Salary Allocation Process and Employee Recognition Award

January 2008 issue

November 28, 2007 Dear Staff Council, I hope all is well with all of you. I have concerns about the salary allocation process for staff raises, and the Employee Recognition Award Program. Salary Allocations - Each department/school establishes its own process for salary allocations for staff raises. Some departments/schools have the same process and some have a different process. Last year and previous years, I was given salary percentages for the staff I supervise from the Budget Director and Associate Dean of Operations. This year no information was shared with me. I was told that all staff will be notified individually in a sealed envelope. After talking with some employees with supervisory responsibilities, I discovered that some departments/schools share staff salary increase information with them and some do not. I strongly feel a specific/structured university policy should be established for this process where all colleges are following the same procedure, and a university governing unit should be established to verify that all funds are distributed fairly among staff members according to their "overall" work performance ratings for all colleges. I think that supervisors should be given this information to share with their staff members. Employee Recognition Award Policy - After reviewing the procedures for this program, it does not state that nominees must go through a formal committee process for approval, and does not state that schools and departments can establish a committee. The policy states the following: "The approval will go from the requestor to the Vice President or Dean of the respective department or school, and lastly to the Office of Human Resources for final authorization. The Office of Human Resources will work with the Vice President or Dean to authorize the payment. Dollars will be deducted from a previously budgeted account controlled wholly by the Office of Human Resources." Most employees take human resources and university policies at face value. If schools and departments can create committees, this information should be stated in the policy? If a committee is established, the committee should share the following information with supervisors and staff members: eligibility requirements nomination submissions, and committee guidelines for determining how awards are determined. In other words, the governing guidelines of the committee should be communicated with supervisors and staff members. One downfall of a committee process is that the committee can disagree with a supervisor's nominee(s) for an award. I don't think establishing a committee is a violation of university policy. However, I do feel that this information should be stated in the policy and committee guidelines shared with supervisors and staff members. The committee should ensure supervisors that no biases will be given according to rank of positions and how well they like certain individuals. Also, there should be some clarification about how many awards will be issued out. For example, ten, $250.00 awards, fifteen $500.00 awards, etc. I have spoken with some university employees about the above two processes. I believe that most employees feel that more structure and accountability measures should be incorporated in these processes. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Response

Source: Staff Council

Response: You have many concerns in your submission. Please note that we are in the process of looking at all the compensation elements within DePaul. As you may know, we are rolling out an upgraded compensation program and we think it addresses many of your concerns. There will also be new compensation policies posted on the HR website which address more consistent processes for addressing issues such as those you raise.