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Article Evaluation

The Wikipedia page for the concept of Pay Bands currently does not have many references or sources to reinforce their facts and claims. While the article is on topic and does a relatively good job of describing what a pay band is and how it works, the article fails to go any deeper nor does it offer many sources. There is not really any bias in this article since their definition and examples are pretty straight forward. The only area where bias may occur is when dealing with how much control pay bands give to the management level. Also since there is no source cited in conjunction with this statement it makes it seem even more heavily biased giving the impression that pay bands have a negative impact for workers but a positive impact for higher leveled positions. However, this is the only area where bias may be a problem. The information seems to come from neutral sources. While there are very few resources, they give a straightforward definition and explanation of pay bands that makes it easy for the reader to understand. The sources are solely for the examples listed at the end of the article, the first three paragraphs that hold the bulk of the information have zero recourses attached to them. There may be room to add more sources in the bulk of information and definition area of the article. With that being said, all the links work and as far as I see there is no paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article. This article is very short. There is not much room to have any information over expressed. Now while it is short the concept is well explained so I would not say that it is underrepresented. The only way they could have possibly added more information is in a deeper example or an expression of how this actually plays out in the workforce past one or two levels in a company and how it affects a company as a whole.

Annotated Bibliography

Duffin, C. (2005). Prepare to perform: a job evaluation panel could decide which Agenda for Change pay band you are in, so it is important to get the preparation right. Nursing Standard, (30), 16.

Job interviews can be nerve racking and deciding how much you are worth as an employer is an even more daunting task. Nurses must of course get passed the interview process but also are required to go under evaluations. During evaluations they are often asked if they feel they are in the correct pay range. When a new pay range is suggested, it is a long, painful process for the new system to take effect. A nurse who was asked if she was happy with her pay range and said no reported that it has been over two years since her new pay range was approved and still her pay has not increased.

Parish, C. (2003). Impressing the judges: early implementers of the Agenda for Change scheme are supposed to have staff on new pay bands by December 1. But despite some early successes, it is proving to be a much bigger task than anyone anticipated. Nursing Standard, (5), 14.

Pay ranges may not necessarily be a problem. Even when an employee feels that they are being unfairly paid, pay range increases can be easily approved. The problem come into play with the actual act of changing the range. There are multiple steps in order to implement the pay change. From filling out the job evaluation, criteria, and discuss why the job deserves to go up a level. Companies state that these are all relatively small glitches that can be worked out and to just trust the company is doing their best but many are surprised by the lack of knowledge individuals in higher positions on the ins and outs of pay bands.

Harrison, S. (2005). Community matron roles defined: workload smaller than anticipated and confusion still surrounds how the new positions will fit into pay bands. Nursing Standard, (22), 7.

When a new position comes into a company an issue is raised as to which pay range they should be placed in. Will their new position be considered more important (which would equal a higher pay) than individuals who are working a relatively similar job but have been there longer? The new nurses position is raising these questions for the Department of Health who (at the time this article was written) had still not found a place to place this new nurse position. The new nurses are thought to be placed at level 8 but that could potentially put them over two levels above current nurses.

Heery, E., & Noon, M. (2008). pay range. In A Dictionary of Human Resource Management.: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 Oct. 2016

The definition of a pay band (or as it is often known as, pay grade). It can essentially be taken at face value. Occupations are grouped together and are placed into a pay range. This consists of a minimum and maximum salary. It allows companies to have slightly fluctuation for the same job. Meaning that employees would greatly benefit from knowing their own worth as to not get short changed. Many companies hope to broaden the pay range in hopes to offer even more discretion in an employees pay.

Berman, E. M., Bowman, J. S., West, J. P., & Van Wart, M. R. (2016). Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes, processes, and problems (5th Ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. 

The human resource section is an enormous undertaking and requires that multiple rules and by laws be followed exactly. Pay bands are a relatively new tool for paying employees and requires many hoops to be jumped through. The range between levels can be as broad as a company wants, allowing managers and supervisors to hold as much discretion as they would like when hiring/giving raises to individuals while still being “fair”. However, group pay ranges can create sub ranges in the same pay level to offer a more concise, fair way of paying employees.