Information Technology Employees to Benefit from Internal Market Allocation

Janis Leibold
May 1, 2000


About 500 UA employees currently in information technology positions will see a little more money in their paycheck beginning May 19.

The decision to permanently fund base salaries for classified staff and non-faculty appointed personnel in information technology positions was made by UA President Peter Likins through the UA Budget Committee. Likins and the Budget Committee asked the University Compensation Advisory Team (UCAT) to recommend the amount of the allocation for both employee groups and the method of distribution.

Saundra Taylor, vice president for campus life and UCAT co-chair, said over time it has become clear that the UA needed to allocate funds to support employees the UA was losing to the external workforce because of market equity issues. The Budget Committee last fall identified .5 percent or $1.1 million of the UA's state funded permanent salary base to support the adjustment.

The allocation will amount to an average of 7.5 percent increase to these employees' salary. Both the recent state merit raise and internal market adjustment will be applied concurrently to the employee's base salary as of March 31. However, because of time constraints, the market adjustments will be applied retroactively and reflected in the May 19 paycheck.

"Given our commitment to continue to address issues of market equity, and in light of the lack of funds from the Legislature for this purpose, the Budget Committee and I decided to make this one-time allocation from internal
resources," Likins said.

Taylor said UCAT has been working together for more than a year to address compensation issues. "We have only so much money we can allocate and we are trying to address critical concerns," she said.

About $730,000 will be allocated to fund a one-pay-grade increase for classified staff with information technology titles. A list of the IT titles and new pay grades can be viewed on the Human Resources web site @ hr2.hr.arizona.edu/policies.htm. If departments that have grant-funded employees cannot provide the increase, they are being asked to make the adjustments as soon as funds become available.

Vice presidents and deans may withhold classified staff adjustments if an employee performance problem has been identified, the employee has already surpassed the range maximum for the position, and/or the vice president/dean determines that no increase or a lesser amount is appropriate to maintain market position.

About $300,000 is being allocated to colleges/vice presidential divisions for non-faculty appointed personnel. Vice presidents and deans were instructed to pay particular attention to appointed personnel whose primary job it is to perform IT functions first, then to other positions where there are recruitment and retention problems due to market influences, or those individuals who may have been overlooked in previous legislative salary adjustment increases.

"Since this was our own (the UA's) allocation, UCAT could focus the money on the classified and appointed personnel jobs with critical market sensitivity," said Marcia L. Chatalas, director of compensation and benefits.

Taylor said issues within appointed personnel are not as clear cut as with classified staff. The Appointed Personnel Compensation Program (APCP) team under the auspices of UCAT, is working to identify, clarify and gather comparable market data on non-faculty appointed personnel, which would eventually eliminate this gray area. The intent of the APCP effort is to give the UA a better understanding of the labor market and ultimately provide the University with data to support requests to the Legislature for salary adjustment funding, Taylor said.

UCAT believes they will have compiled enough benchmark data for Human Resources Compensation and Benefits to use to build recommendations for pay guidelines for appointed personnel positions. Taylor said she hopes that the process will be completed by next spring.

"The University is making difficult and strategic decisions to allocate these limited funds to specific disciplines," Taylor said. "We intend to continue to address market issues through the University Compensation Advisory Team."

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