University of Idaho staff reacted with a mix of confusion and concern at the two open forums held this week to introduce the university’s new classification and compensation system. The forums, on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, featured an introduction by Interim President Don Burnett and a 40-minute presentation by Human Resources followed by a question and answer session.
Last fall, all staff were asked to submit position description questionnaires — forms focused on detailing the knowledge and skills, scope of responsibilities and range of impact for each individual job at UI.
Human Resources hired Sibson Consulting to assist in identifying benchmark positions — that is, positions that are comparable to similar jobs in the market — and slotting them into the appropriate classification and associated pay grade. Positions that didn’t match market benchmarks were evaluated by HR and slotted into classifications that closely matched. The number of classifications were reduced from around 1,180 for 1,567 employees, to around 270. The number of pay grades also dropped from 18 to 12.
The goal of the classification study was to reduce salary compression — that is, when new employees are hired at a higher rate of pay than existing employees at a similar or lower level — and to improve hiring equities across the campus community. By simplifying the number of classifications and pay grades, it allows differences between jobs in different pay grades to be easier to discern said Greg Walters, executive director of Human Resources.
Staff who are below the minimum salary for their pay grade will receive a raise to meet the minimum and staff who are above or close to the maximum for their range will continue to be eligible for raises, Smith said.
During the question and answer session, Dan Davenport, director of student financial aid, told Walters that the new classification system will negatively affect the ability of UI to hire and retain quality staff, despite assurances from UI administration that no current staff will lose jobs or salary. Davenport said that if he were to rehire his staff members at the new classification level assigned to their positions, their salary would be significantly reduced, making it difficult to find quality candidates willing to take on vacant positions.
Walters deferred the question to Ron Smith, vice president for finance and administration, who responded by saying the solution is to push the Idaho legislature to fully fund a change in employee compensation, which would raise the salaries of all university employees through state funding.
Others expressed concern that their new classification titles did not accurately reflect their range of institutional knowledge and experience in the field.
UI administrators have stressed repeatedly that there will be no loss of salary for current university employees and that all employees will be eligible for future raises.
“This (change) is a discussion about positions, not individual persons,” Burnett said. “It is an effort to generate greater consistency and fairness across the University of Idaho.”
Concerns from staff about the new classification system were addressed at the forums, but feedback and questions can be still submitted online at www.uidaho.edu/human-resources/classification-and-compensation-study.
An appeal process is also in place for staff if they feel they have been classified incorrectly. The form can be found on the website listed above. The deadline is currently set at Sep. 9, although concerns were raised that given the increased workload many staff experience at the beginning of the academic year, that deadline may not allow adequate time for the appeal process.
Burnett said he heard the concerns about the deadline and indicated administration would consider an extension.
Kaitlin Moroney can be reached at [email protected]