1st November 2006, 02:33 PM
Orknyowot
Other industries operate in a competitive tendering environment, but still manage to pay professional rates - in fact, in the current environment, they often find themselves competing for staff by offering big raises. Competitive tendering is not just about price -it is also about showing that you have the right quality of staff to achieve the job. As someone who advises clients on tender assessment, I know that this is something that is taken into account in appointing archaeological contractors, at least on some jobs.
The job roles where it is most important to have good quality staff are in the permanent/semi-permanent core-staff jobs, and that is precisely where the unit in question seems to be under-paying. In the long run, that will undermine their ability to retain good quality staff in those jobs, and the quality of work they do will suffer. They will get trapped in a vicious circle where they can only compete on cost because they can't compete on quality; that will continue to depress what they pay, which will depress their quality, and so on ad infinitum. Ultimately, no-one will want to employ them and they will go bust, despite keeping their wages below industry minima.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
Quote:quote:I still think the whole problem lies within the tendering system, that I believe is what must change before we anything else change as this is where the root cause of all the pay arguments lie
Other industries operate in a competitive tendering environment, but still manage to pay professional rates - in fact, in the current environment, they often find themselves competing for staff by offering big raises. Competitive tendering is not just about price -it is also about showing that you have the right quality of staff to achieve the job. As someone who advises clients on tender assessment, I know that this is something that is taken into account in appointing archaeological contractors, at least on some jobs.
The job roles where it is most important to have good quality staff are in the permanent/semi-permanent core-staff jobs, and that is precisely where the unit in question seems to be under-paying. In the long run, that will undermine their ability to retain good quality staff in those jobs, and the quality of work they do will suffer. They will get trapped in a vicious circle where they can only compete on cost because they can't compete on quality; that will continue to depress what they pay, which will depress their quality, and so on ad infinitum. Ultimately, no-one will want to employ them and they will go bust, despite keeping their wages below industry minima.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished