More than 300 UW–Madison employees this morning attended an HR Design engagement event at Union South.
The event was designed to inform employees about the phase 1 work team preliminary draft recommendations, and gather feedback as the teams refine their recommendations into the final drafts due in May.
Compensation team members talk to employees about their draft recommendations at Union South on April 17.
The next campus-wide engagement event is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 19 at the Health Sciences Learning Center.
The final recommendations will then undergo intensive review during the summer and into the fall by the HR Design Advisory Committee, other campus stakeholders (including governance groups) and university leadership.
Then, in the fall, the proposals will be submitted to the Board of Regents and then to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations.
Among the major ideas proposed in the draft recommendations is the Employee Categories work team’s suggestion to combine current academic and classified staff into a single academic staff category. The recommendation redefines academic staff to include all non-faculty employees whose primary purpose is to support the mission of the university by providing professional and operational services.
Benefits team members gather feedback on their draft recommendations during an engagement event at Union South on April 17.
The other five employee categories proposed by the work team retain existing categories, with some name changes. The other proposed categories are executive-at-will (replacing the current “limited” employee category), faculty, post-degree training (replacing the current employee-in-training category), student hourly and student assistant.
Another shift from current personnel policy is the recommendation to adopt a single leave system for all eligible, non-student employees. The Benefits work team offered the recommendation because of its potential to create a more equitable and easily manageable campus-wide system. The benefits team is also recommending new benefits programs, such as parental leave.
Using pay rates at peer institutions and local and regional employers as guidelines for pay levels at the university is one of the compensation work team’s recommendations. The team also recommends a compensation system that emphasizes performance as a driver for raises or other pay adjustments, but the team acknowledges such a system must be accompanied by an effective performance management/evaluation process.