M compensation

M compensation

Maeve Haldane | Management Forum invited management staff to a plenary last Friday, entitled "The NEW Management Compensation Scheme." Presenters were Executive Director of Human Resources Robert Savoie, Associate Director of Human Resources Jacques Sztuke, and Josephine Leake, Manager, Staff Relations & Salary Administration.

The new compensation structure will be implemented Dec. 1, which means that the old M classification system becomes obsolete. Of the old system, Savoie said, "The more I looked, the more I saw it needed revamping."

Sztuke said that the old system was too rigid, breaking job responsibilities down into task lists, and didn't allow for flexibility and fluctuations in the market. He then outlined the specifics of the new structure, which will appear shortly on the HR website:

Current jobs will be collapsed into seven job families, with subfamilies, that will describe functions [focus on roles], rather than lists of tasks. By mid-December, staff will receive letters confirming their new role profile match, corresponding grade and salary scale.

Role profiles were evaluated using the Hay evaluation methodology by the pay equity committee.

The committee took into account salaries across Canada in the not-for-profit sector, looking closely at universities in Montreal, at which the minimum salary is typically 80% of the maximum. Currently, McGill's minimum is 70.7% of the max, which is too low to recruit the cream of the crop. Over the next five years, minimum salaries will be boosted to 75% of the maximum. Documentation on the integration will be available on the HR website.

Special adjustments up to 90% of scale maximum will be managed by individual departments. These will be allowed in cases where the responsibilities or skills of a staff member are increased within the scope of a role profile.

New hires will be allowed to start at up to 90% of the max, at each department's judgement. Recent graduates, though, without any experience, may be hired at 60% of the max, with plans to move quickly to the standard minimum.

Market requirements when specialists are in demand, such as in the recent run on Unix experts, can mean a 3%--6% base increase in salary. These salary adjustments may also be non-base and temporary, paid out as premiums from 3%--10%.

Promotional increases in the past were 6%. In the future they will be 8%, but more rare.

There will be an appeal process for a fixed time period should you feel your profile match isn't correct.

The biggest adjustments will be for those who are near the minimum of the scale. Overall, the maximum will rise to that of the market, as compared to Université de Montréal, but the minimum will rise too, and the usual yearly increases will go on top of that.

Audience members wanted to know if the new scheme would affect current term employees. No it won't -- M term staff will be dealt with at the end of their contracts. The issue of staff workload also came up in the meeting, but the compensation scheme.

There's more to be ironed out over time, such as how this change will affect internal movements. And after the holidays, Savoie will consult executives and deans as to how they want to carry on with merit evaluations in the future.