The University of Idaho’s classification and compensation study is coming to a close after months spent in what has been named the “recalibration process.”The recalibration process started in September after the initial rollout of the updated job classifications and pay grades. After weeks of significant confusion and concern from UI staff, the administration announced it would take an additional look at everything before finalizing the class and comp system.
Committees were formed to take a look at classifications across the university and make recommendations for changes. The executive team made the final decisions on what changes would take place — a group made up of Interim President Don Burnett, Interim Provost Katherine Aiken, Vice President of Finance and Administration Ron Smith, Vice President for Research Jack McIver and Vice President for University Advancement Chris Murray.
Last week saw the conclusion of that process, after Smith sent out a university-wide email outlining the changes that were made. Among them were changes in grade level of 63 positions, 123 changes to classification group names and 167 positions awaiting further review in the spring. The updated classification list is on the Human Resources website.
Executive Director of Human Resources Greg Walters said this extra calibration step is unusual for a classification process.
“But a good (step) in that it greatly expanded the campus’ involvement and solicited much more of a voice from many people,” Walters said. “It’s unusual, but in the end a good idea.”
Brian Mahoney, chair of the Staff Affairs Committee, said that the response to the release of the updated classification list has been much quieter than it was the first time around.
“I’ll tell you the overall feel — I didn’t have people emailing me, phoning me, beating my door down, screaming hollering and kicking … like (they did) much earlier in 2013,” Mahoney said.
There will still be a lot of concerns from a lot of staff, Mahoney said, but that it’s probably impossible to please everybody.
“I think that everybody just wants to have a classification system that works, is in place, so that we can move on and just quit thinking about this entire process,” Mahoney said.
But as Walters pointed out, these projects deal with people’s jobs and people take their jobs seriously.
Classifications and pay grades are intended to apply to the position itself — rather than the person in the position.
“This is about the job and not the person — I will tell you that that is an extremely difficult to be able to take yourself out of that role because we are in that current role,” Mahoney said. “And I think that is still going to be of concern to a lot of staff.”
But whether or not people are happy with it, Mahoney said he feels adequately satisfied with the outcome.
“I think at this point the process has been vetted about as much as it can be vetted,” Mahoney said. “We have an appeals process that’s coming up and I’m hopeful that those folks who think their positions are still improperly classified will come forward and do that.”
The appeals deadline has been moved to Jan. 31, and staff who have already filed an appeal have been notified by Human Resources asking if they want to continue the process.
While Human Resources will continue to actively maintain and update the classification and compensation system, this initial overhaul is coming to a close.
“I feel good about it all,” Walters said. “I’m glad that it’s almost done and we can move on to the next exciting thing.”
Kaitlin Moroney can be reached at [email protected]