07/13/2012

IPS Staff,

This morning I completed a series of 10 meetings across the state with nearly 90 employees explaining the IPS Compensation Plan for 2012 . Below is a summary of the information I shared, and if I was successful, those employees who attended should be able to explain it to those of you who were not able to attend!

The Compensation Plan has two key components – classification and compensation.

Classification is the UT process used to determine each employee’s job family, pay grade and title. Visit
http://humanresources.tennessee.edu/compensation/families/index.html to read more about job families and to see a list of titles included in each family and a generalized description of the job duties of each title. Your job description, known as the position data questionnaire or PDQ, sets out your specific job duties and minimum requirements. You should know and understand your job family and pay grade assignment.

Compensation begins with the Salary Schedule. The schedule is arranged by pay grade and sets a minimum starting salary, the mid-point also known as the market salary, and a maximum salary. All positions in all job families except public service are on the Knoxville-area salary schedule. Jobs in the Public Service family are on the Public Service salary schedule. Visit
http://intranet.ips.tennessee.edu/2010_budget.asp to see the IPS 2012 Salary Schedule for all positions. Look under FY 2013 Budget and click on IPS Compensation Plan. The hiring range, or pay range, for all positions is minimum to mid-point. These salary schedules were set in consultation with UT HR and are based on market data obtained from Sibson Consulting and other sources.

The second part of compensation is understanding your Target Salary. This is the salary that we ought to be paying you to maintain a market competitive position. The university’s salary gap is $150M. As much as we would like to close it, it is not financially feasible to do so without a multi-year plan, and of course significant new resources. The IPS salary gap, after July 1 increases, is $450,000 – a large gap that we are working to close over a three year period. To determine your target salary, visit
http://intranet.ips.tennessee.edu/2010_budget.asp . There is an explanation at the bottom of the Example spreadsheet that shows the calculation. Basically, mid-point minus minimum point divided by a number. The result times your points equals the value you bring to the position above the minimum. Add that amount to the minimum and that is your target salary. Here is an example.

Title	Pay Grade	Job Family	Current 01/12 Salary	Salary Schedule Minimum	Salary Schedule Mid	Value of One Point	Total Points	Value of Points	Target Salary	Amount Below Target
IPS Consultant II	42	Public Service	73,884	55,660	82,305	2,665	8.0	21,316	76,976	3,092

Oh, how did we determine points? What do you bring to the position beyond the minimum required in your PDQ? We evaluate education, experience and other credentials for a maximum of 10 points for exempt staff. We value experience beyond the minimum for non-exempt staff (an experiment for this year) up to 15 points. Now you know your target salary and your salary gap .

The IPS leadership team used this information to make salary increase recommendations for this year. We started with a 5% pool. 2.5% was distributed across the board for all employees with satisfactory work performance with a minimum $1000 increase (prorated for part-time staff). We distributed .5% of the pool as merit increases for the highest performing employees in each agency. The remaining 2% was distributed based on the market gaps and considering equity within the agency, the job family and the pay grade. Again, the gaps are too large to close all of them. After July 1 increases, approximately 65% of our staff are at or above their target salary.

Salary increases this year range from 0% to 12.8%. The average increase is 5%. Across the board increases will appear in your July check. Market and merit increases will appear in your August check, retroactive to July 1. Salary increase letters are at the UT post office and should begin arriving at your home in the next few days. . Once you get your letter, recalculate your salary gap . 65% of all IPS employees are at or above their target salary - $0 gap!

I hope this information is helpful and I’m certainly willing to answer any questions that this explanation has not addressed. If you have questions about your specific increase, you should talk to your agency director.

Have a great weekend.
Mary