WJCC Compensation Study To Be Completed By January

By Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, November 10, 2010

For the next month, Williamsburg-James City County Schools employees will be answering questions about what they do, how long it takes to do it and how much they should be paid for it. By January 15, the School Board should have the information it needs to decide if employees should be paid more or less.

Representatives from Evergreen Solutions, L.L.C., a firm that specializes in compensation studies for government entities, presented their plan to conduct a compensation study for WJCC schools at the board’s Tuesday night meeting. Evergreen, a Tallahassee, Fla.-based company, was awarded a contract not to exceed $53,500 at the board’s Oct. 19 meeting.

The board discussed the need for a compensation study more than a year ago. At that time, the board members were concerned the division might be paying too much money for its longevity pay, an incentive system that rewarded teachers who stayed in the division for 20 years or more. In March 2009, the board voted to stop paying the longevity supplement to new hires and authorized a plan to conduct a compensation study in the next two years.

Evergreen Solutions Executive Vice President Jeffrey Ling told the board the compensation study will have three goals: review the current system to ensure internal equity; survey peer organizations to ensure external equity; and produce recommendations for a classification and compensation system that will improve the pay structure.

Ling said the company started a three-step internal phase of research earlier this month, and is spending this week interviewing employees. Employees will be asked to fill out job assessment surveys to capture a snapshot of what their day-to-day work entails; supervisors will be asked to identify “squeaky wheels” that need to be addressed. Once that data has been collected, Evergreen will analyze the assessments in comparison to the current job descriptions.

Employees will be asked to participate in orientation sessions and focus groups, complete job assessments and detail management issues. Senior managers will be interviewed, as well.

In the remainder of November and part of December, Evergreen will complete its “external phase,” during which it will compare WJCC with peer organizations locally and beyond. He characterized peers as comparable organizations within a 50-mile radius, along with businesses that could poach office and support staff and finally, organizations the School Board would like to see compared to WJCC. He said many people had mentioned wanting to see a comparison to Northern Virginia school divisions, but noted that the difference in cost of living will skew the results.

In the final step, Evergreen will combine the collected data to determine what is the best salary structure for WJCC moving forward, and help develop implementation strategies.