Salary Benchmarking Project - Update

[BAJR Host]

None taken... and somebody has to ask questions... :face-stir:

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[Oxbeast]

From Wikipedia:

quote:A hydrographic survey differs from a bathymetric survey in some important respects, particularly in a bias toward least depths, because of the safety requirements of the former and geomorphologic descriptive requirements of the latter. As just one important example the echosoundings will be conducted under settings biased toward least depths while in bathymetric surveys they will be set for best description of the submarine topographical features that may include sound velocity and slope corrections that are more accurate but eliminate the safety bias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrographer

Not very well written, but it sounds like remote sensing, geophysics, mapping and geotechnical knowledge. The JGES process is necessarily generalist, as it has to be flexible. Its main criteria seem to be things like level of qualification, responsibility, how many people you supervise, that sort of thing.

[voice of reason]

I get the feeling that some people wouldn't be happy unless you'd benchmarked the profession against Barristers, Investment Bankers and Premiership footballers. Obviously that would be just for new graduates. Once they have a couple of years digging under the belt, perhaps benchmarking against Bill Gates or Warren Buffett would be best.

There is a realism in the parallel professions chosen but I do think it has missed a trick if there really are no commercial parallels used eg ecological consultancies would seem to be the closest fit for jobs in the contracting world.

[kevin wooldridge]

People may have missed the point about this evaluation and may like to read more about the JEGS programme.

http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/iam/cs_po...t/jegs.asp

My understanding is that the IFA (or its appointed agent Frank Price) carries out an internal assessment first which is then entered into the JEGS programme and that derives JEGS 'scores' for each grade of membership (or the 14 levels initially mentioned by David).

The 'comparison' with other bodies compares the salary scale for equal JEGS scores (and in that sense the similarity of any post is irrelevant, it's the JEGS score that is being compared and not the day to day work).

As the JEGS system is adminstered by central government (the Cabinet Office I believe), one assumes that the end result of a JEGS compasion is 'accepted' as correct and fair. Comparisons outside of JEGS could be open to doubt.....I am guessing that English Heritage have not undertaken a JEGS review and that is why they are not included as a comparison body.

I think that we might all be surprised at the result of this exercise (but I'm not going to order the new three-piece suite just yet!!).

[BAJR Host]

well said that man.... and well explained...

fear not VoR.. you can't compare a Barrister to a Digger... though they both share similar tastes in rich living

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[BAJR Host]

As the moment approaches for the joint IFA / PROSPECT / Diggers Forum / BAJR benchmarking to be consulted on wider, I felt it would be interesting to see if the 2006 Powerpoint I did down in london in August2006 came close or was wide of the mark... (if you download it.. the red writing becomes clear) however that was looking at the % increase required to bring the pay for each level up to a comparable skills.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/1196092/Pay-Co...ation-2006

Of course no company could cope with (or should be asked to ) raising pay to these levels in one go... but a 3-5 year plan could be implemented.

Anyway... lets see what comes out of the Benchmarking... :face-huh:

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[Sith]

quote:Originally posted by voice of reason
ecological consultancies would seem to be the closest fit for jobs in the contracting world.

Yes and no. We employ a whole bunch of Ewoks as ecologists here at VMP and they have to spend around six of your earth months each year justifying their existence (on their knees), as they can't do surveys etc. 'out of season'. This isn't really like commercial archaeology where employment for the site staff is dictated by availability rather than seasonality of work. They do however, probably get paid more than field archaeologists of equivalent experience.

I wasn’t sure at which end of the spectrum Dr P was pitching this to this chap but I presume we’re taking him into account in the survey:

quote:Originally posted by drpeterwardle (in the Ainsworth Hoard thread)
I got asked this by an architect at a clients lunch party last year very funny. I told him the level of my fees .....

Of course, here at VMP our fees are out of this world. [:p]


D. Vader
Senior Consultant

Vader Maull & Palpatine
Archaeological Consultants

Don't make me destroy you, Curator

[m300572]

"Countryside Agency, English Nature,"

Both these organisations underpay for comparable work when compared with the Rural Development Service - EN, CA and RDS were combined to form Natural England - the next two years pay settlements will give a lot of ex NE and CA staff greater percentage rises than their ex RDS grade equivalents to bring them up to nearer parity - the RDS employed all the archaeologists now working for Natural England.

[1man1desk]

Posted by m300572:

quote:the RDS employed all the archaeologists now working for Natural England

Didn't know they employed any - what's their role?

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[m300572]

1 archaeologist per region (job title is Historic Environment Advisor), plus an extra in the SW and a senior HEA working at national level.

Role within RDS was mainly advising on Agri-environment work - so best management options for sites, advice on restoration of vernacular farm buildings and training and awareness raising for the project officers who work the schemes on the ground on a day to day basis.

Role has expanded a bit in the new organisation - agri-environment work still a big part of the "bread and butter", more training to ex-English Nature and ex-Countryside Agency people, I am now staring to work with the National Nature Reserve teams to see if we can enhance their interpretation by looking at the archaeology (potentially going to build charcoal clamps and reconstruct a charcoal burners hut in one NNR in S Cumbria over the next year or so for example).