Teen beauty spot drinkers are ramblers, not rebels
- Dave Burrows
Performance-related pay for Shropshire Council staff
Thursday 9th February 2012, 7:00PM GMT.
A performance-related pay bonus is to be given to all Shropshire Council workers who go ‘above and beyond’ in their work, it has been revealed.
Members of the authority’s ruling cabinet were assured that the system for awarding the money would be based on effort – and it will be brought in only when the council has balanced its books.
The plan was discussed during talks on the financial strategy to save £25 million by 2014 – part of budget cuts that will eventually take £86 million out of the authority.
Labour leader Alan Mosley said the payments, pencilled in to start from April 2013, would have to be administered very carefully.
But council leader Keith Barrow said the system would replace a previous method of incremental bonuses which rewarded top managers based on the amount of time they worked for the authority, rather than their actual performance.
That system has since been scrapped. The council is in talks with unions to work out how to implement the system, which is being developed over the coming year.
The money would come from a £1.2 million package being set aside for additional expenditure.
Councillor Barrow said as a ‘principle’ there had to be something in place to compensate staff who went ‘above and beyond’.
Speaking after the meeting, he said staff had seen their pay frozen over three years and changes to their terms and conditions.
“If we’re going to be more businesslike its important that we recognise the importance of our staff and that they come with us,” he said.
Mr Barrow said the details of how the scheme would work were still being finalised, although he thought it would involve a sum of money being set aside and then administered by a committee of councillors following a strict set of targets.
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After all the news of Bankers bonuses, only the Council could come up with this.
The gravy train is still going well at Shropshire Council.I can think of many important things that could be done with £1.2 Million. You are employed and payed to do a job, if you do it well thanks, if not your sacked.
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Agreed
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Although as a system to replace one based on length of service, it would seem to be superior wouldn’t you agree ?
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Fantastic news!. Oh thank you Keith. Mwwwwah!. Since you made half my office redundant I’ve been covering three jobs. But now my pay will reflect the amount I’m doing now.
But seriously….Don’t do it!. He cuts your pay, reduces your numbers then throws you a bone to get you to cover the lack of staff!!! Priceless. You’ve got to hand it to him. Oh, you are.
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Well if you are doing this ie covering three jobs and you have not said your are unable to do it , then three were not needed and you were not doing enough in the fist place .
As digby jones said half the c/s and the public will get their moneys worth, and the c/s will earn their wage. FANTASTIC ………… now go for the bonus old chum.
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so they are going to get bonuses, like the bankers! this is disgusting that money should go to oap homes and bin collections not fat cats pockets
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But they already do.
This system rewards the top performers rather than those who happen to have avoided the chop the longest.
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Which overpaid outside consultant has the Chief Executive appointed to come up with this bright idea.As the report says the details of how it works are yet to be finalised.Brilliant, the Councillors are supporting something when they have no idea
of how it will work or the cost.
It appears that this could be financially rewarding for senior management but just how would it work for people on the lower grades who do the day to day work.
Having a Committee of Councillors assessing every member of staffs effort over the year , to see if the individual has gone” above and beyond” on an annual basis only makes one wonder how long it will take and which Councillors have this amount of time.
However if it is to be based on senior managers opinion of their staff heaven help the staff who question the actions of their seniors ,Directors or the Chief Executive.
At least Councillor Barrow has woke up to the fact that staff are important and perhaps top management could start showing all staff some due repect in negotiations with staff and union.
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“However if it is to be based on senior managers opinion of their staff”
…I expect senior managers will turn out to have a very high opinion of…
…senior managers!
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I assume they’ll be reviewed by their superiors rather than their peers.
However, experience tells me that it’ll be a lot of paper work to disguise someone’s ‘I like you’, ‘I don’t like you’ bias.
