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Brentwood City Commission Agenda

Meeting Date:	06/28/2021
Resolution 2021-73 - Proposed Classification and Pay Plan for Fiscal Year 2022
Submitted by:	Mike Worsham, Human Resource
Department:	Human Resource

Information

Subject

Resolution 2021-73 - Proposed Classification and Pay Plan for Fiscal Year 2022

Background

Annually a review of the City's Classification and Pay Plan is conducted to ensure that it remains competitive, allowing the City to achieve its stated budget goal of being able to "attract and retain the best employees available through maintaining competitive pay and fringe benefit programs." Part of the annual review includes salary comparisons between selected Brentwood positions and those of several other relevant Tennessee governments.

BACKGROUND

In 2017, Burris, Thompson & Associates, a leading Tennessee-based compensation consulting firm with extensive experience with governmental entities was engaged by the City to conduct a comprehensive compensation and salary study. This project included comparing all positions in the City's pay plan with similar positions in 14 benchmark public sector employers that are representative of the competitive labor market for the City of Brentwood. Because the City also competes with general business and industry for employees for many City jobs, market data from general business and industry for jobs similar to those at the City of Brentwood were compiled from the latest Economic Research Institute (ERI) Salary Assessor database using data for the Nashville area.

Recommendations from this project were approved in the 2018 Fiscal Year Operating Budget and included increasing all pay ranges and positions within the City's Classification and Pay Plan by 8.7% to position City jobs at the 75th percentile of the relevant labor market.

To ensure the City continues to maintain a competitive position in the difficult middle Tennessee labor market, regular adjustments to the Classification and Pay Plan are necessary. This practice ensures that the City can continue to recruit and retain qualified employees to meet our service requirements and avoid more costly, one-time adjustments to regain a competitive position if it is ever lost. For this reason, the City has a long practice to making reasonable adjustments to pay scales on a regular basis.

For the same reason, the overall Classification and Pay Plan was increased by an additional 4% at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2019. It was again increased by 1.5% at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2020. No employee pay adjustments were authorized at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2021 due to the uncertainty of revenue projections related to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, effective January 4, 2021, the Board of Commissioners approved another 4% market adjustment.

In March of this year, the City's compensation consultants, Burris, Thompson & Associates compared benchmark positions in the City's pay plan to similar jobs from employers in the relevant job market, using current salary data. Overall, the results of this review showed that Brentwood's salary structure is now approximately 99% of the target point of the 75th percentile of the relevant labor market.

The Classification and Pay Plan consists of 16 basic pay groups with sub-groups for the various public safety positions. Each pay group has a corresponding pay range and an approximate 50% spread from the minimum amount to the maximum amount. This allows for increased earning potential for most career employees. Also, several Brentwood job classifications have multiple levels that cover more than one pay range (i.e. Accounting Clerk I and II, Maintenance Worker and Senior Maintenance Worker, Equipment Operator I, II and III, Police Officer I and II, Librarian I and II.) This provides a meaningful career path in many functional areas within the organization.

Staff Recommendation

Staff recommendations for Fiscal Year 2022 include the following:

Based on the results of the recent salary comparison of organizations in the relevant talent market, Burris-Thompson and Associates has recommended that the City consider a general salary increase of 3%-4%. Staff agrees with these findings and recommends an across the board market increase of 2% in combination with a 2% merit adjustment for a total average employee increase of 4%.

A market adjustment, similar to a cost of living adjustment, has the effect of increasing all pay ranges in the entire Classification and Pay Plan and all employees' pay rates by this amount (2%). A benefit of a market adjustment is it enables the City of better compete for new employees by increasing the starting rates of pay. A secondary benefit is to allow more senior employees who are at the top of their pay range to receive a rate increase which aids in retention of a stable workforce.

A merit adjustment provides Department Director with a pool of funds (2%) to distribute to assigned employees based on job performance supported by individual Performance Evaluations. This enables Directors to recognize and reward employees on an individual basis for their job performance, dependability, safety, and other job functions all within established policies and procedures. Higher performing employees would receive a higher merit increase and average to below average employees would receive less or no merit increase. A merit increase does not affect the pay ranges and only adjusts individual pay rates of employees within their assigned pay range. An additional benefit of a merit adjustment is that it moves employees performing at satisfactory levels up in their pay range resulting in minimizing pay compression compared to newer employees entering our work group.

That one (vacant) Maintenance Worker position in the Water Services Department classified in Pay Group B be utilized to create a Pump Station Technician position in Pay Group E. This position is necessary to perform a specialized skill based on pump station advanced technologies including station computerized controls and instrumentation, SCADA, and equipment diagnostics. This position will be responsible for preventative maintenance, installing, repairing and maintaining motors, pumps and pump station related equipment associated with the water distribution and sewer collection system. This recommendation will not increase department headcount and is a reclassification and title change only.
That the position of Traffic Operations Technician be reclassified from Pay Group D to Pay Group E. This recommendation is supported by the recent market study and the difficulty in filling this currently vacant position requiring specialized skills.
That one (existing) Equipment Operator III position, in the Public Works Department, currently classified in Pay Group E, be utilized to create a new Operation Supervisor position in Pay Group F. This position is necessary to perform day to day leadership by organizing and assigning duties of department work crews. This recommendation will not increase department headcount and is a reclassification and title change only.
That the position of Utility Compliance Supervisor in Group G be retitled to Utility Operations Supervisor to reflect the duties and responsibilities of this position more accurately. This is a title change only.
That the position of Service Center Director in Group M be retitled to Engineering Director to reflect the current organizational structure more accurately. As you know, Mr. Mike Harris performed the duties of both Service Center Director and Engineering Director. Upon his retirement these duties will be assigned to other existing staff members.
That the position of Capital Projects Coordinator be removed from the Classification and Pay Plan. With the retirement of the former employee in this position, this vacant position has been filled at the City Engineer classification to provide for additional engineering staffing resources in the department.

Attached for your review is the current FY 2021 Classification and Pay Plan with the proposed changes highlighted for FY2022.

Staff recommends approval of the above changes.

Fiscal Impact

Attachments
Resolution 2021-73
Attachment A - FY22 Class & Pay Plan
Signed Resolution