Huron Faculty and Staff Compensation Study
UND partnered with Huron Consulting Group (Huron) to conduct a faculty and staff compensation study of all benefited employees at the university, excluding executive positions classified in the 0000 band of the NDUS Broadband job classification system.
This research will assist in:
- Ensuring employee pay is equitable with respect to protected employment categories
- Ensuring all employees performing similar work are paid equitably across campus
- Implementing best practices to provide consistency for the compensation plan
About the Faculty and Staff Compensation Study
The 17-week partnership began in August 2023, guided by a steering committee that comprised UND’s President, Provost, Vice President of Finance & Operations, General Counsel, Associate Vice President for Human Resources, Assistant Vice President for Equal Opportunity and Title IX, and Compensation Manager.
This steering committee set the goals and structure of the partnership and reviewed all findings. The steering committee also collaborated to draft a Compensation Philosophy to connect the compensation study with goals and commitments that will govern UND’s compensation plan moving forward.
Goal
The objectives of this study are to better understand the university’s progress toward ensuring equitable compensation for similar jobs across campus, and to identify opportunities to better attract and retain qualified employees.
Timeline
Initial data gathering, protected class analysis under the five equity lenses, and salary and job architecture analysis, which was completed between August-December 2023.
The Huron team began their work by analyzing internal compensation equity among faculty, excluding those in dedicated administrative roles. After receiving employee and market data from UND, the Huron team reviewed UND’s process for matching faculty jobs to market benchmarks. The team then completed a series of statistical analyses to identify misalignments in compensation between groups within five “equity lenses:” gender, race, age, veteran status, and disability status.
The latter half of the partnership was devoted to a study of staff compensation. The Huron team began this phase by conducting interviews with compensation stakeholders across the institution, including Vice Presidents, Deans, HR Business Partners, Staff Division Leads, and University and Staff Senate leadership. The interviews were designed to gather perspectives on the current opportunities, challenges, and strengths of UND’s compensation program. Insights from these interviews supported Huron’s holistic review of UND’s compensation program.
The staff study continued with analysis of internal compensation equity for staff, utilizing the same methodology used for faculty, and a review of staff job architecture.
Communicated the protected class findings to the five impacted areas in March/April 2024. With additional input from these areas, salary corrections and consistent processes will be implemented moving forward.
Huron identified instances in which separating or combining job codes, or creating new jobs, could better align staff member’s current responsibilities with the external market. The Huron team used this review to propose a revised job architecture for UND’s staff, with updated job profiles that adhere to a standard set of responsibility levels, and appropriate benchmark job matches.
The Huron team conducted an initial round of mapping current staff members to this updated architecture.
April-June 2024
Work continues with Huron on the staff job architecture including building a work dimensions guide and job profiles.
Completion of staff job architecture design with input from department leaders. (July-August 2024)
Begin to roll out the new compensation plan to include the new staff architecture and markets. (2025-2027)
FAQs
Why is the faculty and staff compensation study important for UND employees?
The new compensation plan will assist in ensuring employee pay is equitable with respect to protected employment categories. Additionally, the pay study is important in establishing that all employees performing similar work are paid equitably across campus. It is also important to implement best practices to provide consistency for the compensation plan.
What can employees expect to see from the study in the coming months?
- Protected class salary corrections (if necessary)
- Development of UND's compensation philosophy
- Fall 2024 launch of the new job architecture structure for staff
How will employees receive study results?
Results will be communicated in Town Halls and on the website. In the future, UND will launch a comprehensive compensation hub website.
Which benefited employees were not included in the study?
Our collaboration with Huron excluded analyses of executive positions classified in the 0000 band of the NDUS Broadband job classification system.
Contact
- jennifer.moe@UND.edu
- 701.777.6142
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Twamley Hall Room 414C
Grand Forks ND 58202-7127