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Next step bonuses for councillors
nice one mr barrow, soon you can have £400 a month for food like the MP’s do, close a couple more schools against your election promises and you might even be able to get a housing allowance for all those poor shropshire MP’s who have to travel all the way to Shrewsbury from the rural constituancies
Some animals are more equal than others…
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HA! What a joke. Those lot who approved the concrete slinky, the awful traffic island and couldnt organise cardboard collections even they should get a pay cut not a bonus!
This is taxpayers money for Christ sake that Barrow bloke is out of touch if he thinks anyone there deserves anything
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Should be simple to add that one up, dont perform dont get paid, no one should get a bonus until the council can collect the bins properly and the streets are free of chewing gum stains and dogs muck
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This goes completely against nationally agreed contractual bargaining. Legislation will probably be needed to implement this system and it will not wash with union national executives. They never learn do they.
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Yes, and we know who will continue to get the revised form of bonuses – the so-called Senior Management. And, re-reading the comments by Councillor Barrow, it has obviously been the case that in this area, as in so many others, this Council (and no doubt its predecessor(s) have been wasting our money – by awarding bonuses to serving officers on the length of their service as opposed to merit. Will we see a return of these unjustly given amounts? Er, I don’t think so. None of this will be pensionable and we all know how “carefully” the scheme will be administered. You can guarantee it won’t be those doing the real work that receive such top-ups to their salaries.
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The arrangements for increments are part of the pay structure for all local authority staff nationally. Pay is graded and length of service increases your grading. Increments are awarded every six months and when you reach the top of your grade they stop. Common practice in the public sector and beyond. Increments are not bonuses but part of the standard pay agreement.
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incorrect, increments are annual not every six months
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mmmmmmmmmmmmm I think we ALL need to be made aware of WHO and HOW MUCH when it comes to these so called payments .
It is from experience, i have known such payment and reward go to high and middle management while the rest are over looked.
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I may be wrong but I think such info has to be lodged in libraries in the US (re public sector employees).
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A sensible move that brings the council into line with commercial organizations – but I hope the bonuses aren’t paid for “effort” as mentioned above. You get a salary for effort, you get a bonus for results.
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I noticed that too…
Awww look at little incompetent… Didnt achieve anythign last year but lets give him a big fat bonus ‘cos he tried hard.
No more council tax from me you thieving bunch of *****!
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Andy, take a look at Network rail, a failing public sector company. Targets have not been met but senior management awarded bonuses. What makes you think Shorpshire Council will be any different.
Oh, and their is a forward pay committee at network Rail benchmarking senior pay to the ftse which means senior management pay will increase five fold over the next decade.
Shows you what performace related pay does in the public sector and how only a small select gain whilst most staff lose.
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perhaps they should get the same independant committee who determine councillors allowances to decide? then they could double their basic pay with travel subsidies, allowances and perks.
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reckon they need to look up the word “performance” in the dictionary, handing out contracts to failing firms like veolia who cant collect cardboard makes the entire council due a big fat zero this year and every year til they put it right
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omg how out of touch are these people
obviously they dont get the news on those I Pads people are sick of bonuses. people should get a salary and thats that, bonuses distort priorities and dont work in the round they just make you focus on one bit of your jobs at the expense of the rest
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Yup, this is pointed at Senior Managers. If there is to be a performance related element to pay, is their basic salary going to be lowered to take account of it. Nope, didn’t think so. Senior officials should be seperate from Councillors, their pay should not be decided by Councillors but by independent committees. Currently, pay is based on independent assessment and ratified by the Coucil. Is this an effort by Councillors to control officials further i.e. refuse bonuses to senior officials who do not tow the party line and tell Barrow’s bunch they are acting ultra vires?
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Clearly they dont know what they’re doing, get a new bunch of consultants in to advise these managers about a different approach to policy. To get more work out of the staff you dont pay them bonuses you sack the ones who dont perform. Much more effective
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“If we’re going to be more businesslike its important that we recognise the importance of our staff and that they come with us,” he said”
What a joke, these people wouldn’t last five minutes running their own businesses.
