The Compensation 2014 team updated Ohio University’s administrative and classified staff members on its progress after reviewing the staff’s job descriptions and pay plans for more than a year.
The project began in 2009 when the Department of Education performed an audit of OU’s job descriptions and pay structure.
The Department of Education likely stepped in after an OU employee filed a grievance with the department, said Deborah Shaffer, OU’s senior associate vice president for finance and administration. She does not know the specific grievance because she wasn’t working on the project at the time, she said.
The Department of Education could not be reached before press time because of the government shutdown.
“There was no finding on the Department of Education in response to that grievance,” Shaffer said. “What they did identify is that we had a complicated pay structure.”
The Compensation team is gathering information to refine job descriptions of administrative and classified staff members and grouping them into categories — such as budget, information technology and enrollment services — a phase set to be completed by January 2014.
The team will then compare those positions’ pay rates with those in other industries, including but not limited to higher education. The whole project will be completed in December 2014, Shaffer said.
“The goal is to create jobs that can be benchmarked against the mark so you can do this comparison,” Shaffer said.
The structure became especially complicated when OU reduced its staff because of the economic recession in 2008, Shaffer said.
“We’ve done cuts over the years, and we have to be creative in the way we structure,” she said.
The Compensation team sends a progress report to the Department of Education every six months. The department has approved every progress report sent thus far, Shaffer said.
There won’t be a decrease in any pay rates because of the audit and evaluation, she added, noting that staff members will have a clearer understanding of their positions and where they would be able to transfer or move up in rank.
“The university strongly believes that we are in general paying equitably, and there’s evidence that we’re able to recruit and retain fantastic talent,” Shaffer said.
While the final pay structure won’t require approval by classified or administrative staffs, Administrative Senate’s feedback was taken into account, said Administrative Senate Chair Josh Bodnar.
“We might not have known the specific things that were going on, but we’ve always been in the loop as to where the Compensation team was,” Bodnar said.
The Compensation team will visit Administrative and Classified Senates to update them throughout the project’s final stages, said Lisa Kamody, director of student and community engagement for University College and Administrative Senate’s liaison on the Compensation team.
“I think (Senate feedback) has to happen because they’re (some) of the employees that are part of the process,” Kamody said.
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@DanielleRose84
