Firstly, using number of years service as a rationale for justifying a certain factor level and secondly the use of person specifications to assess the level of knowledge required for a given post.
Number of years service to justify a factor level
The number of years service should not be used as a rationale for justifying a certain factor level. It is possible that using number of years service contravenes the age discrimination legislation. The Job Evaluation handbook refers specifically to the use of experience as follows:
“Simply doing a job for a number of years may make the jobholder most proficient at doing the job, but does not always result in additional knowledge.”
Person specifications to assess knowledge required
Person specifications are not always enough to assess the level of knowledge required for a job, as this may change significantly depending on the job market in existence at the time. The Job Evaluation handbook states:
“The person specification may understate the knowledge actually needed to carry out the job because it is set at a recruitment level on the expectation that the rest of the required knowledge will be acquired in-house through on the job training and experience, for example:
- clerical posts for which the recruitment level of knowledge is a number of GCSEs, whereas the actual knowledge required includes a range of clerical and administrative procedures
- managerial posts for which the recruitment level of knowledge is a number of GCSEs plus a specified period of health service experience, when the actual knowledge required includes the range of administrative procedures used by the team managed plus supervisory/managerial knowledge or experience
- healthcare jobs where a form of specialist knowledge is stated on the person specification as desirable, rather than essential, because the trust is willing to provide training in the particular specialist field."
The Job Evaluation Group
The Job Evaluation Group is a national technical sub-group of the NHS Staff Council whose remit is to continue to ensure that the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme is fit for purpose. Its membership includes representatives of the health service, the four UK health departments and representatives of the NHS joint unions.