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You obviously don’t understand the difference between running a business and running a council. FYI there are many differences. Cue more clever comments.
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Yes Jane you’ve finally grasped it then…that’s why they will never be “more businesslike”…go to the top of the class you’ve earned your bonus this year.
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Actually having worked in councils and the private sector, the one thing I have noticed is that those from business cannot run public services at all. They usually are the last people you want anywhere near these services as they have difficulty grasping the fact that it is services that are being delivered rather than profit. Strangely several colleagues I know have been made redundant from the public sector (LA and NHS) and are doing really well running their own businesses. It sort of appears that the argument should be the other way around…
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Will people please read the letter first before you reply with pathetic and stupid replies.
If and i state if, you as an employee go ‘above and beyond’ your call of duty on a regular basis throughout the year then a what is wrong with a bonus as a way of an employer saying thank you?
But i suppose all of you on here think council employees only work at shirehall and earn £150,000 per annum….
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im not sure they thought this through, it would have to be capped or it could bankrupt them
in a previous job a long long time ago i used to sell insurance and im not bragging but i set company records for sales and ended up with more bonus than pay, it was a very good year but well the company cant afford it for ever and it causes alot of problems with the team. it got to the point as well where i had to turn down a management job because it would have been a pay cut for me as bonuses were only for sales staff, so it sort of stiffeled my development in the long run too so i have mixed feelings on it
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Obviously Keith Barrow is not the shrewdest politian with his timing then? Is he aware of the RBS Bonus scandal that is on national TV every day at the moment? LOL – your suicide note keith
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£1.2 million would have kept Wakeman school open!
WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER?
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Better than getting a payrise based on old age surely. The current system is that you join the council and get a pay rise every year up to a maximum of about 5 years. After than you sit there with no incentive for years you cannot earn any overtime or anything so why try harder?
The current system only incentivises longevity of service which saves HR money on recruitment but thats about it. So reform is needed for sure, but it could get very messy and beaurocratic and cliquey and unfair if its not done very carefully
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Proof that tories dont get public service
you arent selling anything, you cant measure quality of service like that.
Is it good to pay more if there are more children taken off their parents by social workers or if there is more people driving on the road or more rubbish picked up or more council house tenants?
No, these things are social ills, they are bad for society so they should not be rewarded they should be avoided.
But how will the social worker, the bin man, or the librarian get their 10% at Christmas if they dont have more and more and more of these negative things ?
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just what the national finances need more pay for public sector workers, only shropshire council (PR disaster) could come up with such an ill timed and ill conceived idea
have they thought to ask taxpayers what they think of these bonuses?
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I agree wholeheartedly with the post by bemused.com…Shropshire Council employs well over 6500 staff, the majority of who are hardworking, dedicated and devoted employees who do a great service for the residents of Shropshire. After all the cuts,reduction in pay and uncertainty of job security, these people turn into work day in and day out to deliver services for most of the people who moan on this blog and they deserve a reward for their duty!!
The fact of the matter is that local authorities across the country have been mismanaged over the years and now efficiencies are needing to be made…however, Shropshire council is having to think innovatively about how it provides services in the future, which means thinking in a more business like manner, hence the move to performance related pay. Rewarding for productivity is a lot better than rewarding on the basis of service – which was such an archaic and backward scheme anyway. I think the reason why most people object to performance related pay is because the demographic of the stereotypical council worker is 40+ and very resistant to change – I think this is the perfect warning – shape up or ship out…if your not up to the challenge of being based on your ability and performance then you are not going to fit into the new way of working in the Council. And to all those who don’t work in the Council, common sense dictates that if an employee doesn’t perform, they don’t get an increase – I applaud them for thinking innovatively and making staff finally accountable and hopefully get rid of those who don’t perform!!
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All would be well if we were not aware of the reality at Shropshire Council since this enlightened lot took power.
