UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Compensation Modernization Initiative, which began in fall 2020 with a goal of creating modern, competitive compensation structures and clear, supportive career development resources for staff, continues to progress and is now entering a critical period of review and revision. HR will soon begin working with leaders, managers and other key parties across the University to review the placement of every staff member’s role within an updated overarching job architecture that includes revised job profiles and job levels.
“The work of the Compensation Modernization Initiative is vitally important in the University’s effort to retain current staff members and attract new staff members,” said Jennifer Wilkes, interim vice president for human resources and chief human resources officer.
This validation period seeks to accurately classify every Penn State staff member’s position. These activities are designed to recognize and document staff members’ unique contributions and will not result in decreased pay for anyone, nor will it guarantee increases in pay.
The Compensation Modernization Initiative is divided into six phases, including:
- Initiation/discovery (Complete)
- Development of a compensation philosophy (In progress)
- Job architecture (In progress)
- Salary market assessment (In progress)
- Salary program design (Coming soon)
- Implementation and communication of final results (Coming soon)
The validation period is the final component of the job architecture phase, a step that organizes roles into profiles that recognize the variety of work done at the University and applies a descriptive method of leveling that can be used University-wide. Some improvements made during the job architecture phase include:
- More specific job profiles that reflect the particularities of Penn State staff positions
- Clearer relationships among different job profiles and levels to help with career planning
- An improved methodology for handling staff positions with multiple main roles
- Built-in ability to evolve as work at the University changes, including space for new job profiles to be created as needed
“I am excited to see the progress our project team and consulting partners are making as they work to build our new compensation program,” said Wilkes. “Our staff deserve more visibility into career paths available to them here at Penn State so that they can understand all the routes they could take to grow professionally. In tandem, we look forward to providing unit leaders and managers more support and flexibility as they make compensation decisions that work for their areas.”
The team has taken steps to begin the salary market assessment phase, during which research on compensation for similar staff roles in other organizations (higher education, industry and non-profit) will take place. This data will be compared to Penn State staff’s current compensation and will be used to design a new salary program.
HR will continue releasing quarterly updates in Penn State Today before ramping up communications toward the end of the year in preparation for the 2023 implementation of the new compensation program.