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Many organisations adopt entirely new pay arrangements when faced with the pressing need to harmonise pay and benefits for staff who were previously employed by firms which have been acquired or been part of a merger process. The Financial Services Authority had to go down this path when it came into being in 1998.
Flexible benefits were introduced in that year as the first stage in the harmonisation process. With regards to pay, initially there was a system of five broad banded grades which were wide enough to encompass the differences in pay, but in 2001 a new pay structure was put in place. A bespoke job evaluation system was installed to make sure that the fairness of the new harmonised pay rates could be demonstrated effectively. But the new arrangements became too complex and inflexible, as the number of defined job roles and pay benchmarks expanded fourfold.
Includes 40-page FSA document: Flexible benefits plan.
For more details see our review, published in the 'Features' section of e-reward.co.uk, 22 November 2005.