Job evaluation: decide if it’s right for you
What to consider and how it works
If you think you’re not being paid fairly for the job you do, you can review and update your job description and ask for it to be evaluated.
Before you start, it’s helpful to understand what makes a person a good candidate for job evaluation and to broadly understand the process.
When to consider a job evaluation
You might consider job evaluation if since you started your role you have:
- taken on additional duties and responsibilities not in your job description
- taken courses, study days or self-directed learning opportunities to gain knowledge that helps you in your role
- achieved additional specialist academic qualifications relevant to your role
- developed new skills and competencies through your experience
These are just some examples. You may have other strong reasons for why you believe your job should be evaluated.
For more information on the importance of job evaluation, watch our video.
How job evaluation works
There are 4 stages of the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme process, which provides a gold standard for job evaluation. But with underfunding and short staffing, it’s not being implemented as it should be.
That's why we encourage you to proactively apply for job evaluation if you believe you're working at a level beyond your current pay grade or band.
If you don't work for the NHS, you could still benefit from the principles and process of job evaluation. Check whether you have a job evaluation policy at your employer.
See the different stages below.
Across the country, employers and trade unions have agreed a large number of job profiles for commonly occurring jobs. The profiles are scored and pay grades or ‘bands’ are determined. Nearly all NHS jobs match a profile. This is called ‘job matching’ and it's the process for deciding the banding of most jobs. A small number of unique, specialist jobs will not match a national profile automatically.
At local employers, a panel of trained employer and trade union job evaluators look at the agreed job description and person specification and match it to one of the national profiles. This determines the band for the job.
If you feel your job has not been matched to the correct profile, you can request a job evaluation to ask the matching panel to consider regrading or rebanding your role.
You'll need to evaluate your skills, responsibilities and effort factors against your current job description. You'll then need to agree with your manager an updated job description based on your evaluation.
Role holders complete a job analysis questionnaire and are interviewed by trained job evaluators before a panel considers scoring under 16 job factors. The scoring determines the right band.
If you have submitted a request for a job evaluation, you may not hear back from your employer with the outcome for several months or longer.
Decisions from both job matching and job evaluating must go through consistency checking. This happens in partnership with trained employee and staff representatives.
Consistency checkers can agree with the matching or evaluation decision or, if they have any concerns, ask the panel to review the decision. Once they have checked for consistency, they let the role holder know the outcome.
If a role holder is dissatisfied with the outcome of matching or evaluating, they can request a review within 3 months of the decision. This means a new job evaluation panel will follow the matching or evaluating process above with more information to support the review request. The review panel’s decision is final.
This is the last stage of appeal. A separate local grievance procedure kicks in if the role holder raises issues with the way the process was carried out.
When are jobs put through job evaluation?
1. New jobs
All new jobs should automatically go through the job evaluation process.
2. Jobs affected by service redesign or organisational change
All jobs affected by restructures must have the correct banding applied to ensure pay equality. Local policies dictate how this is carried out – job evaluation should be a key part of this.
3. Jobs that have changed significantly
If there are significant differences between the job you were employed to do and the job you do today, you can ask for your job to be evaluated. Use our step-by-step guidance to help. Sign up below.
Work in the NHS? Get started today
Sign up to get step-by-step guidance about requesting a job evaluation in the NHS. We’ll email you with proactive steps toward the pay you deserve – and keep you on track when life gets in the way.
