Human Resources

Compensation Project—Phase II, 2016-17

Western Michigan University is conducting a study of the staff compensation system for all professional, administrative, clerical and technical employees. The goal of Phase II of the project is to develop a new compensation system structure.

SCOPE

Phase II of the project includes the following components:

Identifying additional benchmark jobs.
Competitive market analysis.
Development of market-based salary structure.
Job evaluation and slotting of jobs into structure.
Financial analysis.
Administrative guideline development.
Creation and publication of new job descriptions

TIMELINE FOR PHASE II

For the project timeline, please see Staff Compensation Study: Western Michigan University, Project Plan Phase II. Please note that all dates on the project plan are subject to change based on scheduling updates.

PROJECT UPDATES

Creation and publication of the new staff compensation system job descriptions was delayed by the 2015-16 FLSA review and the 2016 FLSA Compliance Project.
Human Resources is in the process of writing job descriptions for each of the 600 plus unique job titles in the staff compensation system. Job descriptions are being created using a Microsoft Access database containing data from all job content tools submitted either 1) during the compensation project in late-2014, or 2) as part of the staff compensation system job evaluation process since its inception in July 2015. For instances where a job content tool was not submitted for a given job title, Human Resources will rely upon the legacy staff compensation system job description when creating the new description.
The new job descriptions are of a broad, summary nature and are designed to be used by departments and Human Resources in tandem with the more specific job content tools completed for individual positions.
For minimum and desired qualifications for each job description, Human Resources is relying upon guidance from our consulting project partner Aon Hewitt. In providing this guidance, Aon Hewitt relies upon job content tools, previous WMU job descriptions, market surveys and industry best practices. Current employees not meeting the qualifications detailed in their job description will be grandfathered until such time as they move to a different job (i.e. job title/job description).
Human Resources will publish Staff Compensation System Job Descriptions to the HR website as they are complete, with the first batch of job descriptions to be published in mid-May. Legacy staff compensation system job descriptions will continue to be available via the HR website for six months after publication of the final new job descriptions.
Once the new job descriptions are available on the HR website, please bring any typographical or grammatical errors (we hope there are very few) to the attention of your HR representative so that we may correct them as soon as possible.
If the core content of a job has changed and the published job description does not match your work, please contact your HR representative to discuss the staff compensation system job evaluation process, which includes creating a new job content tool for your position.
For all other requested changes to job descriptions, Human Resources asks that you hold your request until all 600 plus job descriptions have been written and published to the HR website.
As of Aug. 29, 2017, the Staff Compensation System job description project is complete. Legacy job descriptions will continue to be available through Feb. 28, 2018, via a link at Staff Compensation System Job Descriptions.
With the publication of the new job descriptions, Phase II of the Compensation Project is complete.

QUESTIONS

For historical information about the project, please visit the main Compensation Project page. For up-to-date information about the new staff compensation system, please visit Staff Compensation System. Also, please feel free to contact your HR representative with specific questions.