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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRequest 4 -Vendor Interview Questions (3)2021 Compensation Study Questions CPS HR – 8 AM 1. Notes – Suzanne has done a pay equity audit. 2. Please describe the steps your organization will take in educating staff about the compensation study process, including its benefits and challenges. (BR) a. CPS HR takes a comprehensive approach. Starts out with a kickoff meeting/initiation phase, will do an orientation with employees with regard to total compensation. b. Will work with us on benchmark positions and comparison agencies. c. Team is comprehensive with regard to confirming job matches. d. Create a salary survey summary to see the big picture as well as individual tables. e. Draft report/Final Report 3. Please describe your methodologies in collecting data from agencies. What makes your process unique? (MI) a. What is your validation process for matching benchmark positions to other agencies? i. Reviewing job descriptions, contacting the labor market agencies to determine if the job really is a match. b. MI Follow Up – You mentioned getting the information can be difficult. Since the information is public, do you go get the information yourself? 4. What process do you use to address issues when comparison agencies do not want to participate in the process? (NS) a. Pulling info off of the website. b. How do you go about reaching out to agencies that are unresponsive if you need information that isn’t on the website? i. We don’t give up! We reach out via email, phone, sometimes we see if there are contacts we can reach out to through LinkedIn or through the client 5. How do you integrate the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion into the compensation study process? (BR) a. CPS HR is fully HR compliant, and DEI is huge. b. We go through training, and we provide training. c. It’s important to focus on the data and the job matches and not the incumbent. d. Want to make sure it’s a fair and equitable process, want to make sure the data is unbiased. i. What is your definition of unbiased? ii. The data is the data, we want to make sure that it’s blind. e. Is there a step in the process when reviewing the benchmark positions to ensure we are looking at it through a lens of DEI? i. We’ll want to make sure that we review our benchmark positions to ensure they are gender neutral and ensure there is buy in. 6. How do you engage and involve the department heads, employee committee, and labor leaders to ensure buy-in and collaboration? Please provide an example of techniques you have used or recommended to create buy-in historically. (MI) a. Ask the agency to designate directors and employees from job families as well as union representation to sit on an executive committee that are directly updated on the process that can also help answer questions (8-10 people). 7. What do you do when there is not a sufficient number of matches because of the type of service? (For example, Utilities.) (NS) a. We need 3 matches to validate the benchmark. b. If we don’t have 3 matches, we’d look into the internal equity of the agency. c. The key is to have conversations early when picking labor market groups. Don’t want to make decisions in a vacuum, want to keep your executive committee involved. CPS HR is a subscriber of ERI and can use that to procure data. 8. Are 20 benchmark classifications sufficient for our agency? (BR) a. Typically would like to select 30-50% of benchmarks, 20 is low for our size, but 20 is doable. b. The number of benchmarks also depends on the structure of the organization. CPS HR Follow Up: What do you view as the main issues and challenges facing public agencies as a whole with regard to compensation? (MI) Buy-in. Meet early and meet often. Please explain more about the compensation calculator for management and analysis. NS) Your work describes a good deal of work with Counties as opposed to Cities. Please explain why you are interested in working with the City of SLO. (BR) Please describe your approach for conducting benefit analysis. (MI) Is there anything else you would like to add, or would like to ask us? (NS) We really value partnerships and want to take as much work off your plate as possible. Sloan Sakai – 9 AM 1. Please describe the steps your organization will take in educating staff about the compensation study process, including its benefits and challenges. (BR) a. Compensation studies are an important strategic part of organizations. Generally, Geoff likes to do a training for managers and other stakeholders about compensation in general as well as the compensation process. b. It is important to educate staff on what a compensation study is and isn’t. 2. Please describe your methodologies in collecting data from agencies. What makes your process unique? (MI) a. What is your validation process for matching benchmark positions to other agencies? b. Process for collecting data is straightforward: i. Confirm the benchmark positions. ii. Reverify the accuracy of benchmark positions. iii. Multiple types of data 1. Cash – salary of other incentives 2. Benefits – retirement, health, other 3. Paid time off (some agencies use, some don’t) iv. Work to obtain underlying documentation from publicly available sources. v. Call contacts at agencies to obtain data that isn’t publicly available. vi. All data is checked by two sets of eyes. 3. What process do you use to address issues when comparison agencies do not want to participate in the process? (NS) a. Have used two approaches: i. Partner with the client to provide contacts or an introduction. ii. Reach out to other members of the consulting group. iii. If we were in labor negotiations, we may need to use more aggressive methods. 4. How do you integrate the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion into the compensation study process? (BR) a. Difficult issue. With new state law and the environment, DEI is incredibly important. b. Talk with clients about how to assess the data based on demographics. c. Talk to the client about potentially looking at internal equity, review strategies, and discuss avenues to conduct be better. d. Collecting data tends to be neutral, the DEI concerns are typically internal. 