Just the job

摘要

Steven Covey, in his best-selling book, The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, talks about how architecture can become a metaphor for bringing about change. When you build something, you always build it on paper before you build it in brick. This idea of knowing where you are going before you set out is critical when it comes to the big change challenges facing councils. Near the top of the 'don't go there' list comes job evaluation. Such a challenge that two-thirds of local authorities haven't yet got it off the blocks. We started to plan the process of job evaluation in 2001. We knew it would be a long haul. But we were clear from the outset - there was no point in starting unless we were dear that we were going to reach our destination. So we piloted the approach, jointly, with the trades unions, from the start. We were pushing at an open door. Our trade unions were keen to see job evaluation succeed. Here are some of the lessons we learned along the way, which might be helpful to others.