3/20 Weekly Email
Hi All,
I have a few updates this week and some clarifying comments on the Segal presentations.
Morning Meeting: We had our monthly member’s meeting this morning at the TMOC facility. You can view a copy of our meeting minutes here. The content we discussed in this meeting is very similar to this email though.
Blood Drive: Vitalant’s next blood drive is Wednesday, April 2nd, from 8-11:30AM at the Escalante Community Center. This is a great opportunity to give back to the community, get your blood screened, and do so for free on city time. One thing that isn’t really stressed is that there are also rewards for participating - besides Vitalant entering April donors into a drawing for a $10k giftcard, every Vitalant donation gives you points you can redeem on their website for merch or giftcards. Please don’t construe this as encouragement to only give blood for rewards - it’s just worth noting that they give you a little something for the inconvenience.
Elections: UAEA is on track to open our elections process in mid-April. We will give members several weeks to submit nominations then will verify eligibility and publish candidate information shortly after. We hope to hold elections the first week of June so we can onboard new candidates prior to them starting their roles in July. This year we will have the Vice-President, Membership Director, Resolution Director, and 2 Citywide Representative roles open - check Article 5 and 6 of our bylaws for descriptions of what each role entails. If interested, please also check Article 8, Sections 3 and 4, which discuss eligibility - there are a few qualifications a candidate must have to run for a role. We will do our best to provide multiple ways candidates can communicate with our members - we currently plan to dedicate a space on our website and bulletin boards for candidate bios and plan to hold a few meet-and-greet meetings. That said, what we do will ultimately depend on how many people run - we probably won’t do anything too formal if most people are running unopposed. Please email me if you have additional suggestions about ways candidates could communicate with membership - we want to be accessible but also not run afoul of any state laws or city rules about campaigning.
Surplus and Employee Discount Sites: I was talking to an employee the other day and was surprised they didn’t know about a few features on the Bridge website. Some departments may be cutting back on equipment purchases in the next year - if you need office supplies it's worth checking out the Tempe Surplus Page, where departments can list extra items they have and employees can claim them for their work site. There’s usually only a few items listed at any time but it’s a great resource if you need extra organizers, tables, or chairs for your work site. I also want to highlight the Employee Discount Page which has a few links to local and national promotions. If you haven’t checked in awhile they have some new links to Dell and Apple City employee discounts - they’re not a substantial cut, but if you’re buying a new device it’s certainly worth seeing if they can save you 5-10% over what the public normally pays. Finally, the Employee Network also has a lot of discounts for public sector employees on certain restaurants, services, and event venues - Phoenix Zoo tickets, for instance, are $30 through the Employee Network versus $40 at the front gate. I admit that most of these discounts will not be relevant to most people but I encourage you all to familiarize yourself with what’s available - there’s been a few times in the last few years that I saved $20 on a service last minute just by vaguely remembering that there was some sort of discount available.
Survey Reminders: I have just a few reminders of open surveys. Our annual scholarship competition is currently open - we are accepting submissions until April 18th. Our Employee of the Quarter 3rd Round nominations are open - we are accepting nominations until June 1st. Our MOU survey will remain open for at least the next 6 months - feel free to drop negotiation ideas in here and take it multiple times if needed. Finally, if you’d like to receive union emails to your persona email address feel free to fill out this optional survey with your contact information.
Segal Updates: I sat in on both employee group presentations today and recorded some notes on areas of confusion. You can view the presentation here (they may not have uploaded a copy as of when I initially sent this email). I think the presentation is comprehensive but maybe a bit too academic, so I’d like to highlight some top level takeaways. I’m sure there will be additional questions - I’ll probably send out a followup email in a few weeks with additional clarifications as needed.
