Is this part of a line manager's remit?

[heronsinflight]

I work in a small organisation of about 15 employees. About 18 months ago I was promoted to a position that isn't a management role as such, but makes me line manager for four of my existing colleagues. We don't have an HR department, and the managing director has always handled everything relating to pay and conditions.

What exactly my duties and responsibilities are as line manager has never been formally set out, but it's clear that I am not authorised or expected to conduct salary negotiations. I've never even been told what the members of my team earn. However, one of them is unhappy with their pay. I've told this person repeatedly that they should go direct to the MD, but they are insisting that I have a duty to make the case for them.

I've agreed to do so on this occasion in order to keep the peace, but I am a bit doubtful about it. Does being someone's line manager normally involve going to management on their behalf to seek pay rises? It's put me in a difficult position because I am being asked to make claims about this employee's performance that I don't think are necessarily justified.

I would go to your line manager and tell it exactly like you’ve told it here, though being a bit more diplomatic about your last few words. Include your own concerns about this being thought of as part of your remit and ask for clarification on that.

Then you’ll have fulfilled your colleague’s request but not necessarily endorsed it.

I think you need to talk to your boss about what your duties and responsibilities are.
Sometimes line managers do make the case for a pay rise or promotion for their subordinates, but it feels as if you’ve been cajoled into this. It also seems unusual in that you don’t formally know what they earn. Maybe you need management training as well as a job description.

Thanks, yes sadly the chances of any training are pretty much nil it's that sort of a company... I just wanted to get a sense of whether this stuff is normally part of a line manager's duty, or not.

I am a line manager and I review and propose salary increases for my team. I would make a case to the business if I felt they deserved a bigger increase. I would also pass on their feedback if they felt they deserved more but I didn’t agree, although I would only share the feedback and not endorse it.

You need to get your new responsibilities in writing.

In my company (ftse 100) line managers can support/recommend pay rises within a certain budget which need to be approved by their own line manager or the next level above that.

There's quite a few elements to evaluating the case for a potential pay increase I guess.

1. Are the salaries for equivalent roles and experience levels fair?
2. Is there room within the budget for any increases?
3. Is there usually a process for pay increases related to performance?
4. Is there a process for assessing the salaries against the market rate?

It's really hard when a colleague tries to convince you about what your "duty" is - all the more so when you don't have a written job spec about your responsibilities. You've been doing it for 18 months, so I would trust your instincts about where the boundaries are for your company.

You don’t have a “duty” to make their case for them, no. You are not their representative.

However it would be normal for you to give both your own and your direct report’s views on their salary to whoever makes the decision. Mention the factors the employee is relying on as their case, but give your own view as well.

You’re communicating their case, not making it.

I’m a line manager and it is within my remit to assess salary for my team and suggest pay changes.

However, it is also in my remit to tell an employee if they’re pushing for a pay rise what they need to achieve to be awarded it.

So in this situation, if you don’t think the employee is deserving of a pay rise it’s up to you to communicate that although they’re not quite there yet, you will be happy to support them in reaching the level or work required. You then set out a clear performance path for them - so language like ‘xxx will be able to demonstrate xxxx skill and complete xxx task consistently’.

It is not your job to ‘get a pay rise’ on behalf of a member of staff, you’re their manager not their hype man.

I have a lot of line management experience. No it certainly isn’t the line manager’s responsibility to my “make a case” for a payrise on demand. But yes it is normally within the line managers remit to review pay levels and make recommendations for changes and / or bonuses. These recommendations would then normally go to another level for sign off.

Of course in a small organisation, they may choose to do things in a non conventional way and if your boss doesn’t want you to have pay levels in your remit than that is their prerogative, there are no employment laws about how pay increases should be decided within an organisation. So clarify it with your boss then communicate to the employee as required.

It would be impossible for you to recommend anyone for a pay rise, even if they are great workers, as you don’t know who is on what at the moment.

It could be the shittiest worker is actually earning more than the most experienced worker in there, because the MD is the only one who knows the pay and pay scales. He could have awarded one employee a better salary in the past based on ‘because I was in a good mood that day’ or anything.

All you can do is ask the md if you should be involved in pay negotiations or if the staff can still continue to go to him/her.

Then if you’re told that this continues he’s to be the correct procedure, advise the team member to contact the md as pay negotiations are not included in your remit.

it sounds like you're more like a team lead or a supervisor than an actual line manager. agree with many other posters - you need to flag this up to your MD. if you're not clear on your remit, how can you expect your colleagues to be?

this is long overdue for clarification and it sounds like the grey area is being exploited by your colleague who expects you to be doing something you're neither comfortable with nor know if it's part of your remit.

you need to escalate it right now. and be prepared to be asked by your MD what your view is of this employee's work, but you certainly shouldn't be "making the case" as if you're some sort of union rep or line manager for this sort of thing.

for clarity, i am a line manager, and this stuff IS definitely within my remit, but there's all sorts of issues that go along with it, such as making sure you're doing things in compliance with HR policy, nothing illegal or discriminatory, etc... basically, you're not allowed anywhere near this sort of HR stuff without doing mandatory training in any company i've worked in (and that included a smaller

Lots of companies with 15 employees won’t have any HR policies!!! They just sail close to the wind. It’s expensive to get HR advice so they don’t bother until the xxxx hits the fan.