In the last two years, many experienced, dedicated workers have seen their job description and contract changed, their pay cut and workload increased.
These are people who served the public above and beyond their duties.
Many have left their posts without a penny in redundancy or a word of thanks due to the June ‘put up or shut up’ letter. Some exceptional workers, who used to be a great asset to Shropshire, are now working in Cheshire and other regions or for private firms.
This council does not know how to keep good, dedicated staff and are stretching people to their limits.
Bonuses are not the answer.Trust, respect, fair pay and conditions, support and recognition, credit when its due: this are a good worker’s requirements. The rest is a PR exercise for incompetent leaders.
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and when did shropshire cc last do a good job. any bonus’s and performance related pay should go in the new incinerator to keep the home fires burning
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by 2025 the council will be spending 10% of its turn over (or 40% of your council tax) on the incinerator alone!
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they dont deserve a single penny shropshire county council is one of the worst run councils in the whole of the uk, and the most expensive, all they do is cut back on services when they employ hundreds and hundreds of managers and non jobs still and they are completely out of touch with local people too.
Bring back the old district councils i say!
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As a council employee i think this is a good thing because as I’m at the top of my grade I cannot currently earn any extra. I have not had an increment for years, so I am looking forward to now I will be able to get a pay rise (which is much needed)
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so more cost for taxpayers then! no thanks rather not pay you a bonus out of my salary thank you very much
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just wait til you phone the council and they cant wait to get you off the phone for their bonus of dealing with each enquiry in less than a minute or the homeless need a house and get put in a totally inappropriate one just to get them off the waiting list etc
Look what such centrally dictacted targets have done to the NHS, not good!
Quality not quantity counts
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i could think of more than a million better things to do with this amount of public money
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this is concenrning the lack of political judgement being shown here imagine the fun the star can have with freedom of information requests every year another round of bonuses nicely coinciding with elections and closures and cuts to services each year the bonus pool will be held up as a headline at the same time as council tax goes up by 3% or another million is taken out of bin collections
well its your funeral mr barrow
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the bonus pool should be zero until cardboard pick ups are reinstated
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1.2 million! Sickens me
they sure have their noses in the trough
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You don’t motivate a workforce by devaluing and bullying it, unilaterally rewriting its contracts of employment, expecting it to provide basic work essentials out of its own pocket, and repeating in the press what a huge burden it is to the taxpayer, then flinging into the pot the offer of a bit more cash for the chosen few deemed by those at the top to have done an ‘outstanding’ job. I wonder which councillors will be chosen for the committee to administer the bonuses. Who will they decide have gone ‘above and beyond’?- those who are already paid handsomely and who are responsible for closing and reducing the services the public needs, or those whose morale is plummetting and who are struggling to continue to provide those services on the ground with fewer colleagues, less income, less resources, and increased demand? This sounds to me like a divisive political move to further reward officers who support the current regime’s agenda, and keep those who don’t in their place- I can think of better ways to “recognise the importance of staff” and ensure they “come with us” as Cllr Barrow puts it.
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best thing they can do to perform right now is save money, so how does giving them a bonus to save money produce net savings?
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the clues in the title “performance related” ie most workers at SCC need not apply
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only the cheif exec and a couple of directors who do some big deals will get it and they will fight tooth and nail to hog the limelight and make sure their minnions dont get a sniff of action which could lead to overshadowing them. so workers will be frozen out of involvement in big projects and not trusted to make decisions or take initiative or stand out
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pretty sure the bleeting bleeding heart liberals who work in the public sector tell us they dont get out of bed for the money. What happened to the ethos of public service? and job satisfaction from “helping” the poor?
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The ethos got privatised …..
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LoL funny
what next honesty related pay for journalists?
freedom related pay for dictators?
truth related pay for politicians?