Pay: There are effectively two pay components of this study. The first is a market analysis that is more comprehensive than prior market studies. $800k is being dedicated to the market adjustments that are being recommended by this study - if your pay falls below the new minimum of your job’s pay range this will go to bringing you up to that level. The second component is a series of recommendations about how to compensate for seniority in a role. The proposal Segal has come up with suggests that employee pay should automatically adjust based on years in a role - every year you’ll receive an adjustment of 3.55-4.57% until you’re maxed out. One important caveat - if future market studies change the pay scale for a role significantly, it may take longer until someone is maxed out - UAEA thinks this is a good thing as it gives more automatic pay increases and top out pay would rise accordingly. This adjustment will be the biggest part of the study - as such, about $7 million is being dedicated to implementing their recommendations.
Segal is also proposing that people move up each step in their pay range on their anniversary date. That means there will be adjustments to everyone’s pay as of July 1st, 2025, then an additional adjustment during the year in the month that coincides with the anniversary of the date you joined Tempe. If you started your job in December, for instance, you’d see an adjustment this July to bring you to your proper pay level and then theoretically another in December of every year to bring you to your next level.
There are also a lot of changes happening to standardize pay ranges and make it easier for employees to understand their pay scale and promotional opportunities. I don’t think I can easily explain this and frankly I’m still a little confused about how these were developed - I’ve requested HR prepare some additional writeups and graphs explaining how this process will work.
Most employees will see an adjustment due to this study. I do not have the underlying data to say how many are impacted, but we’ve been assured that most will see changes as a result of this study. Even if your market range doesn’t change (or if it goes down, which is a possibility) you will receive in July, at minimum, the 3.0% adjustment promised by our current MOU.
Internal Equity/Segal Calculator: The Segal study started with a market assessment of 440 jobs across the City. Based on similarities between roles and responsibilities, they then created pay ranges for 25 different types of role across the City, ranging from entry-level to management. The roles were designed based upon the results of the JDQ - this is where the internal equity calculator comes in.
The presentation has a breakdown on how different factors influence pay in each role - what they didn’t explain is how the math works. This is my current understanding and is based both on the presentations and some dialogue with Segal yesterday. Each of the factors (Work Experience, Formal Education, Supervision level, etc) is a ranking that is based on the JDQs. The Employee groups do not have the underlying math yet but the methodology seems sound - based on results from the JDQ every job was ranked in each factor. If most employees said the job requires some supervision, that job would be ranked as requiring some supervision - this would lead to a slightly higher pay than a job that required no supervision. If most employees said the job has hazardous work conditions, the job would be ranked as requiring hazardous work conditions - this would lead to a slightly higher pay than a job that required no exposure to hazardous work conditions. All of those rankings are then cumulatively added up to produce a point score, and role structures were designed based on similarity of final scores - if multiple jobs across the City had similar scores (like 290/300/310 on a scale of 1000 possible points), their jobs would be treated as one pay scale.
Again, UAEA does not have the underlying math yet. I cannot answer any questions about how they did all of this - the board understands that there may be concerns about calculations and will take a look once we have data to look at. That said, the principles seem sound and will make development of new city roles more equitable - HR can use this tool to determine fair pay for new roles that is in line with how they’re compensating current employees using similar skills.
Appeals: UAEA has some concerns about statements made with regards to appeals. We are working with the other employee groups to ensure people have some ability to weigh in - we have several examples of roles that may require additional checks or adjustments and expect more may arise when results are published. Feel free to send along concerns you have about how your job was assessed but I can’t say for certain whether or not certain things were considered until I see the actual data.
Timelines: Employees should have data on how their pay is being adjusted by May. UAEA does not have this data yet - for that matter, neither HR nor any other organization has this. Segal is plugging in up-to-date numbers that reflect current employee statuses and will present their results to HR and Management in late April - employees should have access to this data shortly after.
Final Details: Some of the changes proposed in this study do not align with the existing pay tenets of our current MOU. UAEA will need to ratify a new MOU that reflects these changes - we do not plan to do so however until we get clarification and are satisfied with the answers.
Thanks for a great week, everyone!