What is a salary assessment interview?
Salary assessment interviews are described in the basic collective agreements as discussions about competence, responsibility, pay and career development, seen in light of the local wage policy. The salary assessment interview shall contribute to equal pay between the sexes and prevent discrimination pursuant to Section 6 of the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act (lovdata.no).
The salary assessment interview is not a negotiation about pay, but a contribution to clarifying expectations and good dialogue regarding salary increases.
Salary assessment interview and one-to-one work dialogue: different discussions, different purposes
What salary assessment interviews and one-to-one work dialogues have in common is that they are both part of an immediate manager’s responsibility for following up employees. However, the two discussions have different purposes and should not be mixed. The one-to-one work dialogue has a broad focus and deals with duties and future development, and how employees are doing in the workplace. Salary increases should not be a topic in a one-to-one work dialogue, as it may limit the dialogue that is planned. In addition, other preparations are necessary for both the manager and the employee. If an employee wishes to raise salary as a topic, you should organize a separate salary assessment interview (if this is not already planned) and make special preparations for this.
When should you offer a salary assessment interview?
In the state sector, local wage negotiations (2.5.1) are conducted in the autumn semester. This assumes that funds have been set aside for local negotiations by the central parties (the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and the trade union federations). It is therefore recommended to offer everyone a salary assessment interview towards the end of the spring semester, during May-June. This gives both you as a manager and the employee time to prepare claims regarding local salary negotiations.
In addition, offers of salary assessment interviews should be assessed continuously throughout the year for individuals who are considered for promotion, for example in salary negotiations on special grounds (2.5.3).
The manager should evaluate an employee’s salary level within 12 months after employment, and in the event of a transition from a temporary to a permanent contract. (2.5.5). This salary assessment must be conducted after dialogue with the employee.
When returning to work after parental leave, employees must also be offered an interview in which competence, responsibility, pay and career development is discussed.
Preparing your organisation for salary assessment interviews
In order to achieve a common organisational platform for salary assessment interviews, the following is recommended:
- Set up salary assessment interviews as a topic in the management/management group, preferably as early as April-May. Possible topics:
- Review of the formal framework: what opportunities exist regarding salary changes in the state sector, what is a salary assessment interview, UiO’s salary policy
- How does your local unit work with local negotiations (who negotiates for the unit, what is the division of work between local and central level at UiO, what is expected of managers at the different levels)
- How to conduct a good salary assessment interview
- Previous experiences - what has worked well, is there anything we want to do differently?
- Provide information about local salary negotiations and salary assessment interviews in relevant joint meetings with employees, e.g. department meetings, general meetings or section meetings
- The immediate manager sends an e-mail to all their employees offering a salary review
Preparing for individual interviews
- Make sure you have enough available time in your calendar to complete the interviews. Set aside up to 30 minutes for each interview. Experience shows that not everyone wants a salary assessment interview, at least not every year.
- As a manager, you are responsible for the salary review of all employees, not just those who request a salary assessment interview. You can invite employees to partake in a salary assessment interview even if the employee has not requested it.
- Prepare for the interviews:
- How salary negotiations take place at UiO. See UiO’s website on salary negotiations, and assess which mechanisms for salary changes are relevant for each individual.
- Familiarise yourself with UiO’s salary policy and assess the employee’s salary position based on the general principles and specific criteria described there.
- Familiarise yourself with salary statistics. Contact your HR manager/HR department to gain access to relevant salary statistics.
- Promotion to another position code is assessed based on UiO’s position structure (Norwegian).
- What expectations do you assume the employee has with regard to a salary increase? Remember that employees have different insights into salary levels and salary change mechanisms.
- How do you currently assess the basis for making salary claims (and any changes to position code)?
- Prepare your feedback. Make a comprehensive assessment of the situation and think about how you can give feedback in a clear and good way.
Implementation: tips and advice
- The manager initiates the discussion. Explain what a salary assessment interview is if this is something new for the employee.
- Explain how the negotiations take place, and your role and room for manoeuvre in this process. Employees possess different knowledge about the negotiation system in the state sector. Adapt your review to suit the employee’s needs.
- Talk about the department’s goals and competence requirements, and how the employee can contribute to this.
- Assessment of salary levels based on performance, effort and development over time.
- Ask what the employee’s expectations and views are.
- Give your assessment of the grounds for making a salary claim, and be honest and clear in your feedback and explanation.
- Remember that you cannot promise a concrete result. Provide a realistic picture of the possibility of having salary claims met
- Provide information about benefits other than salary - what motivates the employee?
- Provide information about the possibility of making claims through one’s own trade union.
Follow-up
Once the negotiation has been completed, the outcome may not be as the employee wished or expected. You should therefore prepare to have a follow-up conversation with relevant employees. In such conversations, you must maintain confidentiality about what has happened during the negotiations, but you can be open about your own assessments. Do not place blame on any of the parties. In local negotiations, there is a limited pot, and there are always many good claims that are not realized. The final result is agreed between the parties.