I would ask your owner/MD to introduce some form of performance management and annual review of salaries taking employee performance into account. They almost certainly won’t have the expertise to do this but it’s important to ensure fair salaries. There should also be a pay policy which you should be aware of whilst not necessarily knowing individual salaries.

I would ask your manager about clarification of your role. Then if it doesn’t include pay recommendations, then you cannot really get involved. I would, however, want performance review introduced and be part of that process.

I manage teams and yes negotiating salaries and pay rises, for new employees or existing ones, is one of my responsibilities.

I make recommendations although our CEO ultimately will have the final approval based on the organisation's financial position.

I can completely understand why your staff expect you to deal with this. You are the one who knows their performance best and who could assess whether they should get a pay rise or not.

You need to raise this issue with your line manager & get your job responsibilities/description in writing.

If you are not the person that your staff should go to for salary negotiations then you need to be able to clearly tell them who they should speak to instead.

In a company of 15 staff it will almost certainly be the owner. Posters who have CEOs snd work in larger companies will not realise tiny companies don’t have embedded procedures for very much! They should, but lots wing it. They pay what they need to pay. They don’t have pay policies. They don’t have HR departments. They bug in advice as and when.

So therefore the Op needs to see the owner and talk through her role in terms of managing others. At the moment it’s more first among equals. Lots of companies work like this when it’s a tiny firm. People muck in and policies are in short supply.

I’m CIPD and I had to get my DH to get a HR specialist into his company. It was bigger than 15 employees. It’s not until there is a dawning realisation that there are laws to be complied with are changes made. The small company frequently wings it.

Your direct reports (the people you line-manage) should not generally be going above your head to anyone - the point of your line-management responsibility is to act as the conduit between the levels of management above you and the employees below you in the hierarchy. If a middle manager who reported to me told one of their direct reports to come to me about something I would think that manager was not doing their job properly.

If you aren't the budget-holder for the salary spend in your division then obviously it's not your decision but that doesn't mean you are not involved. You are not obliged to endorse or support your team member's position but you can and should make sure it us considered by the appropriate budget holder.

You should ask this employee to prepare a written case for salary reevaluation. This should include where possible data about the salary ranges being advertised for comparable roles at other organisations and the salary ranges for positions of equivalent seniority and responsibility within your own organisation.

Good management skills include managing the expectations and aspirations of your reportees. You can't wash your hands of this.

It is important that this employee realises that salary is based on level of responsibility and accountability - working hard and well and effectively in a junior position for a long time does not bring automatic right to pay rises beyond normal inflationary adjustments. Sometimes the most appropriate outcome if an employee feels that they can earn more is for them to seek a new position where they can do just that, because the need in your team is for a junior member of staff to carry out these specific tasks and those tasks go with an intrinsic market value for the employee that does them. It's not a failure if you nuture the skills of your employees to the point that they are ready to move on. A healthy turnover of staff is beneficial and stops things from stagnating.

@SinoohXaenaHide
Have you read that there are 15 people in the entire company? What you have written is entire “corporation speak”.

“Salary ranges …. Within your own organisation”. How on earth will the OP know this with 15 employees? What salary ranges do you think there are? It’s impossible.

It’s not her job and she needs to refer the issue to the owner and they need Job Evaluation and a Performance evaluation policy to determine salary. Someone like the OP in a tiny work place really isn’t going to do all that work! The owner, on the other hand, might need to in order to retain staff and remain competitive.

I work for a family run company of approx 30 employees.

The only people who know what anyone is paid is me (as I run payroll), our accountant, and the two owners of the company. (we do have a pay structure as we follow the BESA scales.)

Line managers are not responsible for setting salaries of any of the people working under them.

@Comefromaway
Exactly. You are doing well by following pay scales which I assume are linked to the work undertaken - I don’t recognise them. However it’s important to recognise very small companies are very different to ones that have 100 plus employees. Even the words “line manager” are not describing the same role.

Well yes, we don’t use the phrase line manager to be honest. We have tradesmen, supervisors, project managers & the MD!

(BESA is Building Engineering Services Association) everyone is put on a grade according to their role & qualifications.

Thanks for that! I do actually think having a pay policy makes sense but often tiny business owners are too busy to get round to it.

For us it made sense because they used to run a holiday and sickness scheme we paid into. (The holiday scheme ended last year but we still use the sickness one as it indemnifies us as it were as a small company against having to pay lots of SSP & in fact it means the company can offer more than SSP.

Yes,I'd consider it part of my role to take the request to senior management, give a recommendation and take the decision back to the staff member

@Gearedtoyou
Who would be senior management in a company of 15 people? How could you recommend anything when there is no performance management or pay policy? Maybe you just guess and hope for the best.