Natural History Museum

In staff surveys at London’s Natural History Museum, pay was consistently the number one source of dissatisfaction. Many employees – particularly those in early-career roles – were frustrated that they had no mechanism to progress, perceiving it as a message that their contribution was not valued.

Structural inconsistencies had emerged over time. Different parts of the museum operating separate grading and progression systems caused confusion, perceptions of unfairness and difficulty explaining pay decisions. The grading framework lacked clarity and had not kept pace with changes in the sector, making job evaluation hard to apply consistently. Additionally, incomplete market benchmarking data contributed to challenges in recruitment for digital, technical and estates roles. In 2022-23, turnover in teams without progression routes reached 22 per cent. 

From an initial principles workshop with the whole executive board, the HR team undertook extensive diagnostics, staff surveys and focus groups with staff and analysis of the existing processes. Out of this, they designed a new reward framework and a single grading structure, collating 27 previous grades into seven new ones for all roles at the museum. 

They established a cross-museum group comprising HR colleagues, union representatives and senior leaders from multiple departments to help shape the changes. The executive board championed the work throughout, making decisions on affordability, endorsing the reward principles, reviewing grading decisions and participating in progression panels. The judges described the level of board engagement as a “stand-out feature” of the initiative, adding: “The fact that the initiative was led from the top is particularly important, as it plays a key role in ensuring employees feel valued and contributes to a successful rollout.”

Since the transformation, requests for regrading have dropped sharply from 112 in 2022-23 to just two in 2025-26. In departments that didn’t previously have progression routes, turnover has reduced from 22 to 16 per cent over the same time period, whereas, in areas where turnover was undesirably low because of the previous personal promotion scheme, rates increased from 6.4 to 11.5 per cent, signalling healthier career movement. 

One year on, the Natural History Museum has seen 100 per cent retention of staff awarded pay progression, mandatory training compliance has risen from 89 to 97 per cent and performance review compliance from 74 to 91 per cent. “A great reward implementation, showing how full pay progression, broadbanding and overall recognition can be brought to bear in an older, more traditional organisation,” the judges said.