Job Titles
A goal in implementing the Career Paths system is to use contemporary language to craft job descriptions and job titles. Most payroll titles, also known as UCP titles, will change. However, employees may continue to use current business card titles, also known as internal titles or functional titles.
There are 361 job titles in the old classification system. The new classification system will be comprised of 179 job titles. Therefore, the new system has 182 fewer job titles.
No. A classification system defines and categorizes work, but it does not control work. Thus, Career Paths does not impact work duties and responsibilities.
Mapping
At the end of the implementation, Human Resources will map employees into new position titles within the new system. HR will not change employee positional roles or duties.
Mapping is the process of determining the placement of a job in the new classification system.
All of the leveling criteria are weighted equally. One criterion is no more important than another. It would be unlikely that any one criterion would be significantly outside the job level of the others. For example, the education, knowledge, and experience requirements of the position would be in line with the general role and independence in decision-making and complexity of problem solving expected of the position.
The old system included 12 levels, while the new system is comprised of 8 levels. This makes it impossible for one-to-one mapping to occur for many positions. A change in this number merely reflects where the position falls within the new system. Mapping in Career Paths does not negatively impact the base salary, general wage increases, or position necessity.
There are several possibilities for why this may appear to happen. It may be the case that while the job titles between employees were the same, the responsibilities, scope, required knowledge and skills, staff size, or other key variables were different. Or, over time job duties changed for a given employee but the job description on record was never updated to reflect revised additional responsibilities.
The implementation of Career Paths provides the organization with a fresh review of the current roles and responsibilities for employees. Job templates will be assigned with input from leadership and managers to ensure that the most current information for each job is taken into account when assigning a template in the new structure.
Salary
For employees hired prior to July 1, 2011, longevity continues to be administered consistent with the collective bargaining agreement and standard practice where payments are based on the midpoint of an eligible UCPEA member’s salary schedule level.
No. Employees who fall below the minimum of their salary band will be brought to the minimum. As communicated previously, no other increases are associated with the implementation of Career Paths.
Yes. These employees will be brought up to the minimum salary for their corresponding salary band.
HR will contact employees via email with details of their increase, including when the increase should appear in their paycheck. Increases to the minimum will be retroactive to January 31, 2020, the day Career Paths launched.
Employees at or above the maximum salary of their corresponding salary band will continue to be eligible for one-time performance awards and across-the-board salary increases (UCPEA Collective Bargaining Agreement July 1, 2016-June 30, 2021; article 32.4).
No. Employees whose salary falls within the minimum and maximum of their corresponding salary band will not receive a salary adjustment as part of the transition to Career Paths.
The new job classification system will provide a standardized classification framework with corresponding salary bands. The new classification framework moves our institution toward universally administered occupational and market comparisons. However, as this is a classification program, not a salary program, it is not intended to directly address existing parity in salaries.
No. The job classification system organizes and categorizes the work performed at the University. Job titles and job paths are based on the duties and responsibilities of the position and do not reflect the person in the position. Performance is based on the person within the position and therefore it is not accounted for in movement through the classification system.
As one criterion of the leveling criteria is not more important than the other, positions will not be considered for reclassification to the next level based solely on receiving advanced education.
Career Paths does does not affect employee job duties and responsibilities, so there is no impact to conducting performance evaluations. Supervisors should continue to evaluate employees with the same evaluation scale in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement (Outstanding, Very Good, Good, In Need of Improvement, Unsatisfactory) based on work performance and expectations.
Job Templates and Job Specifications
HR used the information provided by both employees and supervisors in the Job Inventory Worksheet (JIW) process to design the new job templates. HR will collect suggested revisions from leadership resources and UCPEA-selected-resources before finalizing job templates.
Yes. As work evolves, HR fully anticipates and encourages the consideration of changes to the job templates as necessary.
Language in the job templates is used to create consistency in hiring. For internal and posting purposes, units may adapt requirements to better fit their needs. For instance, a unit may adjust a template from requiring a “BA” to a “BA in a related field.”
To accommodate our ever-changing workforce, flexibility was and continues to be a priority in developing this new system. As job templates need development or revision, HR will work with departmental leadership to implement those changes.
Yes. After the mapping process is complete, HR will work with departments to develop local job specifications.
Miscellaneous
The new classification system and Career Paths are one in the same. Career Paths is the name of the new classification system.
No. In the 2016 collective bargaining agreement, UCPEA agreed to the creation and the structural parameters of the new system. This is referenced in Article 31.1.
HR is in the process of developing a reconsideration procedure that will allow employees to request a reconsideration of their position’s mapping to the new system.