Issue - meetings

The paper proposes the introduction of a new Market Supplements policy to help address the difficulties being experienced in recruiting to some specific technical and professional roles. 

Martin Williams (the Council’s Senior HR Transformation Lead) introduced the report proposing the introduction of a new Market Supplements policy to help address the difficulties being experienced in recruiting to some specific technical and professional roles.  

Mr Williams stated that as a result of the economic recession and consequent changes to the jobs market from 2010, market supplement payments had been mostly phased out in Brent Council. Members were advised that a protocol for agreeing such payments in exceptional cases had been retained and market supplement payments were made to particular social work posts.

Mr Williams stated that the Protocol adopted in 2009 required all new market supplement payments to be approved by the General Purposes Committee. Members were informed that the jobs market had become more buoyant in recent years and there were a number of posts it had proved difficult to recruit to at the salary level indicated by the evaluated grade. This had resulted in the use of agency staff and interims to cover vacancies, often at significantly higher cost.

Mr Williams stated that it was therefore proposed that a new Market Supplement Policy be adopted to allow market supplement payments to be approved by the Chief Executive, unless the proposed supplement exceeded specified parameters in which case it would be referred to the General Purposes Committee for approval.

Under the draft policy all market supplements must be the subject of HR and financial advice, and must be authorised by the relevant Strategic Director, before being submitted to the Chief Executive to approve or reject, or, in specified cases, to refer to the General Purposes Committee.

Market supplements for posts graded Hay 3 or above would be taken to the General Purposes Committee. The Committee would also approve market supplements which increased a salary by more than a threshold amount or percentage which, because of the number of posts to which they would apply, would cost in excess of a threshold amount.

In order to ensure that the payment of each market supplement remained justified, no market supplement could be agreed for an initial period of more than two years and the business case for a market supplement would be subject to a review after 12 months, if the supplement was agreed for a longer period than one year. The time-limited nature of a market supplement and the provision for review would be specified in the contract of employment of employees to whom it would be paid.

RESOLVED:

(i)    The contents of the Market Supplement Policy report be noted; and

(ii)  The Market Supplement Policy set out in Appendix A to the report be approved.