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just what i want my public servants thinking about their profit margin rather than the big picture, i dont think the council needs to be business like, if it were business like it would be like RBS, or Lloyds, or la sensa or woolworths and it would go bust, then who would pick up the bins?
You just cannot have a free market in public services. We cannot allow them to go ‘bust’ so there will never be a business like attitude and we wouldnt want them to think like that…
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Bonuses will go to the people at the top who are already overpaid.
And bonuses will be paid to those who do exactly what Keith Barrow wants them to do whether or not it is professionally or morally correct.
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How dare they do this without public consultation, I do not want my MY taxes going on bonuses. I dont think its right for public servants to get any bonuses at all, if they are not working right its down to bad management not lack of bonuses. How dare they use our money for this its not their decision its the publics and we will decide at the elections. They have just lost my vote on this.
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Yet again I read about this organisation which takes nearly £2,000 a year from me just to empty the bin and cant seem to spend public money properly. Its fiasco after fiasco with money being wasted right left and centre. Sack the board I say, there is a serious leadership problem (and a PR problem) with this organisation, they just dont seem to get it, this is OUR money they are spending we expect it to be used prudently.
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Owain-
I don’t think it’s the ‘left’ and ‘centre’ that are causing the problems here- Shropshire Cabinet is very firmly of the ‘right’. These councillors, supported by a few senior officer croniesies, are the ones who are doing so much damage with their appalling decisions and who should go.
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Oops- one too many ‘ies’in cronies.
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Definition of croniesie: a praticularly extreme and malignant form of cronie…..
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Owain, just empty your bin?
Education, Street lighting, sports centres, environmental health, food standards, social work, road maintenance, museums, libraries, town centre management, trading standards, economic development,registry services, I could go on but it is obvious that you are completely unaware of council services available to you.
We live in a society where we all contribute to local services, it is up to you whether you want to use them.
Oh, and in relation to sack the board, you next get your opportunity in 2015, it’s called a local election.
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A large chunk of the £2000 you pay also goes to pay for the Police, Fire Service, Ambulance service and you local town or parish Council.
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nonesense ph7, those organisations get about 10%, shropshire councils the lions share and they are the ones who are the least frontline, the only actual service which real people use is bin collections
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meanwhile back on planet earth public sector bonuses are causing upset amongst voters http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9078157/Bonuses-in-the-public-sector-face-widespread-crackdown.html
Earth to councillor barrow. Do you hear me? over.
this is ground control to major barrow, the voters have a message for you, over and OUT.
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If their pay is performance related, I think most of them will be paying to work!
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Meanwhile the government want to end bonuses for public sector workers because they cost too much and dont work
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17008020
this will just distort peoples priorities away from wholistic service provision and result in un joined up governance as individuals go after their own end not working in a team for the best interests of the whole public sector
wait for chaos in the NHS and social workers pursue their own bonuses for example
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Having regularly worked a 60 hr week for the council in the past my reward was a pay cut and loss of allowances that left me around £4,000 a year worse off.
My response was to get a better paid job in the private sector, I am now (albeit having to do a long commute out of county) much much better off but best of all I am happier in my job and sleep better at night.
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based on their current debacles (the I pad fiasco, the PFI debts, the attempt at getting off the pay cut by the cheif executive (via a charitable donation scheme), the concete slinky by the river, the traffic island in the middle of a dual carriageway on smithfield, the £80,000 spend on planting up heathgates traffic island, the cut to the cardboard collection, the cut to the food waste colleciton, the closure of the reference library, the 100% payrise for councillors on going unitary, the lack of gritting or basic bin collections every time it snows, the mismangement of funds going to Icelandskibanksi etc etc etc) I would say they deserve a bonus of precisely ZERO
shopshire council = shambles
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You cannot tarnish over 6500 members of staff, the majority of who work very hard in their jobs, with those decisions you cited.
