Staff Spotlight gives more details on compensation project

By MARTY LEVINE

More details were released on May 16 about the compensation modernization project undertaken by Human Resources, while HR officials continue to emphasize that the changes have more to do with future hires than with current employees.

At Staff Council’s latest Spotlight session online, Shahfar Shaari, who has led the project up to now, unveiled an example page from the new job catalog, which will be available for all employee to view some time in July, he said.

The catalog page for each job shows its job family (among 18, such as “Information Technology”) and the job subfamily (among 136, such as “End User Support”) and then the job level, such as “End User Support Level 1.”

Finally, there is the job — say, “End User Computing Analyst I.” Each job (there are 1,300 of those) has its own catalog page with a list of job duties; the pay grade; minimum years of experience required; minimum education level required; required licensure or certification; amount of supervision received by the employee; level of autonomy; complexity, accountability and scope; and management responsibilities.

Did we say that “finally” there is the job?

Not so fast.

“Position” is the official term now for the actual work you do in your specific office for your specific department. Thus, the job description in the catalog won’t be as detailed in its listing of duties as the work you do day to day. The job description will list what anyone in this category of, for example, “End User Computing Analyst I,” would do, across the University. Departments have the flexibility, Shaari said, to add duties to your position as long as the new duties don't contradict the job description or turn your position into some other job that already exists.

Shaari reiterated that, “until you change your job ... you are still working under the job description you were hired under.” The compensation modernization project will not change anyone's pay rate, current title, duties or performance expectations. It will instead “establish the new system for all staffing movements and pay decisions” and make Pitt jobs more competitive with jobs elsewhere in the market.

After employees get a chance to examine the job catalog, he added, there will be more chances to adjust the specifics of job descriptions and “a perpetual process for creating career paths,” which is being undertaken by the project’s new lead, Maureen Pastin, HR’s director of compensation. She explained that career ladders for traditional promotion, alongside career paths showing opportunities to move laterally from one path to another, will be coming from HR.

Pay for new hires will be determined by the traditional combination of experience and expertise — within the job’s pay range.

Asked whether the new job catalog would be released in time to affect this year’s performance evaluations, Shaari noted that it will not, but also that the question is moot, since current workers will continue to work under present job descriptions unless they change jobs.

Asked also whether employees will be able to recommend job catalog changes once these are viewable in July — and whether current employees would have a chance to reconcile their level of pay with that of a new hire who might be brought on board at a higher pay rate —  Shaari and Pastin said that those processes were still being worked out.

James Gallaher, vice chancellor for human resources, noted that “this is obviously a really important project” for Pitt but “will never likely be a 100 percent complete product as we will always make tweaks and adjustments.”

Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.

 

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