Administrative/Professionals Classifications - Human Resources

Career Pathing: This project emphasized career pathing. Separating the bands allowed us to group like positions together from a logical career path standpoint. This career path document will provide A/P employees with information about each position in their unit, which may help with professional development and career planning.

Salary: Technical positions are often considered “hot” skills and/or tend to be higher in demand in the marketplace - therefore driving a higher level of market value, even at entry level positions. Separating the positions into bands allowed us to more accurately reflect the market ranges for these positions.

Positions were designated as Technical if:

• A majority of the requirements for the position related to specific education/knowledge/skills in systems hardware, software, and/or programming.
• Technical certifications and/or specific training is sometimes required.
• The primary and regular responsibilities of the job involve work specific to hardware, software, and /or system technologies.

The structures are not related at all. While both systems used a factor evaluation process to determine the level for each position, the factors/weightings are different. Therefore, A/P employees cannot draw connections between the two structures to determine if their position is “higher” or “lower” than it was before. Such connections are not valid.

• For both the professional and technical career bands, the first level minimum was established based on the lowest market minimum for all positions included in the band. The first level maximum was established based on the highest maximum for all positions in the band. An appropriate and consistent percentage increase was used for the minimums as you move up each band and the maximums as you move up each band.
  • “Appropriate” meaning the percentage increases adequately accounted for the current market ranges for the positions within the band (the minimum salary was not substantially higher than the lowest minimum of the positions in the band and the maximum salary was not substantively lower than the highest maximums in the band).
  • “Consistent” meaning the same percentage was used as you move up to the next band. This ensured a consistent increase in career band minimums and maximums.
• This “salary” banding is similar to what existed in the previous AP classification system, only in the previous system, it was not based specifically on market ranges for the positions. This new “hybrid” method still accounts for market differences in positions.

Because the market ranges for these positions are different, you would expect some variation in the percentage increases between the bands. Trying to mirror the increases for the professional career band levels would have resulted in artificially high minimums and artificially low maximums in the technical bands.

The P8M band reflects an appropriate salary range for the medical positions in that career band. The P8M band reflects a maximum which is 20% higher than the P8 band – which was necessary to ensure we created a band that more accurately reflects the market salaries for these positions.

• New hire salaries will continue to be based on the market salary for the specific position, not the career band. The new hire’s years of relevant, position-related experience will be accounted for and compared to current employees’ job-related experience and salaries in similar roles – just as we do today.
• We will continue to participate in annual salary surveys and refresh our market ranges for A/P positions as needed.
• We will continue to review all A/P positions annually to determine if any positions have fallen below the market range for their position and make recommendations for potential increases as needed.

• Keep in mind that current placement in a band is directly related to the market range for that employee’s specific position. Because there are numerous positions captured in a band, employees with less years of service with NMU may have higher placement because the market salary range for their position is higher.
• Note that this also means that employees in a lower career band may have a higher base salary than employees in a higher career band. There is significant overlap in the salary bands.

Employee are encouraged to review their job descriptions with their manager at least annually, but should plan to review their description whenever they take on substantive responsibilities not already inherent in the description.

A/P Professional Salary Band

7% min and 7% max

A/P Technical Salary Band

5% min and 6% max