As you are already aware, in the interest of attracting and retaining knowledgeable and driven personnel a commitment has been made to conduct a comprehensive compensation and benefit system evaluation for each of the city’s employee groups at least once every three years. The purpose of the evaluation is to remain market competitive by providing external equity with comparable communities and ensuring appropriate internal alignment. It also serves as the basis for establishing procedures for determining equitable pay practices. At this point, all the employee groups except for the West Central Florida PBA covered employees have been reviewed for compensation and benefits at least once in the last two years.
Also, as you are aware, a qualitative and quantitative data analysis was conducted in relationship to the positions covered in the West Central Florida PBA which includes both sworn law enforcement officers and communications dispatchers. The purpose of the analysis was to improve the current compensation system which produces some issues with both compression and retention of quality employees. In order to address these matters several recommendations have been advanced by the city’s consultant on this matter who was Evergreen Solutions, LLC. A Tallahassee based corporation that specializes in servicing public sector clients on human resource matters. Evergreen conducted a comprehensive market salary and benefit survey for the city which included data from 9 peers from cities and counties throughout Central Florida’s communities.
As a matter of finding, it was determined that the city is not meeting the market average salary when compared to peer organizations. In fact, the market position overall at the survey midpoint shows the city 5.9% below market. It is also important to note that the city is 7.7% below the market average minimum for the beginning salary of Officers. The market midpoint for all PBA covered positions is currently 5.8% behind the market midpoint and 16.8% below the market maximum. These results seem to indicate that the sworn officers are competitive at the minimums for each rank, but the competitiveness is lost along the progression of pay ranges. These results reveal specific classifications that fall below market peers and therefore warrant corrective action to establish external equity.
In that respect Evergreen has advanced six specific recommendations that serve as the foundation for the new pay program. Evergreen is recommending a pay plan with a fewer number of pay grades, an increase in the number of steps within each grade, and an increase in the minimum starting salary for patrol officers.
1. Increase the number of steps within each pay grade to 15, advancement of one step for every two years.
By reducing the pay grades and increasing the number of steps the pay plan becomes more competitive and improves career opportunities for employees regardless of classification or grade.
2. Increase the starting wage for PATROL Officers to $21.88 per hour.
The proposed change in the pay plan will improve the city’s competitive position as it relates to the recruitment of employees.
3. Transition current employees into the proposed pay plan by maintaining established compensation philosophy and working with available financial resources.
There are several methods by which to achieve this objective each bearing its own advantages and disadvantages. For the purposes of this study two were considered with the preferable method being the Compa-Ratio method. The first method is simply to place employees into the new salary ranges without consideration to years of service. While as you can see from the report it is a far less expensive option ($54,051.57) it does not address wage compression at grade minimum. The Compa-Ratio method realigns employees in their recommended salary ranges by maintaining their relationship to the midpoint that they currently have. This option rewards previous experience more than the current system provides for and it additionally does maintain performance gains and allows for a transition to the new step plan. The total cost associated with the implementation of the Compa-Ratio system is $212,611.33.
4. Conduct small-scale salary surveys as needed to assess market competitiveness of hard to fill classifications and/or classifications with retention issues and make adjustments if warranted.
If one or more classifications are having difficulty with recruitment or are exhibiting high turnover it is appropriate for the city to collect salary range data from peer organizations’ to determine whether or not an adjustment is needed for the pay grade of the classification.
5. Conduct a comprehensive classification and compensation study every three to five years.
In order to preserve internal and external equity for the city it is recommended that a full classification and compensation study be conducted every three to five years.
6. Revise policies and procedures for moving salaries through the pay plan, including procedures for determining salaries for new hires, promoted employees, demoted or employees transferred to a different classification.
It is important to solidify guidelines for each of the above referenced situations and that they are followed consistently.
With all considered, launching a new pay plan is certainly in the best interest of the city as its results will be consistent with the goals and objectives set forth by you in the Strategic Plan relating to providing a competitive and equitable pay system.