Pay review process flow

Pay review in detail

The steps to successful pay reviews

1. Publish the rating scale with descriptions
2. Agree team and individual objectives with each team member
3. Assess team members performance against their objectives
4. Compare and contrast staff ratings with team leaders
5. Publish conclusion to team leaders
6. Publish conclusion to staff individually

1. Publish the rating scale with descriptions

• Avoid rating scales with an odd number of ratings and remove the temptation to score the middle rating
• Ensure that the ratings make it clear which rating is 'doing the job'
• Suggested rating scale
  • 1. Excellent - Objective achieved and substantially exceeded expectations
  • 2. Very good - Objective achieved with some aspects better than expectations
  • 3. Good - Objective largely achieved, doing the job
  • 4. Improvement required - Some aspects fall below the standard expected

2. Agree team and individual objectives with each team member

• For each team member review the deliverables that make up their role
• For each deliverable describe what they are expected to achieve in the assessment period
• Describe the objective using the SMART approach
  • S - Specific, be clear about the aim and outcome
  • M - Measurable, a means of measuring success, or partial success
  • A - Assignable, who will do what aspects
  • R - Realistic, needs to be reasonable given other constraints
  • T - Time related, a date to deliver by

3. Assess team members performance against their objectives

• For each team member rate each of their objective using the rating scale
• Seek the team member's view of each of their scores and why
• Discuss with the team member why each score is appropriate
• Agree an overall rating for the individual
• Ideally do this 2 or 3 times as the assessment period progresses to make the final assessment more straightforward

4. Compare and contrast staff ratings with team leaders

• Review the ratings as a group to sanity check that they all look sensible relative to one another
• If required adjust individual ratings to correct any anomalies
• Ensure that the team leader responsible for any staff receiving rating adjustments clearly understands why a change is being made

5. Publish conclusion to team leaders

• Publish a clear summary of the pay review outcome, including ratings and percentage increases
• Seek confirmation that the summary is correct and reflects the agreed outcome
• Ensure that team leaders are comfortable about how they are going to communicate the outcome to individual team members

6. Publish conclusion to staff individually

• Issue pay increases to staff individually, ideally face-to-face
• Summarise the positives and learning points that they should take away
• Thank them for their hard work