IMPACT has published a guide to help union reps and members navigate the new health service job evaluation scheme. The booklet gives guidance on the application and assessment process, including the factors that are scored when job evaluations are carried out.

The job evaluation scheme, which is open to clerical and administrative staff, was reinstated last October after a successful IMPACT campaign. It had been unilaterally abandoned by management in 2008.

The new guide has been produced to help IMPACT representatives assist members who are making applications under the scheme, and inform members who are deciding whether to apply.

IMPACT national secretary Eamonn Donnelly said the booklet was the latest development in a campaign to ensure that health jobs are properly evaluated and rewarded. “Last summer the union balloted for industrial action, which led to the HSE agreeing to reopen the scheme. Since then we have trained union evaluators and held information meetings around the country. Now this guide will help members and union reps submit the best possible applications to the process.”

Job evaluations assess whether a specific post is correctly graded by measuring the skills and responsibilities required of the job. It’s a points-based system which measures the ‘size’ of a job using five specific ‘factors’ (competence, problem solving, decision making, communications, and responsibility and accountability). It weights the factors, which means more points are awarded to the more important factors.

The evaluations will be carried out by trained IMPACT and management representatives from outside the employment where the post is based.

The scheme is currently open to staff at grades III to VI – and analogous grades – but the union is campaigning to extend it to more senior admin and management posts and to health professional grades.

Read the IMPACT guide to job evaluation HERE.