Case Studies

I Staff Transfers

Education

We have provided lead advice in the establishment of Academies, mainly by the transfer of existing schools. These transfers under the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations (TUPE) have been from different LEAs, with different terms and conditions of employment and varying trade union recognition arrangements. The success of these staff transfers has rested largely on the building of effective relationships with teaching and support staff unions at national level, to develop a common understanding of the complexity of the project as more new academies are established and the range of stakeholders increases.

One example of a complex transfer situation was our aadvice to a sponsor on the establishement of a city academy in place of a large London secondary school. The complexities arose in this case from the splitting of an existing school into more than one new academy, which made the staff consultations and job identification less straightforward than usual.

Government services

We have advised on a series of government service transfers from a number of Departments, including DEFRA, the Home Office, education and skillls and health. Government projects are often complicated and protracted for reasons that are a mixture of political propriety and organisational scale and complexity. In all of the cases handled in the last three or four years, the business transfers have involved a number of employers, therefore a number of separate large-scale staff transfers brought together into one new entity. In each case the process has involved

• A mix of central and local government terms of contract and trade union recognition
• Staff consultation
• Multi-trade union consultation and documentation, in some cases managed entirely by EMMG Ltd
• Due diligence checks and contract administration
• Pre-transfer reorganisations, involving some redundancies
• Post-transfer change management, including negotiation of harmonised terms and conditions of employment

Local government

A large metropolitan borough council planned to transfer a wide range of its services to a private sector consortium. The assignment of staff to multiple transferring businesses was complex. We worked closely with the council’s trade unions and legal team to streamline processes and reassure all staff transferring as well as those not assigned.

Housing

We have undertaken a variety of projects within the RSL sector in support of staff transfers, either as a result of stock transfer or other service re-organisations. We have provided lead advice to the National Housing Federation on supporting stock transfers and have directly supported a number of housing organisations prepare to receive staff, or to transfer staff over to another provider. In some of these cases, the advice has been required in the context of trade union recognition, but not all, and the recommended processes for consultation have been tailored accordingly.

II       Reward

Pay audit and review

We have carried out a number of equal pay audits, including local authority “Single Status” support. We were able to produce graphic representation of the impact of the existing pay policy as well as narrative explanation, and make recommendations for improved reward strategy and practice to reduce any unequal impacts in the future.

A housing provider sought a review of its pay policy, after some four years of operation, to establish whether its implementation had resulted in any gender or race bias. We conducted a thorough review pay and staff data, as well as staff and senior management interviews to draw together our findings and make some practical recommendations for maintaining and monitoring the pay system over time.

Reward Strategy

We have drawn up bespoke total reward strategy discussion papers for a both a large national organisation and SMEs whose pay policy and structure were perceived to be out of date and no longer fit for purpose in radically changing business circumstances.

Pay structures

A housing provider required a new pay structure for its office-based and care staff, and wanted to take into account some measure of market comparability as well as internal relativity. We devised a job evaluation scheme to meet their needs and restructured their pay-grade system to allow for market-driven recruitment and progression for competence.

Relating reward to performance

A number of organisations, including housing associations, private schools and higher education establishments have asked us to devise pay systems that can reward for competence as well as excellence. We have devised for them appraisal schemes and competency frameworks either to suit their existing pay structures or to support a tailored pay structure which we have developed for them. The keys to success have been

• to work with the client to develop indicators and measures of performance that everyone recognises as valid for the area of work, e.g. professional teaching in schools, care workers
• to align the reward strategy to the overarching business or HR strategy, so that pay and non-pay rewards sit well with the organisational culture and deliver improvement
• effective staff communication, involving trade unions where recognised

III       Interim Management

Elaine Green has covered a number of senior HR roles in District and Metropolitan authorities in local government and housing organisations, often to review services and bring about change.

She also provides ad hoc advisory services to charities, housing associations and other SMEs.