We encourage a healthy work-life balance and offer a range of family friendly policies to help you maintain this.
These policies include flexible working, maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave, dependency and compassionate leave. We also offer a counselling service and career-break scheme.
“I am so thankful for my career and this journey. I have not only found a fantastic and welcoming working home, but I have met some great people and made some fantastic friends too.” – Cambridge City Council employee
Pay
Each post is graded according to its responsibilities, and each grade is divided into ‘bands’. Most new employees begin at the bottom band of their pay grade. You will have the opportunity to rise to higher bands within your grade over time, depending on factors including individual performance and achievement of agreed objectives.
We have accreditation from the Living Wage Foundation and pay the Real Living Wage or more to all our staff and contractors. We also pay a ‘Cambridge weighting’ to increase salaries and wages to a minimum equivalent of £12 per hour.
Part-time staff are remunerated pro rata to the number of hours they work.
Every appointment is subject to a six-month probation period unless you are transferring from another local government service or within the city council. Employees on a fixed-term contract will have a probation period proportionate to the length of their contract.
Pension
The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), one of the largest public-sector schemes in the UK, forms a valuable part of our reward package.
You will contribute a percentage of your earnings – usually from 5.5% to 12.5%, depending on your salary, although you can choose to pay more. We will supplement this with an employer contribution, which is currently over 17%.
Payroll deduction scheme
We offer a payroll deduction scheme with the Eastern Savings and Loans Credit Union.
It’s a convenient way to save as much as you want through a direct deduction from your salary before it goes into the bank, and can help you manage your money more effectively.
Relocation assistance
If you need to move house to work with us, we can offer a contribution of up to £8,000 towards the cost of relocation.
Smart working
We encourage collaborative working and the efficient use of work and meeting spaces, and encourage a creative and transformational approach to working practices.
We provide flexible and modern offices in and around the city centre. Depending on the role, we offer the opportunity to work from home or other office locations.
Holidays
You will receive 25 working days of holiday per year, plus bank holidays. This rises to 30 days after five years of continuous service with us or elsewhere in local government.
We calculate holiday and bank holiday entitlement for part-time employees on a pro-rata basis.
We operate an annual leave purchasing scheme where staff can purchase up to an additional 5 days (pro rata).
Health and wellbeing
We are committed to supporting our staff’s wellbeing. Your physical and mental health is important to us and, where we are able to, we will support you to take positive steps towards your best possible wellbeing.
You can use our swimming pools for free, and we run a programme of regular physical fitness sessions at lunchtime and after work.
We also provide free and confidential access to an employee assistance programme that offers expert advice, specialist counselling and support. The service is always available and is accessible by telephone or online.
Personal development
We support our staff with learning and development opportunities from their first day working with us. After an induction process and mandatory training, we offer a wide range of learning and development opportunities.
You’ll have an annual performance review, at which you will agree training needs and objectives for the coming year. These reviews help us focus on achieving our wider purpose, vision and values, both as individuals and as an organisation.
Your own development plan could include workshops and courses, coaching or mentoring, and leadership development. Training can take place both ‘in-house’ or on external courses.
“I have taken advantage of numerous training sessions paid for by the council. They have helped us all to keep abreast of all current legislation and technical information.” – Cambridge City Council employee
We encourage our employees to discuss progress within their role and aspirations for progression with their managers, and we are committed to helping you develop skills and knowledge for the future.
We are an accredited Investors in People organisation and have met the requirements of the framework to the ‘Developed’ level.
We run a reward and recognition scheme for individuals and teams with annual awards.
Travel benefits
We promote sustainable modes of transport for travelling to, from and for work.
We offer staff bikes for work journeys and will pay per mile if you travel for work by bike. And we are members of the Cycle2Work scheme, which allows you to purchase a bike for work purposes with monthly contributions from your salary.
We offer a discount on rail travel and subsidise other public transport to and from work.
