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June 10, 1999

Specifics on classification system to be distributed soon

Specifics on classification system to be distributed soon

Effective July 1, virtually every Pitt staff position will be placed in one of a new set of classifications, called job families, with new pay ranges and probable new working titles.

But there will be no changes in job responsibilities, no salary reductions and no caps for those staff approaching maximum pay ranges in their new classification.

Salaries for about 100 staffers will be raised to the minimum pay range of the newly assigned job family. This equity adjustment is a fiscal year 2000 budget line item separate from the annual departmental salary pool money and will not affect FY2000 raises, according to University officials.

Ron Frisch, associate vice chancellor for Human Resources, outlined the new staff classification system at a Staff Association Council-sponsored assembly June 8. Frisch teamed with Jim Edgerton, assistant vice chancellor for compensation and benefits, and Mark Burdsall, compensation supervisor, to introduce the plan.

Other speakers at the assembly included Jerome Cochran, executive vice chancellor, and Rich Colwell, Staff Association Council (SAC) president. The presentation, which was aired by video-conference at the regional campuses, included a 20-minute film describing the classification system. The film will be distributed to all units for staff viewing within the next couple weeks, Frisch said.

The new system will streamline the number of staff job classifications and help staff better identify career paths, Frisch said. The job families, which are groups of jobs having similar functions, roles or skills as requirements, spell out the competencies needed for job advancement into higher families, as well as requirements needed within the family for easier lateral transfer.

According to Human Resources, Pitt staff jobs were last reclassified in 1987 and salary pay ranges last adjusted in 1992. Excluding unionized employees and some upper-administration staff who are not covered by the plan, about 4,500 staff positions are affected.

Currently, there are 155 Pitt job classifications, a number that will be cut in half, Frisch said. Jobs with similar requirements are placed into pay grades, and each pay grade has a pay range. The number of job pay grades will drop from 25 in the current system to 12, but salary ranges have been broadened (minimums and maximums both rising) to accommodate the increased number of jobs per pay grade.

Specifics about job families, pay grades and pay ranges were not presented at the assembly.

Frisch declined a University Times request for that information. "We want the specifics to go to the deans and department heads first."

Frisch said he expects the information to go out "by the end of next week, or early the following week at the latest."

He said revised salary administration guidelines will be distributed to all supervisors who are involved in salary decisions; informational brochures and personalized statements will go to all staff. The statements are a summary of a staff member's current classification, new classification name, new job family, annual salary and salary range for the new classification.

According to a sample job family chart in the informational brochure obtained by the University Times, a common activities section of each job family will spell out generic tasks associated with the job title. It also will list the minimal experience and education level required as guidelines for new hires and transfers.

In creating job families, Human Resources evaluated and then linked positions across University units using the following categories: contact level (interaction of a staff member within and outside the University); level of authority in a department's financial and budget operations; level of education and experience required; typical activities and duties; working title; organizational impact of the job within a unit; amount of problem-solving necessary, and level of supervision required.

Job descriptions per se are not affected by the new system, compensation supervisor Mark Burdsall told the University Times. But employees are encouraged to evaluate their job descriptions against the competencies, duties and levels of experience spelled out in their job family. Any potential discrepancy should be reported to the supervisor, or, if the employee wishes, to Human Resources, Burdsall said.

The revised salary administration guidelines for supervisors will give administrators more flexibility in salary decisions, Frisch said. "The primary responsibility for ensuring equity in a department goes to the supervisor. [Human Resources] cannot go into a department and say, 'Hey, raise this person's salary,' just as we can't go in and say, 'You should be doing this as part of your job.' This new system is a classification of positions, not individuals," Frisch said.

SAC president Colwell said, "We have expressed concern [to Human Resources and the administration] about the salary administration part of the plan, because in drafts we saw it was being considered to cap staff once they reached the maximum salary level [of their classification], and to award a bonus instead of salary raises. But we understand the administration has agreed not to do that."

Cochran explained that cash awards, rather than salary percentage increases, had been considered for staff at or above the maximum range, but were rejected because staff cannot apply such awards to Pitt's retirement and other benefits. "Instead, we decided to grandfather all staff who [as of July 1] are 90 percent or above the maximum pay range [of their classification]," Cochran said. "They will continue to get salary raises consistent with the University's procedures for awarding them."

However, promoted or transferring staff (including a lateral move), as well as staff who leave Pitt and return, will lose their grandfathered status, he said.

At the plan's implementation, only about 5 percent of all staff will be earning 90 percent or more of their maximum range, Edgerton said.

Frisch added that the pay ranges will be evaluated each year based on job market comparisons and will go up annually, ensuring that no staff member will reach the maximum.

But Colwell told the University Times that SAC does not endorse the plan at this point. "We don't disagree with it. But we can't endorse what we haven't seen. We haven't seen the details; we haven't seen the pay ranges, the pay grades, or the job classification families in final form.

"Our concerns are still that no long-term staff 'max out' [of their new pay ranges]. We've heard that the pay ranges will make sure this doesn't happen for the next five years, but we want it never to happen, and there are no guarantees about that.

"We'd also like to see these families. How do we know as staff that our jobs are in the right place until we see evidence of that?" Colwell said.

Human Resources officials recommend that questions about a staff member's individual pay be directed to that person's supervisor.

For questions regarding the staff classification system, call 648-2067.

Burdsall said a classification informational web site (www.hr.pitt.edu) and e-mail address (HRSCS+@pitt.edu) will be operational within two weeks.

–Peter Hart


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