The National Gallery

With 2,300 paintings, many of which are national treasures and masterpieces, the gallery has to employ some of the most experienced international specialists to ensure the collection is preserved for generations to come.

As with any institution, which must attract experts from a global talent pool, the gallery has to set the right pay and benefits packages.

Over the past few years the gallery has used a job evaluation process, which was based upon salary levels. But it was clear that it was no longer fit for purpose.

To ensure an updated fair and transparent pay and benefits structure was introduced that included feedback from all employees, Croner Reward were asked to assist.

A spokesperson from the National Gallery, said: “It was quite clear from the beginning that the previous way of calculating pay and benefits did not rely on scoring and there was no recognizable way to fairly and accurately benchmark salaries.

"We decided that we must do something different so went outside of the market place and selected Croner Reward"

"We went through a process of standardizing job descriptions based on the feedback from our committees and core teams, including union representatives. We also interviewed all job holders and discussed with them their parameters within the structure.

"Following this we carried out four job evaluations a week with different committees over a period of three to four months, where we graded every role within the structure.

"The information we received was put into an external market and pay models tool, which enabled us to model a pay structure. So this gave us a very rational and robust set-up in terms of how we now carry out job evaluations.

"A large part of Croner’s involvement was to provide expert training, as well as to independently host employee engagement forums.

“The training we received was excellent,” the spokesperson said. "At the beginning it was quite difficult to get people involved.

"As the meetings progressed their body language changed and there was enthusiasm as they started to understand how jobs within the gallery relate to each other. By the end everyone was engaged in the process.

"The process enabled our staff to understand why their job was graded in a certain way. This gave them a chance to describe their own jobs, so they are now in a position where they are happy with where their job fits within the overall pay structure.

"The whole process was done in a fair and objective way and we can now tell each member of staff the reasons why they are paid a certain amount and these are the tools we used to reach this decision.

“The exercise has built a lot of bridges internally and given our employees clarity, as well as made employee relations with the unions better.

"We now have this wonderful tool that creates a standardized job profile and description, which we can use for recruitment and training because we now have a more transparent payment structure.

“Individuals can identify where they are in the payment structure and why this is. Jobs can also be easily compared and contrasted. When new jobs come about they can be looked at in a far more structured way, which saves a lot of time.”