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Manager Forum:
Compensation Essentials
Gina Argus
Assistant Vice President, Total Rewards,
University Human Resources
Heidi Mukamal
Director, Staff Compensation,
University Human Resources
May 2024�
Agenda
1:00 - 1:05 pm |Welcome
1:05 - 1:10 pm |Partnering Together
1:10 - 1:30 pm |Compensation Philosophy and Administration
1:30 - 1:40 pm |Pay Conversations
1:40 - 1:55 pm |Questions
Partnering Together
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Partnering Together
Managers
Assess and communicate employee performance
Talk with employees about pay and explain positioning
Collaborate with employees on how they can grow their career
Request review of job changes or reclassifications
Plan and recommend salary adjustments
School/Unit HR
Consult with managers on compensation related matters
Administer the salary planning program
Provide guidance to managers on performance management
Assist managers with reclassifications and job changes
Partner as needed with UHR Compensation
University HR Compensation Team
Establish University Compensation Philosophy
Conduct rigorous market analysis and ensure pay equity
Establish and maintain job structure and salary structures
Develop Salary Planning Program
Partner and consult with HR on compensation matters
Compensation Philosophy
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Polling Question
How would you describe your confidence in talking about the essential elements of compensation?
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Stanford’s Compensation Philosophy and Program Objectives
Stanford is committed to providing a fair and competitive staff compensation program that will attract, retain and reward high-performing employees at all levels. The university is also committed to providing a total staff compensation package tied to the attainment of individual and group results and the achievement of organizational goals.
Externally Market Competitive: Reflect market-competitive pay rates for comparable jobs based on the market benchmarks in the geographic region where work is performed, role requirements (scope and complexity), education, and relevant experience of individuals in roles, as well as demand for such roles within the relevant labor market. Stanford targets its overall position to market for staff pay at the 50th percentile (median) of the reported range of values in the relevant labor market.
Internally Comparable: Provide pay guidelines that ensure similar jobs are paid equitably across the University. Pay differences may reflect variations in compensable factors such as experience, subject matter expertise, performance, regional assignment, and other acceptable reasons, without regard to gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation, or other legally protected categories.
Recognition: Reward performance through salary increases, bonuses and incentives; extraordinary performance and contributions are further rewarded at a level that signifies the value of the employee to the organization and encourages retention.
Transparency: Leadership has the information, tools, and support needed to effectively communicate pay decisions to staff. Compensation policies, procedures, and assistance services are available and accessible. Stanford includes an expected pay range on every job posting. Employees are entitled to request and receive the pay range for their current position.
Fiscally Affordable/Sustainable: Pay decisions are fiscally sustainable, affordable, and aligned with the current and projected availability of budgeted resources.
Flexibility: Support a diverse, decentralized organization to accommodate differences and changes in job requirements, job market and economy.
Legally Compliant: Pay decisions adhere to applicable federal, state, and local laws, as well as contracts and policies governing compensation.
Objectives of Compensation Philosophy
Externally Market Competitive
Internally Equitable
Recognize Performance
Objectives must be balanced together to ensure our ability to
recruit, recognize and retain within fiscal affordability
Externally Competitive
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Compensation at Stanford is competitive:
We evaluate what the external market pays for comparable roles and use data to ensure our pay is competitive to organizations with which we compete for talent.
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Externally Market Competitive
We benchmark roles against peer organizations and industries to ensure our pay practices are competitive
We leverage up-to-date, verified data, including updated compensation surveys focused on both general and specific industries and higher education, conducted by reliable third-party market data organizations.
We seek feedback from our HR partners in schools and units to understand what they and hiring managers are experiencing with candidates for their jobs
We utilize market data based on geographic regions (for remote employees) because our philosophy is to pay market-competitive rates where the job is being performed
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EXAMPLE – Life Science Research Professional Job Market Salary Range | ||||
Minimum | 25th Percentile | 50th Percentile (Midpoint) | 75th Percentile | Maximum |
$90,498 | $104,978 | $120,664 | $155,798 | $168,930 |
25% below median | 13% below median | | 29% above median | 40% above median |
Job Market Salary Ranges
Internally Equitable
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To ensure pay decisions are equitable internally, Stanford utilizes an organizational job structure which allows us to relate all jobs to each other:
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Internally Equitable
Job Family
Broad groups of jobs that use similar skills and knowledge to accomplish work
Job Series
Grouped roles based on the nature of their related work
Job Level
The level that identifies where the job fits, from entry level to the most senior/expert level
Job Description
Defines the specific knowledge, skills, abilities and competencies, as well as duties and responsibilities and leveling factors (i.e. scope/impact, etc.)
Job Title
Is the system name of the job, reflecting the industry-accepted short name of the work of the job
Job Code
The system numeric assigned to a unique Job/Job Title
Job Market Salary Ranges
Represent the full range of pay for a specific job and are anchored in market data and are attached to the Job Code
Position
The employee’s seat in the job title, specific to the school/unit, department, business title, geographic location and employee attributes (i.e. FTE, pay, date of hire, etc.)
