The Nottingham Reward Scheme has been reinstated and payment of the voluntary living wage has been backdated to December 2020.

All levels of the Nottingham Reward Scheme (NRS) have been reinstated for this financial year 2020/21.

The scheme has been reopened with an increased rewards budget for 2020/21, doubling the amount available to recognise colleagues’ exceptional work during the pandemic, where they have gone above and beyond. It also recognises the NRS freeze having been being imposed late during the 2019/2020 cycle.

Application of the voluntary living wage, calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, will also be backdated for relevant UoN colleagues to cover the period 1 December 2020 – 31 March 2021. The rate was previously approved for payment for relevant staff levels from 1 April 2021, and backdating will be applied on the same non- consolidated basis as the current top up payments.

Nottingham Rewards Scheme

As the NRS has been reinstated close to the end of the financial year, decisions on which staff are to be rewarded through NRS will need to be confirmed by Faculties/Professional Services departments within the final week of July.  The process, criteria, decision-making levels and some scheme rules are being reviewed to achieve this within the reduced timeframe. These will be shared with line managers during the week commencing Monday 21 June.

To enable the shortened timescale to be achieved, all nominations for this financial year will be made by managers.  It is not possible to permit self or peer-to-peer nominations within the timescales available to us.

Director of Human Resources Jaspal Kaur said: “Reintroducing NRS will enable recognition of the exceptional contributions of staff during a very challenging year, where many have gone beyond expectations in their service to students, staff, the university and the wider community.

“We appreciate that the timescales for completing the NRS cycle for 20/21 are really tight, but unfortunately, this has been unavoidable to enable the latest University financial forecast inform the decision and to ensure that we meet the standard required for financial auditing purposes to enable costs to be attributed to this financial year. We hope colleagues will see this as a positive step in what has been a very challenging year for many of our staff.”

Voluntary Living Wage

The increase in the voluntary living wage brings the minimum hourly rate for university staff to £9.50. This increase affects colleagues on spine points 3, 4, 5 and 6. will appear in payslips later this summer, with updated communications to follow once the date is set.

The Living Wage Foundation – which calculates the voluntary living wage – is an independent organisation which calculates a wage based on the cost of living, and that meets the real cost of essential goods and services.

The university has been committed to paying voluntary living wage rates to staff for a number of years. This was re-assessed due to the impact of the pandemic – alongside our wider reward provisions such as the NRS.