Working for us
Benefits
Learning and Development
Working Arrangements
Support
Employee feedback

Working for us

Working in the public sector is highly satisfying and rewarding in so many ways. In return for the contribution you’ll make to your local community, whatever your role, you’ll enjoy an excellent range of benefits and the possibility of flexible working options, plus learning and development opportunities which will offer the chance to progress your career further.

Use this section to discover just what you can expect when you come to work with Rotherham MBC.

“The Council’s terms and conditions are favourable when compared to the private sector.”

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Benefits

Here at Rotherham MBC we know that rewarding our people properly for the valued work they do means that we can attract and retain the very best talent across all our job vacancies. We offer a huge range of benefits to make working with us more than worthwhile, and these include:

• Pay and expenses – our lowest rate of pay is above minimum wage. We will also reimburse any monies spent as an essential part of your job, from travel costs to meals.

• We hold annual pay reviews where we will negotiate any raise in salary with you.

• We will pay overtime for any out-of-hours or weekend working where it is not part of your job.

• Should you become ill, and with proper documentation, we will pay up to 6 months’ sick pay on full salary.

• In some cases we may offer relocation assistance for those moving to Rotherham to work with us.

• We provide a final salary pension scheme whereby the Council pays more than double the employee’s contribution towards a pension payable on retirement.

• We have arranged for low cost loans and excellent savings rates for our employees.

• We also offer preferential rates at Council leisure facilities and a variety of staff discounts on goods and services from a range of suppliers.

• Employee Benefit Initiatives include lunchtime fitness and yoga classes.

• We offer generous holiday entitlement depending upon your role and length of service. This does not include the additional 8 Bank/Public Holidays you’ll enjoy away from work and 3 days off over the Christmas period. (Should you have to work over Christmas, we will add the 3 days to your annual leave entitlement.)

• Childcare Vouchers - this scheme allows the purchase of vouchers via salary deductions giving you a saving on your National Insurance contributions and tax deductions.

“I really enjoy my job, the hours, place of work, the people and the excellent benefits. I’m really happy here.”

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Learning and development

We are committed to developing our employees so they have all the necessary skills and knowledge to be able to do their job effectively. We also want our people to have the chance to develop within their chosen career and so we actively support personal development and are committed to supporting all our employees to achieve a qualification (minimum level 2).

As an Investors in People employer, we will do all we can to help you achieve your professional goals. This will include a Performance and Development Review (PDR) each year as well as a mid-year catch up and regular one-to-one sessions with your line manager to discuss your individual wants and needs for your career with Rotherham MBC. We offer each employee at least 3 days’ learning and development per year – you could pursue a recognised qualification, one of our in-house courses or even try job shadowing or sample a job rotation within your section. We will reimburse any approved training expenses.

Every person who comes to work with us also enjoys a comprehensive induction and we offer a range of management development programmes to ensure our leaders are as up-to-date and effective as they can be.

“I appreciate the personal development opportunities to update my skills and progress my career.”

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Working Arrangements

We understand that enjoying the very best work/life balance increases your job satisfaction and your ability to do your job well. We’re also well aware of the many different life commitments our people have to work around, and that’s why we’ve put together a range of working options to suit all lifestyle needs.

In fact, our recent ‘Your Voice’ survey of our staff has seen our flexible working options come up as one of the top reasons why people work with Rotherham MBC. Here’s what could be on offer for you:

• Flexi-time scheme – available to many of our office-based jobs and operates with no core hours. You may be able to take up to one flexi-day per month.

• Part-time working – depending on your role, you might be able to work one of our range of options including part day, part week or even part year.

• Job Share – we can often offer this option across a range of jobs.

• Compressed days – the chance to work 4 days instead of 5, or 9 days instead of 10.

• Term time only working – giving you the school holidays to spend time with your family.

• Averaged/Annualised hours – vary your working hours over the year to fit in with personal commitments.

• Staggered hours – the chance to vary your start and finish times as part of a team.

• Shift/Hours swap – we’re open to you swapping shifts with an equally adept colleague if you should need to.

• Occasional home working* - for some roles you may take the chance to work from home on an as and when basis.

• Permanent home working* - some roles are suitable to let you work from home all the time.

• Maternity/Adoption leave – you will be entitled to up to 52 weeks’ leave of absence, with pay for a specified period dependent upon length of service and personal choice.

• Maternity Support/Adoption leave – you may take up to 5 days’ paid leave as a partner/carer at the time of the birth or adoption.

• Parental leave – you may take up to 4 weeks’ unpaid leave per year until your child’s 5^th birthday (up to a maximum of 13 weeks) or, if your child is disabled, this benefit is available until the child reaches the age of 18.

*we’ll provide all the Health & Safety advice and guidance you need before taking up a home working opportunity.

“My job is convenient and fits in with my commitments on my college course. It lets me earn money as well as get an education.”

“The working arrangements mean that all staff can work around family and health issues without having an impact on their career choices.”

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Support

In addition to the Council’s benefits package, we also offer support to employees in the form of:

• Free, confidential and independent face to face counselling service – open to all employees

• Free 24-hour helpline provided through the partnership with Westfield Health for employees and their immediate family

• Reasonable adjustments and/or redeployment where practical for employees requiring support after illness or due to disability

• Good health guide, provided to all employees to help achieve healthier and safer lifestyles both at work and at home

• A corporate domestic violence policy to ensure support and advice is available for both employees and their managers

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Employee feedback

We’re always working hard to make working with Rotherham MBC a positive and rewarding experience. That’s why we’ve put together a number of employee involvement activities which, grouped together, we call ‘Exchange’.

They include:

• Employee Suggestion Scheme – if you’ve got a great idea, we want to hear it. We look at the originality, possible impact and practicality of your suggestion, and the best ones get put into action.

• Employee Opinion Survey(Your Voice) – this is how we get your feedback about what working with us is like in a structured, confidential way. (Our school-based employees don’t take part in this particular scheme.)

• Reach In – this is a representative sample of employees across the Council (minimum of 300) who are surveyed three times per year about the services we provide and how the Council works.

• Focus Groups – four times a year we ask groups of employees to share their views and suggestions and offer valuable feedback.

• New Joiners’ Survey – to ensure we’re getting our recruitment and induction processes right, we ask every new employee to complete a confidential questionnaire three months after starting their career with us.

• Worker Representative Groups – we have a range of specialist employee groups who provide expert advice and guidance.

“I enjoy being respected and being given credit as a valued member of staff.”

“We have excellent working conditions and I enjoy the way we strive to continually improve our services to our customers.”

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