We hear a lot about how faculty salaries at MU compare to other universities, but what about staff salaries?
Karen Touzeau, associate vice chancellor for human resource services, is looking into just that, with the ultimate goal to make sure MU employees are paid for performance. The Staff Job Title and Salary Study was initiated in 2010.
“We can create a structure that makes sense and creates a feeling of equity,” Touzeau said. “We don’t want people to have to move jobs or get their job reclassified to get paid for their performance. We want to be able to pay top people what they deserve.”
To make that happen, Touzeau has, for the first time since 1972 at this university, looked into job descriptions, titles and compensation, by Job Family. The first “family” was Student Support Services; the team is now finishing up Office Administration and Support, with plans in the next two years to tackle Executive; Healthcare; Advancement; Research and Engineering; Business Administration; Information Technology; and Communications/Theatre.
“What we’ve found is that we didn’t show distinct levels of pay and duties,” she said.
Every position was evaluated with the same criteria, to establish true distinctions in – and among – jobs within the job family, determining where it fit on a hierarchy system. Evaluations were based on required knowledge, skills and abilities; complexity of the assigned work; and scope and impact of the position.
Some classes of titles were collapsed, when similar positions were found to have similar types and levels of duties. For pay ranges, MU jobs similar to those in comparable institutions (education and industry) were benchmarked against corporations in the area. In Office Administration and Support alone, the number of pay ranges was collapsed from 19 to six.
It’s important to note, Touzeau said, that these changes do not mean anyone will lose their job, take a cut in pay or have job duties changed. It does mean titles could change, and some people will see a pay increase, while others might have limited opportunities for future pay increases. Advancement opportunities will likely be clearer now.
The result is internal equity, as well as external competitiveness. The new pay and title structure will aid with recruitment, Touzeau said.
Find out more information about the study here or contact the office with further questions.