Civil Service Pay Bands

[DunkFriesinShake]

I’ve just been offered an interview for civil service EO grade and I wondered if the bands for salary advertised are negotiable? I have a lot of experience in everything being asked and I would want to match my current salary which is within the bands. I don’t current work for CS.

Thanks in advance!

Yes, if you’re joining from outside the civil service then you can negotiate your pay within the band. When I joined I was offered the bottom of the pay scale (as is standard) but I rejected it and said I was far more experienced and wanted top of the scale. I was successful.

Once you’re in the civil service promotion is fairly easy (I would argue too easy in my department which seems to be full of inexperienced 20 year olds at grade 6 earning £50k+). However, you will always be put at the bottom of the pay scale as you move up the grades.

Ha ha ha I wish! Our pay rises are not enough to do that.

I was in the same position: paid more than the max and the job had been advertised with the entire pay-band.

They utterly refused to negotiate: minimum or nothing; take it or leave it. Same as they did to everyone which is probably why they recruited only 3 of their target of 40 individuals for that campaign.

I did take it but I still maintain that the pay scales are a lie as no one who is appointed into them can ever move up. So clearly it depends.

Because those in grade for longer are on a higher pay as when the spine point progression was stopped, they’d reached a higher point on the scale. Crap, isn’t it. We’re professional martyrs.

It’s crap but I’m in a very flexible job which it important to me whilst kids are at primary school so I have to remind myself that 🤣

It’s difficult but not impossible- I recently negotiated a higher starting salary for a CS role as my level of experience was exceptional. This involved HR making a formal application to the board to be able to make me a higher offer. It’s not like the private sector where there is more freedom to pay whatever they’re willing to.

So, worth asking but not standard or easy.

I joined at grade 7 and negotiated as did most of my colleagues at that time (new specialist team). We did have a recent hire negotiate too. But this is a technical role and pays less than the outside.

DH just got recruitment by CS and went in very close to the top of the band, so its definitely possible.

Have worked in two departments and been closely involved in setting higher starting pay policy. Not a chance we’d ever agree higher pay at EO grade - for a very specialist role at G7/G6 following failed recruitment exercises maybe.

definitely make a case for a Higher Starting Salary. Depending on the department they might be crying out for staff and so will fairly consider.

For EO grade, in honesty, is anyone going to be that special? They’ve got to think of established staff that might be performing a very similar role - how could you fairly pay a new starter more?
HSP is for those at B2 and above (sorry we use different grade titles and I can’t recall the generic title for above SEO).

I've certainly known HEOs and SEOs to get their previous salary matched, so it's possible.

Tbh a really good EO can be transformative to a team. I've known too many who were utterly hopeless and as a manager would certainly pay a bit more for someone who can actually deliver.

I don’t know about “special” but I’m in another public sector role where we have been trying to recruit to a similar grade to EO for over 6 months. Because we don’t have someone in the role, people who are paid at much higher grades are spending too much of their time on EO tasks and not what they’re being paid to do (and becoming disillusioned and looking elsewhere!). If paying someone up the grade to secure them in post meant we got someone in I’d bite their hand off. People’s value isn’t just about them but about how they’ll keep the wheels turning elsewhere.

@BillyBraggisnotmylover - as a C1 and an SME I’d be might pissed off if someone floated I. At a higher pay than me, maybe because the original job ad was so shitty moons wanted it.

I’m not talking about going into a higher grade - I’m taking about starting higher within the grade boundary. I don’t know if CS grades overlap but where I am each is distinct so no change of someone in a lower grade boundary being paid more than someone a level above.

The ad is about as well written as much public sector ads, sadly not something I can influence!

This actually happened in my dept and caused a lot of resentment. Business case put forward to offer higher as couldn’t get people in post. New ones came in and many already left but they certainly were not more experienced.

Exactly. I’ve spent years building up my subject matter knowledge, very specific to the activity of my employing department. For A.N.O to cone along and get paid more than me just wouldn’t happen. Some particular skilled or with proven niche knowledge I could live with. OP isn’t touting any of that. Just wants more money.