Memorandum to AP, PT and CC Employees - January 9, 2002

The purpose of this memorandum is to communicate the start of a compensation project that affects you and to issue an assignment due on January 23, 2002.
The transformation of Human Resources to improve its ability to support the University's mission is an ongoing process.  An aspect of the transformation is use of contemporary compensation systems.  A Compensation Advisory Committee (CAC) was established last year to examine the EMU salary administration program and look for ways to improve compensation services.  The CAC developed a list of principles and goals for a new compensation system that would serve to align compensation with the mission of the University.  These principles are:

• Recognition of the value of people
• Pay system aligned with the President's mandate
• Pay system aligned with the University's strategic plan
• Maintenance of competitive posture
• Simplicity
• Pay aligned with employee contributions to University mission
• Encouragement of a creative non-monetary reward system
• Fiscally responsible decentralized salary administration
• Open, communicated system
• Clear procedures

The goals established for the compensation system are:

• Market equity
• Internal equity
• Employee "buy-in"

The CAC determined the best way to achieve the goals was adoption of the broadbanding approach to salary administration for AP, CC and PT employees, with outcomes for the last group subject to collective bargaining. The President and Cabinet have endorsed this recommendation, and a consulting firm was engaged to guide the implementation of broadbanding.

What is compensation broadbanding?

Broadbanding is a method of grouping jobs and determining pay that makes compensation administration more flexible and more responsive to the needs of changing organizations.  Broadbanding eliminates the present hierarchical grading structure and narrow salary ranges.  In broadbanding, jobs with similar responsibilities and skill requirements are grouped in "bands" of job families, and pay is linked to the market.  The approach reinforces and values the employees' role within the University and the development of competencies to perform the role successfully.

During the 1990s, many employers successfully replaced traditional salary administration programs with broadbanding.  The University has enjoyed good results with a similar broadbanding approach for grouping and compensating professionals in Information and Communications Technology.

How does broadbanding benefit me?

Broadbanding will have the following benefits:

-Managers can make compensation decisions faster and with less paperwork than under the present system;
-Employees can receive salary increases when they improve job knowledge, skills and abilities;
-The pay for positions will be more closely aligned with market conditions; and,
-The University can structure and give team rewards.

Broadbanding will not result in the reduction of salaries or the elimination of positions.

Transition to broadbanding

Transition to a broadbanding system will require new processes.  The CAC has begun to establish groups or " families" of AP, PT and CC positions.  The CAC also will develop criteria for each family to allow supervisors to grant salary increases to employees who improve their knowledge, skills and abilities and take on additional responsibilities.  Market data will be collected to establish market pay ranges.  The targeted completion date for this project is June 30, 2002.

Your assignment

The CAC needs to work with the best job information available.  Doing so requires accurate descriptions of each CC, AP and PT position.  You have a role to play at this stage of the work:  assure, to the extent possible, the job descriptions the CAC will use are up-to-date.  Here's how to complete your assignment:

-Find your job specification at http://insight.emich.edu/staff/jobspecs/find.cfm and print it;
-Revise it, as necessary, to reflect present responsibilities;
-Highlight the most important job duties, to a maximum of six (no need to prioritize them);
-Deliver the highlighted job specification to your supervisor by January 23;
-If you are a supervisor, forward the mutually agreed-upon final version of your employees' forms to your director by January 25, who, in turn should deliver the forms to Ms. Amy Hale in Human Resources by January 25.

Communication

Throughout the broadbanding project the CAC will provide information by means of memos, email, Update, Focus EMU and the Human Resources Web site.  Also, feel free to contact any CAC member with questions; for a roster click on Compensation Advisory Committee .