I know countless people who work hard, despite having a reduction in pay and being hit with various economical penalties, never mind those that are intangible, and they deserved to be rewarded for their hard contribution. I think this performance related pay has been completely misinterpreted by the general public who have no concept of what happens on a daily basis for the majority of staff at Shropshire Council.
Although those decisions you cited may have been bad ones, please do not tarnish hardworking employees with the same brush.
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What a disgrace, staff should not expect a bonus for doing their job, they do it for love and because it shows they want a promotion they dont need cash for it! Respect for those who do stay late etc but they should get promotion and time off in leui, not cash which is needed for services.
this could be the difference between an OAP starving to death or not, its life or death what the council does its no job.
Money is tight, it does not grow on trees, on million extra pay is unacceptable, this is public money for god sake!
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ive an idea
how about they get a pound each extra for every tonne of cardboard they pick up and they get minus one pound for every bin they miss
i reckon they would be in negative territory on their current (frankly rubbish) performance
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Huge insult to staff to say they don’t deal with things in a business like manner already.
Also, how do you assess bonuses, does a Road Engineer get a bonus when his roadworks finish early, or if a a bin man finishes his round early. How do you judge comparative worth If a Trading Standards Officer gives up six months of weekends to carry out his duties,is he worth more than the social worker who comforts the elderly in hospital?
How do you assess a bonus for an admin assistant in HR or someone in the call centre. How do you calculate a bonus based on a group target where no individual targets exist. Do you differentiate between group members or deal with staff individually?
A council is not like a business. You cannot look to profitability, sales targets or share price to assess bonus and to find an appropriate and equal way of assessing staff in different professions is almost impossible.
How does a Councillor with no in depth knowledge of the training and experience required in many parts of the council assess whether or not an officer is worthy.
A complete shambles by a bunch of puffed up tradesmen. A Councillors job is policy, not pay and remuneration.
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Councils are having to think of new ways of working and thinking in a more commercially-centric manner is imperative in order to survive the cuts coming from Whitehall. Why shouldn’t Councils think in a business-like manner when private sector companies like Capita and Serco deliver the similar, if not the same services as Councils do and make a profit? Residents, much like the staff, need to understand that huge changes are taking place, whether they like it or not, and they need to be ready to work & support a local authority that operates in a fundamentally different way that it has done in the past – there is no argument to this point.
I think it shows severe misguidance and actual small mindedness to think that all 6500 employees will be baselined against the same performance metrics and criteria – the issues you stated illustrate that this is not possible and I am sure this will not happen.
Additionally, as I am sure most of the people who post on this blog are aware, the Councillors do not make decisions relating to personnel – they do not make decisions on who has performed well and who hasn’t – this is the whole premise of local government and hence why a ‘Chief Operating Officer aka the Chief Executive is appointed – to separate the politics from the business.
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simply shape up or ship out
simples!
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As a current Shropshire Council employee, I do wonder why I do the job I do, working day in and day out with extremely vulnerable individuals, socially isolated due to mental or physical disablity. I don’t ask for your thanks and don’t expect it; but heaven help any of you, should you ever need such a front line service as the one that I and my dwindling team of colleagues provides.
While I agree that budgets have been inflated at unsustainable levels, the rate that they are being cut now will leave virtually nothing in a year or two with any sort of ability to provide an effective service. Who will step in, in the much vaunted Big Society? Any of you, cleverly passing disparaging remarks about us; I really doubt it.
I believe that I am doing a useful job; it may not be glamorous or cause any headlines, (unless it goes wrong) but I believe that it makes a difference, and I think that I speak for many of my colleagues in saying that.
There’s no profit in it, so I very much doubt that the private sector would take much of an interest.
And for those of you who seem to think that I’ll be rolling on my four-poster on a blanket of £50 notes – do you really think that the rank and file of the authority, the majority of whom go above and beyond each and every day, will really benefit from this scheme?
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Sounds a bit dodgy to me, im not going to trust anyone at the council to give impartial advice if theyre getting a bonus
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