Every year the Union increases the wages we pay our student staff in line with the annual uplift which the National Living Wage (NLW) sees. In November 2017, we decided to take the opportunity to use this year's increase to conduct a holistic review of the current structure which defines the way we pay our student staff. This led to the discovery of 8 different rates of pay across the Union each with its own hourly rate for many different roles and with some only having been created for one specific role.
Over the next 5 months, the student staff roles were streamlined into 4 new categories to provide consistency across the whole organisation in our approach to defining each role and the rate of pay they deserve. In doing so a new Competency Framework was created, to identify the skills, qualities and specialist knowledge required for each category. Based on the role descriptions for each position, they were placed into their appropriate category, the outcome of which can be seen in the matrix below:
This review was formulated with the input of every manager, who at the time recruited student staff, and was approved by the Leadership team of the Union (SMG and OTs) and the Appointments & Remunerations Committee (a subcommittee of the Board of Trustees). This Competency Framework has been implemented from 1st April 2018 for all student staff roles. Factored into the new framework is the increase in the National Living Wage of 4.4%, which also occurred on 1st April.
As a result of the new Competency Framework, we will pay our student staff £18,620.61 more overall (from April 2018 to April 2019). This is in addition to an assurance that all our student staff are receiving the appropriate level of pay and are being justly rewarded for their hard work.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with the Deputy President (Finances & Services) here