HomeMy WebLinkAbout#14 Employee wage adjustments (2)MAYOR AND COUNCIL COMMUNICATION
DATE: 2/2/16
REGULAR
ITEM #: 14
MOTION
AGENDA ITEM: Employee wage adjustments
SUBMITTED BY: Clark Schroeder
THROUGH: Mike Pearson and Julie Fliflet
REVIEWED BY: Clark Schroeder
SUGGESTED ORDER OF BUSINESS:
- Introduction of Item .................................................................................................... Staff
- Report/Presentation .................................................................................................... Staff - Questions from Council to Staff ............................................................ Mayor Facilitates
- Public Input, if Appropriate ................................................................... Mayor Facilitates - Call for Motion .............................................................................. Mayor & City Council - Discussion ..................................................................................... Mayor & City Council
- Action on Motion .................................................................................. Mayor Facilitates
PUBLIC POLICY STATEMENT SET POLICY FOR GRANTING EMPLOYEE RAISES
SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUESTED:
The HR committee has recommended one method of granting raises to employees and the Mayor
would like to consider another method for granting raises. Since the HR committee only makes
recommendations either to the City Clerk and Administrator for administrative decision, or the
City Council for policy decision, these opposing recommendations should vetted by the full
council.
BACKGROUND AND STAFF REPORT: The HR committee has made a recommendation
that employee reviews along with 360 feedback be done in January/February and raises
determined in June/July. The thought, is that this would provide 6 months of coaching from
supervisors to address any concerns that are in the reviews and allow the employees to make
progress toward continual improvement. The hope is that employees would be coached to
increase their performance in such a fashion that they excel at what they do and are reward as
such. Wage increase recommendations would take into account the fact that wages would not be
adjusted till this summer and at the same time allow consideration for new employees which
otherwise would not be eligible for raise consideration. This could be the way annual wage
determinations are done from now on with summer time adjustments.
An alternative method of wage determination is to grant cost of living increases during January
along with reviews and adjustments beyond that in the summer for employees who go above and
beyond in their jobs. This would incentify employees to go above their normal work duties
while at the same time address employee retention within the city.
Since the writer of the document was not at all the HR committee meetings, I asked the HR
committee chairperson to summarize the views of the committee regarding this matter.
The HR committee discussed the city’s performance review/wage increase process. It
was noted that some improvements were needed and could be made. The HR
Committee sought to add a 360 feedback element for the Administrator and other
Department Heads, and also sought to separate the performance review discussion from
the raise discussion. Two members of the HR Committee who are also HR
Professionals follow this process of separating the performance review from the raise
discussion in their organizations. They have found it to be a better practice that works
well and allows for the performance review to focus on coaching and development,
which is what it should be about. It also gives time for employees to work on any areas
of needed improvement and to show this improvement before raises are awarded which
is a positive practice. The HR Committee in conjunction with the City Clerk agreed that
this would improve the performance review process for the city. All agreed that raises
should be tied to performance and that across the board cost of living increases are not
best practice, do not encourage employees to perform at high levels, and actually
reward those not performing at an acceptable level. As the HR Committee looked at
implementation of this change, doing so in 2016 was the perfect time, because it would
actually allow more employees to be included in the raise pool that might otherwise be
excluded since they were relatively new employees with the city. This seemed like a
good time to change and would be more advantageous for these staff members. The HR
Committee also noted that for any other staff members who would have normally been
eligible to receive raises in January that may be overdo for their annual increase, that
should be taken into account in July when raises were awarded and those raises should
be a bit higher than those for the staff who were not overdo, so that no employees came
out “behind”.
RECOMMENDATION:
Two motions are put before the council for consideration.
Motion 1
“Move to set a policy of performance reviews shortly after the first of the year
with 6 months of coaching towards continual improvement with wage rates
being recommended to the council by the city clerk and city administrator in the
summer.”
Motion 2
“Move to set a policy of cost of living wage increases shortly after the first of the
year in conjunction with performance reviews with superior performance being
rewarded in the summer by wage adjustments recommended by the city clerk and
city administrator.”
ATTACHMENT(S):