St Andrew’s Healthcare has worked with its line managers to redesign its pay strategy.
The mental healthcare charity's reward team and HR business partners spoke with line managers to find out their views on the previous approach to pay, for example, what worked well, what factors were missing, and whether there was enough of a focus on competencies, for example.
Managers also shared their views on what competitors offered their employees.
The organisation's previous pay system was linked to an employee’s performance rating in a year. It has now reviewed the performance appraisal system and is working on capturing competencies, skills and training, as well as performance.
The organisation has also focused its budget on its lowest-paid employees and now offers above national living wage rates.
A pay strategy presentation was launched to the leadership team in October, which has been followed up with presentations to operation teams and senior management teams.
The organisation worked with Verditer Consulting and its internal communications team to plan the communications of the strategy to the teams.
Evi Page, head of reward, says: “We’ve been going out meeting the senior management team and managers within the business to gauge their feedback, see what employees are saying, and to see what questions are coming up, to train them up in more detail.
“It’s been a process and a change in the culture, actually listening to employees and managers and assessing what the needs are from each perspective because both our employees and managers need a bit more clarity so they can start having conversations about pay, so it isn’t a closed box. We’re keen to promote a lot more transparency and a more holistic approach to pay.
“Our strategy is about paying people right for the right level of performance and to support our business to be really successful.”
St Andrew's Healthcare is still in the early stages of delivering its pay strategy but is working with Verditer to review job classifications and competencies.
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