New Career Compass Job Titles Coming in April
To: All Campus Staff
(3/25/09) Dear Colleagues,
We have reached a significant milestone in the Career Compass initiative that our campus launched in 2001. With the help of many people across the campus, we have mapped more than 4,800 non-represented employees into new job titles, replacing a 40-year-old classification system with market-sensitive job standards that describe the work being done on the Berkeley campus.
What to expect in the next few weeks
In April, Human Resources will provide mapping coordinators in campus units with individual letters that summarize each non-represented employee's new job title, along with the salary range that applies to the position. (A list of the mapping coordinators can be found at http://careercompass.berkeley.edu/excel/resources/Directory_of_MappingCoordinators.xls.)
Please note: Although new salary ranges are being published along with the job structure, no employee salaries will change at this time as a result of the mapping.
Mapping coordinators will provide advance copies of the letters to each employee's manager or supervisor, and each employee will receive a copy of the letter describing his or her new job title and associated information.
If you are a non-represented employee, you should expect to receive the communication from your manager, supervisor, or mapping coordinator by April 30, 2009. Please contact your manager or supervisor if you do not receive your letter by April 30.
The Human Resources Compensation unit has briefed mapping coordinators on the details of the implementation, and has scheduled a series of open information sessions where you can learn more about the new job structure. The schedule for open sessions is posted at http://careercompass.berkeley.edu/newsevents/events.html and other Career Compass information is available at http://careercompass.berkeley.edu/jobstandards/resources.html.
In addition, we will publish a special Career Compass issue of the InSights for Management newsletter, including more details and links to resources for managers and supervisors.
Impact on salaries and job duties
Although current employee salaries will not change with the new job titles, the new salary structure provides a strong foundation for future salary decisions.
While most employees are still within the new salary range for their positions following the mapping process, a small number of employees will be temporarily below the minimum of the new range. Our goal is to be ready to bring these employees into their new salary ranges as soon as equity funds become available.
Neither job responsibilities nor working titles will change because of mapping to the new titles – employees' current responsibilities have simply been categorized within new job titles that accurately describe their duties and are more meaningful in today's labor market.
The new structure helps us align these job responsibilities with performance evaluation criteria, to identify strengths and areas for professional development. We will also be able to identify career paths for staff who are interested in advancing their careers at Berkeley.
Why now?
The Career Compass project has taken eight years to develop and is now moving toward full implementation. With the new structure in place, managers, supervisors, and employees will have better support for career planning, and performance evaluations will be aligned with the job responsibilities in the employee`s job description. Also, during this time of change in the economy, campus leaders increasingly need accurate data on the workforce for short- and long-range planning.
The timing is also affected by the upgrade of our campus HR information system, which contains the data on all employee positions. That system will be upgraded in April to the new Human Capital Management (HCM) system, and on May 1 the HCM system will incorporate the new job structure and individual job titles.
The new HCM system improves the automation of some basic HR business processes at a time when we are sensitive to streamlining work wherever we can. HCM will also provide better data to help plan staff development, to help our campus meet the challenges that lie ahead. With the combination of a better HR information system and the new job structure, we will have tools to help us design staff development programs for specific occupational groups.
Career Compass background
Those who have been at Berkeley for at least a decade may remember the Compensation Advisory Committee (CAC) that gave birth to this initiative and the Staff Infrastructure Steering Committee (SISC) that guided the process for the past eight years. Under the old UC job structure, job titles were confusing and too generic. It was difficult to determine the appropriate job requirements and salary ranges because we could not compare our jobs to other employers. Information on the skills and pathways for career mobility was inconsistent and unclear.
Over the past several years, a team of compensation professionals in Human Resources designed a new job structure that accurately reflects the work done by our staff and is better aligned with jobs in the external marketplace. We appreciate the many Berkeley campus managers, supervisors, and staff who gave their input in the design phase and throughout the process, as well as members of the Chancellor's Cabinet and SISC who provided guidance and direction.
The result of all these efforts is a structure composed of 20 job fields that describe jobs clearly and consistently across occupations and across campus departments. The job standards include detailed information about the skills and knowledge required for every level and category, in a structure that is transparent and easier to navigate and administer.
The impact of what the Berkeley campus has achieved in Career Compass is unprecedented in higher education. Berkeley's HR team has briefed the other UC campuses and the Office of the President throughout the design and development process, and several UC campuses are actively working to implement a similar program at their locations. In recent months, HR has been contacted by other universities and private consulting firms to learn more about the Career Compass job structure.
We are proud of the team in HR as well as many others on SISC and in departments across the campus who contributed to the achievement of this goal. I know that Associate Vice Chancellor of Health and Human Services and co-chair of SISC Steve Lustig and Assistant Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Jeannine Raymond, as well as former Vice Chancellor of Research and co-chair of SISC Beth Burnside join me in celebrating this important milestone.
Nathan Brostrom
Vice Chancellor - Administration