Open call for research on public sector pay and workforces 2017

Descriptions

The Office of Manpower Economics (OME) provides support for the eight independent Pay Review Bodies, which make evidence-based recommendations to the Government on levels of pay for their remit groups covering 2.5 million workers - around 45 per cent of public sector staff - and a pay bill of £100 billion. In making recommendations, Review Bodies consider the need to recruit, retain and motivate suitably able and qualified people as well as affordability. In supporting these bodies, one of OME's key functions is to provide high quality research-based technical advice drawing on economic, pay, labour market, statistical and other technical data. More information about the OME, the bodies it supports, and the research it has undertaken, may be found on its website. OME is inviting proposals to undertake research on public sector pay and workforces that will provide objective new evidence to the Pay Review Bodies to inform their advice to Government. These research papers will be in the areas of: aspects of pay and reward; factors influencing individual-level or organisational productivity; and understanding public sector labour markets. Up to five separate projects may be commissioned under this invitation, as well as up to five potential suppliers. The OME is looking to build the evidence base available to Review Bodies on public sector reward and workforce issues, and to encourage innovative and new research. The findings will therefore need to have relevance to at least one, preferably more, remit group occupations. We are open to all methodologies which offer a new contribution to the body of knowledge on public sector pay and workforces. In particular we encourage proposals which involve innovative use of new techniques or under-exploited yet robust data (e.g. unstructured data sets or new ways of matching/linking existing data sets).