Compensation Philosophy
Compensation Philosophy and Principles
The University’s compensation philosophy includes these principles:
External Factors
Within the context of total compensation, to be competitive with the labor market (subject to the availability of funds), in order to attract, retain, and motivate a high quality staff.
Accomplishment of this objective involves consideration of the availability of appropriate funding, recruitment and retention and other determinants of the organization’s willingness to pay.
Internal Equity
To establish criteria to determine the relative contribution of jobs in a consistent and objective manner.
Pay for Performance
To promote a relationship between pay and performance.
Role of the Supervisor
To understand and communicate the compensation program to their employees.
External Factors
One of the compensation objectives for the University is to be competitive with the labor market in order to attract, retain and motivate a high quality staff. Accomplishment of this objective involves consideration of the availability of appropriate funding, recruitment and retention and other determinants of the organization’s willingness to pay.
Salary comparisons are made to similar positions in other organizations. Benchmark jobs (UCR jobs that can serve as market anchor points because they closely resemble jobs performed in other organizations and represent many organizational levels and generally have multiple incumbents) are chosen and job matches in the market are made. This often appears to be straightforward but in reality is often complex because not all organizations use every position in the same manner. Consequently, appropriate job matching based upon responsibilities, not job title, is critical.
UCR participates in and reviews a number of salary surveys to obtain information about salaries paid in the competitive market. Some of the surveys used include: Western Management Group, California State University, William M. Mercer, Organizational Resources Counselors, Inc., etc. The selection of appropriate salary surveys that contain the right mix of organizations, industries and geographic locations is imperative. The determination to use salary data from national, state, regional or local surveys is made based on the type and level of position as well as recruitment data.
Internal Factors
Positions are evaluated to determine the relative contribution of jobs in a consistent and objective manner. Currently, the major job evaluation system utilized is classification. Jobs are evaluated by comparing the job documentation to a class specification, and the job is assigned to a class that most closely describes the job characteristics. Additional information regarding the classification process is available through the Classification Unit.
Pay for Performance
One of the principles of the Compensation Program is to promote a relationship between pay and performance. In support of this principle, the merit program is designed to reward employees for meritorious job performance. Merit increases reflect how well an employee performs and are not automatically granted.
Supervisors are responsible for:
determining the performance level of each employee in the supervisor’s area of responsibility;
recommending salary adjustments, if any;
discussing approved merit increases and performance with employees; and
working with the department head to ensure that the overall average increase meets the salary guidelines and budget.
In addition to the merit program, the Incentive and Development Award Program for Staff was developed to recognize exceptional individual or team performance, recognizing those behaviors most important to organizational success.
Role of the Supervisor
Supervisors are involved in communicating the compensation program to their employees. The role of the supervisor encompasses the following:
Understand the compensation program and how it works.
Communicate the program parameters to staff and ensure that employees know their job titles, salary range, and responsibilities.
Ensure unit positions are appropriately classified, review positions periodically, and initiate a position review through Human Resources when significant changes to the position have occurred
Maintain an ongoing dialogue about performance expectations and objectives and conduct formal appraisals regularly.
Make salary adjustments within the campuswide guidelines and procedures to recognize meritorious performance, correct salary inequities, or compensate for temporary assignments.
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