A review of the City's Classification and Pay Plan is conducted annually 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." This annual review typically includes salary comparisons between selected Brentwood positions and those of several other relevant Tennessee governments. The results are used to develop proposed modifications to the pay plan, which are incorporated each year into the proposed annual budget.
Recent changes in the U.S. economy and job market have created pressures on hiring and retention that the City has not seen since its incorporation. Inflation is now running at a 40-year high, with no sign of easing in the near-term. Unemployment in Williamson County, as reported by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, was an unprecedented 2% in May - the lowest in the state of Tennessee. Each of Williamson’s surrounding counties have jobless rates at or below 3%. Combined with a local housing market that is cost-prohibitive for most employees, the City of Brentwood has found itself struggling to staff important positions and to maintain service levels in many departments. Competition for employees in our area has never been higher. The challenge has been particularly acute in field operations, where departments are competing with a robust construction industry for both skilled and unskilled labor.
The unique circumstances the City finds itself in necessitate an outside-the-box solution. As such, staff have proposed major modifications to the Classification and Pay plan structure, as well as some position changes. What has always been a unified pay plan is proposed to be divided into four (4) groupings that separate employees by functional groups. Public Safety (sworn), Service Center (field operations), General Employees, and Emergency Communications District (ECD) will each have their own plans unrelated to each other. This will allow the City to tailor compensation changes in a manner that is responsive to changes in the job market, something that is included in this first iteration of each of the plans attached hereto.
Market compensation changes incorporated in the new plans include a 3% increase for General Employees, 7% increase for Public Safety and ECD, and increases from 2% to 7% for Service Center employees (percentages declining for management/director level positions). Note that these market compensation adjustments are in addition to the mid-year adjustments already approved by the City Commission in March 2022. Other pay and benefit policy changes directed at recruitment and retention are also being proposed, under separate cover, as revisions to the Personnel Rules and Regulations Manual. Those include improvements to dental benefits, longevity, emergency call-outs, holiday weekend pay, as well as several pay supplements and certification incentives.
Six position titles are new to the schedule for FY 2023. This includes a civilian Evidence Technician (PD), Network Specialist (IT), HR Generalist (HR), Building Plans Examiner (Codes), Legal Assistant (Legal part-time), and Media Specialist (Community Relations part-time). All six appear in the General Employees pay plan. The position of Library Services Director (formerly Group G) is proposed to be reclassified as Assistant Library Director (Group I-GE) and the Financial Analyst job title (Group H-GE) has been renamed to Data Analyst to more accurately reflect the duties assigned to these positions.
|