5. How do you engage and involve the department heads, employee committee, and labor leaders to ensure buy-in and collaboration? Please provide an example of techniques you have used or recommended to create buy-in historically. (MI) a. We like to start with orientation and engagement sessions to provide a baseline, create transparency, and answer any questions they have. b. Want to be as transparent as possible throughout the process so there are no surprises. 6. What do you do when there is not a sufficient number of matches because of the type of service? (For example, Utilities.) (NS) a. Is not uncommon to have trouble finding matches. b. Water is incredibly difficult to find matches. There is an option to extend the survey universe for certain classifications. Another option is to establish an internal relationship with other classifications. 7. Are 20 benchmark classifications sufficient for our agency? (BR) a. There is no magic number for benchmark classifications. b. You want to make sure that your population is well represented. Need to look at the number of incumbents per position. c. The number of benchmark classifications depends on the organizational structure of the agency. Sloan Sakai Follow Up: How do you ensure accuracy of data and stakeholder engagement with an estimated timeline of six weeks? Six weeks is the data gathering, not soup to nuts. Hard to get these done in less than three months minimum. Do you provide a narrative to explain the results of the compensation study, and present the results to the City Council? Is this included in the cost estimate? Happy to put together a full report with the findings including methodology, findings, and conclusions. This proposal does not assume we would be present to do a live presentation. This proposal would be for one trip to include the training. Current RFP includes data and full report with narrative presented to the City. Is there anything else you would like to add, or would like to ask us? City of SLO has a great model for compensation and conducting studies. Excited for the potential opportunity to work with the City of SLO again. McGrath - 9:30 AM 1. Please describe the steps your organization will take in educating staff about the compensation study process, including its benefits and challenges. (BR) a. Have multiple avenues for education, also adaptable. b. First visit – meet with administrators and HR to understand the scope of the project. c. Also want to meet individually with departments to talk with them about what the project is, gain an understanding about our organization. Educate them about what the project is going to entail, the homework assignment they’ll get. d. Employee meetings if necessary – dog & pony show about what a compensation study is and what it is not. Haven’t done a lot of employee meetings in a post-covid world, because it’s difficult to have large meetings over Zoom. Can record something to send out. e. Will do a presentation for department heads, happy to present to Council as well as employee groups. 2. Please describe your methodologies in collecting data from agencies. What makes your process unique? a. What is your validation process for matching benchmark positions to other agencies? b. Two ways we collect data – Gather information about comparison agencies. Gather this information from department heads or would use our comparison agencies. Send out a survey that be completed in two ways – either completing the survey, or by sending the base data. c. Both Victoria and Malayna do a data dive to validate the data. d. At the second site visit, the consultants would review the data with us to ensure it’s accurate. e. Will be collecting the minimum, midpoint, and maximum compensation as well as incumbent data. i. Why isn’t the max the best source of data to gather? ii. Every organization has a compensation philosophy that is different. By the time you’re at the maximum, you are likely over the market rate. 3. What process do you use to address issues when comparison agencies do not want to participate in the process? a. Agency participation has been more difficult post-COVID. b. A director from the HR Director in advance typically helps increase participation. c. McGrath uses a point-factor comparison to align internal equity as well if there aren’t comparable. 4. How do you integrate the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion into the compensation study process? (BR) a. The biggest part of DEI in a compensation study is the equity piece. There is a difference between career equity versus internal equity. Is internal equity cased by a controlled factor (time, performance), or an uncontrolled factor, which is where the equity gaps come from? b. DEI impacts also come from policies – happy to look at policies as well. c. Familiar with pay equity studies. 5. How do you engage and involve the department heads, employee committee, and labor leaders to ensure buy-in and collaboration? Please provide an example of techniques you have used or recommended to create buy-in historically. a. The department head meetings are typically a very engaging process. Has also gone to department head meetings as a group in advance to answer more general questions. b. Will want to understand who’s who and how we want to approach this process. Will take cues from us, but believe in transparency to the level that we can. c. Understanding will help with buy-in. d. Have created separate reports for the unions. 6. What do you do when there is not a sufficient number of matches because of the type of service? (For example, Utilities.) a. Look to the organization for cues. b. Look at private sector data. c. Break the classification into pieces to find more classification matches. d. Even if there are data, but the data is sloppy. 7. Are 20 benchmark classifications sufficient for our agency? McGrath Follow Up: What maintenance is required for the point factor approach? Have you worked in California? Are you familiar with California labor issues? Are you able to provide a California reference? Is training to administer the compensation system included in your proposal estimate? Is there anything else you would like to add, or would like to ask us? Follow Up: Geoff comes from the standpoint of a firm that has labor negotiators, does CPS Ask Geoff to provide: o A more realistic/updated project schedule o An example of a comp study report with a narrative o Ask Geoff how long he needs to provide that Close the loop with McGrath (tomorrow) Ask CPS: o If we were to add more benchmarks, what would the added cost be? Per benchmarks or banded