The job families

A job family is a group of jobs with similar characteristics and which are engaged in similar work. Although the level of responsibility, skill or competence will differ, the essential nature of activities carried out is similar across the job family.

The four job families are:

• Education and Research

• Management Specialist and Administration

• Technical and Experimental

• Operational and Facilities Support

Why we need job families

The implementation of the National Framework Agreement resulted in new pay and grading arrangements, as well as more harmonised terms and conditions of employment for staff. We therefore needed to update our existing method of classifying staff for reporting purposes which was consistent with requirements from external agencies such as the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA).

By grouping jobs together according to their similar job requirements it is also easier to plan training and career development more effectively.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Group agreed in 2009 to move towards a job family structure consisting of the four families.

See the Job Families table for more detail and examples of jobs that fit in each job family. Please note that these are only illustrative examples of jobs.

The job family structure is not a replacement for the academic career progression framework, nor is it a self-evaluation grading tool. All jobs will continue to be evaluated and graded using the Higher Education Role Analysis scheme (HERA). Our job family structure has been developed locally and is similar to that adopted by many other Universities since 2006.