Dear faculty and staff,
Supporting our faculty and staff is paramount to keeping UNT on the path to move forward.
We have focused on finding ways to foster strong career development and address market-driven compensation issues. As you may remember, in the past few years we've established salary floors for faculty members to be more market competitive and have set aside a merit pool each year to reward employee excellence.
For nearly two years, we've also been engaged in the Job Evaluation and Grading Project for Staff, a thorough review of our staff job titles, job descriptions and pay structures. The goal has been to ensure that our job titles were consistent, our job descriptions matched the requirements of each job and our compensation was competitive.
We expected to implement the project's results March 1. But in light of the recent state hiring freeze and other limitations on state salary expenses, it's prudent for us to delay this plan's implementation until the new fiscal year. Salary changes may result from this project for a number of employees, and those changes — where applicable — can be implemented then. We remain committed to our promise that no employee will have a reduction in salary or lose their job because of this process.
The project has involved input from a broad cross section of our campus. We have focused on carrying out the project in a thoughtful, iterative manner. We used outside expertise where necessary, but relied heavily on our own staff and faculty members to ensure the results would serve the university well.
We received input from staff members during a series of town hall meetings, and that input helped guide the direction of the work. Also, about 170 subject matter experts from all types of jobs across campus have invested their time to give the project team an accurate picture of the job functions and demands of the roles. Our President's Cabinet members also have reviewed the project work in their respective divisions to ensure the integrity of the results.
I want to thank everyone who has invested their time and expertise for this project. I believe it will result in a clearer understanding of our staff members' roles and responsibilities, better alignment and a more market competitive pay structure.
With this project nearly behind us, we can begin to plan our next step to ensure our faculty salaries remain competitive as well.
As we put the final touches on this Job Evaluation and Grading Project, I will continue to work with our steering committee and project team on implementation to ensure that our staff members can continue their great work and career development and success at UNT.
UNT Proud,
Neal Smatresk
President