Supervisor Guide: Rate and Title Requests - Overview
Pay Adjustment Process
- When it is determined that there is a need to review an employee's compensation and provide a rate increase, supervisors should start the process by reaching out to their HR Business partner: SMPH HR Contact Information
- HR Business Partners will work in collaboration with supervisors to gather necessary information, analyze data and reports and use compensation guidelines and best practices to create a rate adjustment request.
- HR Business Partners will submit a request for the Compensation teams review.
- The SMPH Compensation Team reviews Rate/Title requests as they are submitted. The requests are presented to the Rate and Title Review Committee on a weekly basis for their review and approval. Committee review will be focused on the justification provided by HRBPs on behalf of the departments making the requests. The Review Committee is made up of several Associate Dean's and HR Professionals.
- Once requests are approved by the Review Committee, the majority of requests are then sent to OHR for their review and approval.
- Once OHR approves a request the HRBP will notify the supervisor/department. Rate requests should not be communicated with employees until they have gone through the full approval process.
Base Building Salary Adjustments (permanent or temporary)
There are several available salary adjustments that can awarded to an employee. All base-building salary adjustments (permanent or temporary) are subject to the maximum of the pay range for that position.
To help determine the most appropriate salary adjustment, HRBPs will work with the supervisor to identify the purpose of the request. The purpose of the request will drive the type of rate adjustment that is used for an employee's increase.- Has the employee taken on new responsibilities? If yes, options the HRBP will discuss with you are:
- Change in Responsibilities and Title
- Change in Unique Responsibilities
- Temporary Change in Responsibilities
- Use the Position description changes decision tree to help determine which of the above pay adjustments to use
- How did the need for the employee to take on new responsibilities come about?
- Is the employee's pay low within their salary range? If yes, options your HRBP will discuss with you are:
- Does the employee have an outside offer? If yes, options your HRBP will discuss with you are:
- Is there an inequity in pay (for an individual or a group of similarly situation employees) for staff with comparable training, experience, and responsibilities? If yes, options the HRBP will discuss with you are:
- Does the manager want to recognize sustained excellent performance of an employee?
- If yes, [Link for document 116733 is unavailable at this time] is likely the most appropriate
- If the employee is being rewarded for excellent performance after the completion of a project or task a performance lump sum payment is likely the most appropriate action
Change in Responsibilities and Title
Change in Responsibilities and Title (promotion, lateral or demotion): A change in responsibilities and title may be requested when a filled position has changes in responsibilities due to organizational business needs and a different standard job description is more appropriate. This may result in a promotion, lateral move, or demotion.
Change in Unique Responsibilities (No Title Change)
A change in unique responsibilities is appropriate when there are permanent job duties or responsibilities of growing importance to the operational unit that are either newly assigned or have evolved from the job's original functions. These new responsibilities should be of greater scope, impact or complexity compared to the previous functions.
Temporary Base Adjustments (TBAs)
This adjustment can be requested when an employee assumes additional temporary responsibilities within the current position and title. This may occur due to an unanticipated assignment of an unusual, short-term or nonrecurring nature; or due to a temporary administrative assignment. The adjustments are only intended to last while the employee performs the additional responsibilities. New responsibilities should be of a higher scope and not align with an essential responsibility within the employees standard job description.
Market Adjustments
A Market adjustment may be provided for retention or competitive factors. It is essential that the division provides evidence supporting the need for a market adjustment. OHR is required to annually report all market adjustments to the Board of Regents.
- Retention. This adjustment is a salary increase to retain one or more employees who have outside offers (outside UW-Madison or UW System), or there is evidence of a serious retention problem. This can include a recent pattern of employees in the same discipline/unit leaving to take positions outside UW-Madison or UW System with comparable responsibilities at higher salaries. Units should use this type of adjustment only to retain employees with exemplary performance and highly-valued expertise.
- Competitive. This market adjustment is a salary increase to retain one or more employees when there is no outside offer or specific example of current retention problems, but there is evidence of a potential retention problem due to the market.
Parity Adjustments
[Link for document 105999 is unavailable at this time] A parity base building adjustment may be used to correct an inequity (for an individual or a group of similarly situation employees) identified through compensation analyses of staff with comparable training, experience, and responsibilities.
Performance: Base Building Increases
Supervisor Guide - Performance Base Building Increases
An adjustment may be awarded for sustained performance that meets or exceeds established standards of the job.
If the request falls within established guidelines the Compensation Team will review the request and if appropriate, will approve and enter the request in HRS
If the request falls outside of established guidelines the Compensation Team will bring the request to the Compensation Review Committee for their review and approval.