With the end of October rapidly approaching teachers’ annual appraisals should be in full swing, with a view to performance related pay decisions being made shortly. Many appraisals may already in fact be complete and in order to assist Pay Committees and senior staff with the final stage in the process we have set out some tips below:
- Ensure consistency - Although staff should not be aware of their colleagues’ individual pay it is important from an equality perspective that all staff are treated fairly and consistently. To ensure this schools may ask line managers or the Headteacher to review final appraisal reports and pay recommendations (or a selection) for this purpose. If there does appear to be any unusual decisions or anomalies these should be addressed with the appraiser as soon as is possible and before reports are passed to the Pay Committee for review.
- Can decisions be objectively justified? – Many members of staff will have become accustomed to automatic pay progression in previous years and the thought of no pay progression (even without recourse to formal capability) will be a cause for concern. It is therefore important that the appraisal documentation clearly supports any reasons for (or not as the case may be) any increase in pay. If the documentation/evidence supports the decision in regards to any pay award this will assist the school in the event of any appeal.
- Set aside time to meet with staff – If staff do not receive any pay increase (or the increase that they were expecting) they may seek to appeal this decision. Schools should seek advice on how to deal with any such appeal, bearing in mind the content of their pay policy. However, many pay policies provide for informal discussions, prior to a formal appeal. If you are aware of any potentially ‘controversial’ pay decisions it may be worth setting sometime aside to discuss this decision with the employee informally and re-iterate the reasons for this decision, either when the confirmation is given to the employee or shortly after the decision is communicated. This will hopefully ensure that the employee understands the decision and may help him/her to address any performance concerns moving forward. In addition, such a meeting will hopefully help to avoid any formal, time consuming appeal.
We hope you have an enjoyable half term break!
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