Topics Map > Employee Handbook > 1.6 Benefits, Pay and Leave
Compensation Philosophy and Guidance
The Division of Extension will operate under the umbrella of UW-Madison Compensation Philosophy:
UW-Madison Compensation Philosophy
The University of Wisconsin–Madison (“university”) is committed to attracting, retaining, and rewarding a highly qualified and diverse workforce, both now and in the future. The university’s job framework and total compensation program support and facilitate these important goals by:
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Encouraging excellence by rewarding individual contributions that support the university’s mission and goals.
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Supporting competitive and equitable compensation practices through a job framework, salary structure and clear and flexible salary administrative guidelines.
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Establishing a foundation for career progression both within and across job groups and sub-groups.
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Developing a comprehensive benefit package that supports the well-being of our employees and is competitive and market informed.
Compensation Philosophy – Human Resources – UW–Madison (wisc.edu)
Compensation Adjustment Guidance
Contingent upon available funds, the UW Madison Division of Extension will conduct a process annually to review and distribute compensation adjustments. Discretionary Compensation Funds (DCF)/Central Compensation Funds (CCF) distribution, when available from central campus, will be included as a part of this review. This process will consider pay adjustments related to performance and parity. The process and decisions are made consistent with UW-Madison’s salary adjustment policy. (Note: Equity reviews will be conducted centrally by the OHR Compensation team)
Consideration for off cycle compensation adjustments can be made for retention or other appropriate needs and will be approved by the Dean.
Timeline
(Note that this timeline could change dependent upon annual factors such as announcement of central campus funds for compensation adjustments and any changes will be communicated division-wide)
Summer
At the initiation of the process, a division-wide communication will be sent to all staff outlining the process and specific timelines for each step in the process.
Requests for nominations related to performance adjustments will be requested from supervisors and colleagues.
Performance increases can be based on:
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The length or frequency of the outstanding performance;
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Overall significance or importance of the employee’s work product to the organization;
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Regularity with which the outstanding performance or unique contribution is demonstrated;
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Gained knowledge, skills or experience which increase the ability to achieve high levels of performance.
At the same time, supervisors will be provided salary data for their direct reports and asked to make recommendations for parity adjustments relative to their direct reports.
Fall
The Extension Dean’s Leadership Team will determine available funding for the Division allocation. The DLT will review the performance and parity recommendations from across the organization to make final determinations within available funds and balance of other considerations such as market factors and equitable distribution across employee classification and unit distribution within the organization.
Final decisions will be communicated to employees and supervisors.
Grant-funded Positions
Supervisors and Principal Investigators (PI) are asked to incorporate requested compensation adjustments into their grants whenever possible to support maximization of funds and organization-wide benefits related to compensation adjustments. When that is not possible, the supervisor and/or PI should discuss the situation with their Dean’s Leadership Team (DLT) representative ahead of submitting an employee for nomination.
Eligibility
- Faculty and staff must have completed their:
- Supervisory staff must be current with their employee performance evaluations.
- Employees cannot be on a probationary period or an evaluation period.
- Employees are not eligible if they have been formally identified as Not Meeting Expectations during their mid-point or summary evaluation.
- Other factors that may be defined by the funding source.
Eligibility will be determined by Extension HR. If you have questions about your eligibility, please reach out to hr@extension.wisc.edu.