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since 12/15/98 |
| Columns::September 4, 2001 UGA cannot use race in making admissions decisions, court rules Athens laboratory among four U.S. sites approved by NIH for stem-cell rsearch pool ‘World’ premiere Campus Closeup Kudos Banking division changes its name to Bursar’s Office Spatig is appointed the new associate director of admissions Campus Scenes Slice of (a writer’s) life Campus News Work in progress Human resources planning to create new pay-and-classification structure for staff Last year, the university contracted for a study of UGA’s pay-and-classification system by the firm of Deloitte and Touche.
Columns: Let’s begin with a summary of the major findings from the study. Ritter: First, employees at all levels of the university believe the existing system is not working properly. Second, job documentation is insufficient. Third, many salary administration rules are too restrictive and, fourth, the university needs an articulated strategy for the staff compensation structure. Columns: The classification system now has about 23 different categories of jobs and some 700 job titles. How will these classifications be changed? Ritter: Our goal is to create a classification-and-pay structure that supports the university’s strategic plan and the evolving duties performed by university employees. We won’t know the magnitude of the changes until the review process is completed. In general, we expect to change job titles to reflect both the work being performed and current standard practices. For example, “personnel specialist” may be changed to “human resources specialist,” and new titles, such as “web designer,” may be introduced. Columns: The study says many jobs have poorly defined duties and responsibilities, and many job titles don’t correspond to actual duties. What will be done to correct that broad problem? Ritter: We are going to collect information about every staff position. Since this includes almost 7,000 positions, we anticipate conducting the classification review in phases. Right now we are developing an implementation plan that will include a timeline for that review process. The implementation plan will be completed before the end of December. Columns: One of the study’s recommendations is that UGA’s pay plan should be more like those in business and less like those in government. What does that mean? Ritter: The study is suggesting that more decisions need to be made at the point where work is being performed, that market data should be used to support salary decisions, and that employees should be rewarded based on their contributions to the organization. The distinction between business and government is diminishing every day--today all organizations are faced with similar concerns about attracting, motivating and retaining employees. Columns: Another recommendation is that the market should determine UGA pay scales. Which markets? Ritter: Markets are identified by where the university recruits new employees and where our former employees go. The markets are going to be different for each job family--information technology, accounting, research technicians, and so on. And identifying the market is only the first part of the equation--the second part is determining how competitive within the market we want to be. Ultimately, a market-based salary structure will allow the university to do a better job of attracting and retaining employees. Columns: Won’t tying pay scales to the market mean that many new employees will be hired at salaries equal to or higher than the salaries of many people who have worked at UGA for years? How will potential salary compression be handled? Ritter: There will be no special funding to raise the salaries of existing employees. It will be the job of Human Resources to develop flexible guidelines that encourage supervisors to consider market issues when making salary decisions affecting both existing and new employees. It will remain the hiring manager’s job to consider the salaries of existing employees before salary offers are made to new employees. Columns: The study states very strongly that pay raises should be based strictly on performance, and that seniority should not be a factor in salary decisions. What about people who’ve worked at UGA for 20 or 25 years and always received good evaluations? Shouldn’t there be some credit or reward for experience and loyalty? Ritter: Pay for performance means that employees are paid for how well they do their jobs--better-performing employees should receive higher raises. In many cases, experience leads to better performance. However, the key is the performance level. Columns: The study suggests incorporating benefits like child care, flexible work schedules and telecommuting into a compensation package. Will this be done? Ritter: These are examples of administrative policies and programs that can be developed by the university. The child-care issue is already being considered. Other workplace issues will be identified and included in the implementation plan. Columns: Implementing these recommendations is clearly going to be expensive. Where will the university get the funds? Ritter: The university is not expecting to receive funding to support additional increases for staff employees. Each school, college and department will have to examine their existing resources and make allocation decisions. We anticipate revising some salary-administration policies to give management more flexibility to make salary decisions. Columns: The study mentions a compensation strategy--what does that mean? Ritter: A compensation strategy is a set of guidelines for designing and analyzing a pay structure. For example, what are important skills and abilities in determining individual pay, how competitive do we want to be, what labor markets do we compete in, who should make decisions. These questions provide the framework to determine if the pay structure is meeting the needs of the university. Columns: Will jobs be eliminated, or salaries reduced? Ritter: No jobs will be eliminated or salaries reduced as a consequence of the classification-and-pay study or any further system design work. Even in cases where positions may be assigned to lower pay ranges, employee salaries will not be reduced. Columns: How about work locations outside of Athens? Ritter: The compensation strategy acknowledges that UGA employs staff throughout the state. Work sites like the experiment stations in Griffin and Tifton and the Savannah River Ecology Lab operate in unique labor markets. The new system will take these regional differences into account. Columns: When can we begin to see some concrete changes as a result of this study? Ritter: Position classification and pay changes will be phased in over several years, but many classification-and-pay policies can be changed right away. It’s our hope that some of our policies and procedures can be changed during the next six to nine months. Columns: What are “gray-area” titles? Ritter: Gray-area titles are non-classified staff positions. They are not included in the Wage and Salary Plan for Classified Personnel. Gray-area titles are very generic and have no uniform job descriptions or pay ranges. These titles will be reviewed to determine if a more effective classification approach can be developed. |
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