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Job Series and Job Description
A Job Series Matrix describes the job series and provides a job description for each job level within the job series. It includes:
Job Family
Job Series
Job Level
Internally Equitable Pay
How equitable is pay
among
employees in the same or similar job
factoring in
differences in knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, time in position and performance
Employee Name | Job Code | Job Title | STF Service Date | Time in Position | Performace | Base Salary | Minimum | 25th Percentile | 50th Percentile�(Midpoint) | 75th Percentile | Maximum |
Page, Larry | 2964 | Stanford Analyst 2 | 6/13/2005 | 9.6 | Outstanding | $130,499 | $93,609 | $110,396 | $124,812 | $137,964 | $174,736 |
Steinbeck, John | 2964 | Stanford Analyst 2 | 3/6/2006 | 16.2 | Exceeds | $158,726 | $93,609 | $110,396 | $124,812 | $137,964 | $174,736 |
Woods, Tiger | 2964 | Stanford Analyst 2 | 7/18/2022 | 1.8 | Trial Period | $108,750 | $93,609 | $110,396 | $124,812 | $137,964 | $174,736 |
Ride, Sally | 2964 | Stanford Analyst 2 | 3/29/2004 | 4.5 | Meets | $124,523 | $93,609 | $110,396 | $124,812 | $137,964 | $174,736 |
Sunak, Rishi | 2964 | Stanford Analyst 2 | 4/1/1990 | 6.7 | Meets | $138,779 | $93,609 | $110,396 | $124,812 | $137,964 | $174,736 |
Connelly, Jennifer | 2964 | Stanford Analyst 2 | 3/27/2017 | 4.1 | Improvement Needed | $116,533 | $93,609 | $110,396 | $124,812 | $137,964 | $174,736 |
Recognize Performance
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Recognizing High Performance Through Compensation
Base Salary
Bonuses
Variable (Retention, Incentive, Premium)
Non-cash Benefits and Perquisites
Recognizing performance at Stanford starts with our performance management process
Stanford’s compensation philosophy and Annual Salary Planning process and guidelines support the recognition of performance.
The salary planning process begins following the completion of the performance management cycle.
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Recognize Performance
Merit Increase Budgets
Merit increase budgets are reset each year. The budget for the merit pool is determined by several factors, including the
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Base salary increases are intended to recognize an employee’s performance and address the employee’s position within the job market salary range.
The allocated budget for merit represents the total dollars allocated for the merit pool available at the school and unit level. The budgeted percentage of salaries does not indicate a standard increase to be applied at the employee level.
Managers have flexibility to discretionarily provide a base pay increase to employees based on their job performance, their position in the job market salary range, and our pay guidelines. Increases can typically range from 0% to 12%.
Merit Pool Application Example
Manager, who is responsible for compensation planning for six employees:
Manager’s Employees | Salary | Performance | Position to Market | Recommended Merit Inc $ | Recommended Merit Inc $ |
Employee 1 | $52,000 | Exceptional | Below 25th Percentile | $4,680 | 9.00% |
Employee 2 | $55,000 | Very Successful | 25th to 40th Percentile | $3,300 | 6.00% |
Employee 3 | $57,000 | Very Successful | 40th to 60th Percentile | $2,850 | 5.00% |
Employee 4 | $58,000 | Successful | 25th to 40th Percentile | $2,320 | 4.00% |
Employee 5 | $58,500 | Successful | 60th to 75th Percentile | $1,170 | 2.00% |
Employee 6 | $60,000 | Unsatisfactory | 40th to 60th Percentile | $0 | 0.00% |
Manager A Total Salaries | $340,500 | | Merit Spend | $14,466 | |
Manager A Merit Pool (4.25% of Salaries) | $14,471 | | Total $ Remaining | $151 | |
As a result, Manager can differentiate performance and position to job market salary range to award meaningful increases to high performers and address employees whose pay is too low in the job market salary range.
Pay Conversations
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Transparency
Employees seek to understand:
Employee Transparency
Talking About Pay
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Context (what you say and how you say it) is important, because perceptions are:
Prepare for the conversation by reviewing:
Opaque performance expectations and opaque understanding of organizational job structure and pay structures and how they work are often the root cause of conflict
It is a critical part of a manager’s job to have authentic and open discussions with employees about pay
Talking about pay with employees can be uncomfortable for both the manager and the employee because pay is personal and emotive; and there is a risk of conflict
54% of high performers don’t feel their pay is differentiated to the scale that their performance is differentiated
50% of employees believe they are paid below the market when they are not
35% of employees who paid above market have no idea that this is the case
77% of employees believe that pay decisions are not based on objective criteria
The Conversation
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Share the increase and provide context
Ensure psychological safety
Communicate the employee’s value
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Be ready for a reaction, listen more than you talk
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The Conversation (continued)
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Explain our compensation philosophy, the three objectives:
Be ready to speak about how we gather market data and benchmark jobs to confirm a competitive job market salary range
Be curious and focus the conversation forward
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Polling Question
How would you describe your confidence in talking about the essential elements of compensation?
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Questions?