, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham

Perspectives from within the IT/IS Community on implementing the new framework agreement

The move towards implementation of the new framework agreement for modernisation of pay structures has potential to cause angst amongst an institution’s staff in general and IT staff in particular. Central to the implementation is job evaluation. Our IT/IS departments, including merged IT, Library and Media Technology departments, provide a business-critical resource and service to our Universities. However , do those performing the evaluations understand the value of technical expertise to an organisation? Is there an appreciation of the collaborative work undertaken to develop and deliver services to administrators, researchers, teachers and learners? What are the implications for a service in terms of staff retention and human resource planning, staff morale, job design and budgets?

UCISA is hosting a Forum to draw on the experiences already gained by those institutions that have gone through the process and to disseminate it to those who are in the stages of job evaluation and of negotiating appropriate structures for their institutions. The presentations will reach beyond the immediate issues associated with job evaluations and incorporate the wider issues associated with establishing job families with inter-related posts and associated job descriptions.

The Forum will be attractive to managers who have either a direct role to play in the initiative or who are interested in determining the implications for professional staff development and career structures in their community, both now and beyond the implementation of the new agreement.