Andy F,

Quote:
This may have already been said - it's late and I've only skimmed over things - The person spec may give the requirements for a new MTO3, if you have stars then there is good grounds for appeal as they must relate to something!!! (if not, when assimilated to Band 5 managers will have to find others to do those "specialist" functions )
The problem is that your current grade has no bearing on AfC matching. Matchers, who, incidentally, are not allowed to be working in the same job-role as the JDs they're matching hence they're lay-persons, just see a JD that contains your current Job-specification. Not a future, intended, or previous role but a JD that should currently reflect what you're doing. The problem I have is that it doesn't take into account the value-added skills and experience that individuals bring to their job by virtue of their qualifications, skills and knowledge plus the other factors like being hard-working for instance. Matchers are not even allowed to see the current grade, e.g. MTO3***, of the JD they're matching.

In fact now HNC is the entry-level for band 4, in the national job-profiles, I can see that many technicians whose current job-role states "HNC required as a minimum" (the majority I would have thought) may be matched to band 4. They'll be lucky to achieve Band 5 using the extra points their current responsibilities allow them to accrue if they have HNC for factor 2, and this is possible even if they're performing the role of a JD equivalent to Band 6 in my opinion! This is because the points you earn may be "capped" to the maximum points attainable for each of the factors in the AfC band that you're initially matched to (for the purposes of carrying out matching) and the "deciding factor" may depend on the requirement in your JD for qualifications for example.

Thus one or two key-statements on a piece of paper that describe requirements or what you should be doing in that job role may determine where your going to be matched on a particular AfC band - possibly one where you can never achieve the points required to be where you (or your manager) want you to be at - irrespective of how much you currently do. That's not necessarily related to current grade, performance or ability. That's why it's so important to get involved in writing your own job-description for AfC - you're entitled to that and will have to "sign it off" to indicate agreement with it anyhow.