GovOps Town Hall Meeting – 2024/10/01 11:46 MDT – Transcript

 

Transcript

Marvin Dodge: We're all good afternoon. Go Ops team. I hope everybody is doing well out there. And enjoying whatever your favorite fall activity is yesterday morning, we had one of our quarterly new employee orientation meetings and I asked everybody, the question is, they introduced themselves to let us know what their favorite fall activity was? And actually, it was one of the most enjoyable questions I've asked, because we had everything from college sports to Canning, Peaches, and Homemade salsa to prepping for Halloween and creating Halloween decorations, and a whole host of things that I'm an enjoyable. So,

Marvin Dodge: We hope that you'll make time to enjoy your favorite fall activity and for some that was frankly going for a hike in the mountains and enjoying the changing colors of the trees. So we hope that you'll have time for that and enjoy every minute of it. We appreciate you jumping on this call today as we sent out notice, I'm going to provide just a little bit of background on this and then turn it over to Marilee-lee and David Dyches who are heading up this effort and we have online with us our consultants from Moss Adams who are helping us with this study.

00:05:00

Marvin Dodge: Two years ago, prior to my arrival, the EDL and GOVOPS leadership pursued funding from the legislature to conduct a very in-depth detailed compensation study, just for the Department of Government Operations. To look at our job duties on titles and structure and so forth. And that funding was granted and we went out on an RFP earlier. This year, we have contracted with Moss Adams who has been here in the past and help us out with some study. So it is great to have their team back and they have embarked on this study. So, without further ado, I'm gonna turn it over to Marilee who I'm assuming is out On the call and the chime in and provide more details as we move forward.

Marilee Richins: Thank I know that many of you have heard rumblings about this project and I have heard, lots and lots of rumors about this project and so today we want to talk about what it is and what it is not and we really want to give you lots of opportunities to ask questions. I want to start out by saying, We will talk about this as much as you want to talk about it until you feel comfortable with it. so, just to give you a little bit more background,

Marilee Richins: when we consolidated, one of the things that we learned, was that across the divisions, there was Some inequity. So this was one of the Impetuses Behind this project we found that the same titles were being used in vastly different ways. And that there were some real inequalities across the divisions in terms of the title and the tasks and work associated with those titles. So that was The second reason we learned that we kind of did a little bit more investigating. We learned that many of you have even within the same divisions, but definitely across the divisions.

Marilee Richins: And you have. Idols, that have been. Where you have people sometimes in the same, I'm thinking of DTS. And one particular group, there's a group in DTS where Quite a number of people have the same title and their jobs, don't even look similar at all. and so, we found that in lots of cases. When we hired, we looked for the job title that had the compensation that we wanted. And we went after that title when the actual job description doesn't have much to do with what the person was actually doing. The job descriptions have not been updated many in over 30 years. and so, we decided that rather than to have dhrm, Do this.

Marilee Richins: They are so strapped for resources. We decided that we would seek money from the legislature to do a really deep dive into Govops. And look at every single job title to look at what you're actually doing to look and see if this is what makes sense. I anticipate that will come out of this with some job titles. We have never had before. And that more closely aligns with what the work is, that's being done. Secondly, we will be looking at compensation. so, We'll be looking at the range for every job title and we have asked Mark Moss and Adams to do some real in-depth benchmarking work.

Marilee Richins: We've talked at length about this, we don't really care. No offense Mark, what the state of Vermont? Pays for a financial analyst. What we care a lot about is what the University of Utah pays for a financial analyst or what the city of Salt Lake Hayes for a financial analyst or what the Larry Miller Group pays for a financial analyst. So we really want to know. What the compensation is for your Duties are within our job market. and among those who will be applying for jobs to my knowledge, we've only ever taken one person out of Vermont and given them a job. So Don't care what they pay, right?

00:10:00

Marilee Richins: what? This Is. Any attempt on our part to downsize to have people out of their jobs. There's none of that that's going to happen. What this is not is a way to reduce your salary. I don't anticipate that anybody will have any kind of salary reduction. regardless of of what changes may or may not happen to your job title, Our goal here is to fully understand what each of you do with lots of input from you. and arrive at a place where we are articulately and

Marilee Richins: Identifying, what you do and updating those job descriptions and making sure that you're classification actually fits what you're doing. So heard lots of rumors that people are concerned about salaries, there's not going to be any salary reductions. Heard lots of rumors that we are trying to that some of this is being done already and that we will undo the work that's already been done or in progress. That's not true. So I know that DTS in particular has begun this work.

Marilee Richins: And in their division. And that the work that's been done. We will be giving to Moss Adams and let them review that. And it's our intention to add upon that, not take away from it. So, with that introduction, I would like to turn some time over to our consultants, who are joining us today to talk a little bit about the process. How information will be gathered this is a nine month effort, or at least we anticipate it, taking nine months. And so, they're going to kind of outline what that's going to look like how you will be involved. When you might expect to be given feedback and then when they're done, I'll come back and talk a little bit more about that as well. So Jesse.

Jessie Lenhardt: Thank you so much for that. Warm introduction. Marilee it is my pleasure to be joining you all today figured we could get kicked off with just a round of introductions. You will likely be seeing faces and emails from myself and a team. Of course, the folks that are on the call today about the full team, they're just, my favorite people. And so my name is Jesse. I am a senior manager with Masat Adams, I work in our strategy and operations group, which is a very fancy way of saying everything you could possibly imagine related to organizational development title, audits and compensation are my bread and butter. I absolutely love doing this work and I'm really thrilled to be invited to do this from this date. So I'm going today by two of my colleagues and Colleen, Rosilis and Tammy. Lohr Schweitzer, I will pass it over to Colleen to introduce yourself.

Colleen Rozillis: Hi, everyone. And thank you for having us today. My name is Colleen, Rozillis. I'm a partner at Moss Adams. I'll be providing quality assurance on this engagement additional facilitation reviewing all of the deliverables before they go to the state. I am the firms government national practice leader and I've been working in the public sector for more than 20 years. I actually very rarely see projects like of this scale in this level of really intentionality and some really excited to dig into the work with all of you. The way that the team has really thoughtfully approached wanting to do this work and being very deliberate about it is pretty rare in our space and so we're very excited to partner with you on it. And I think it's gonna have some really positive results. Tammy over you.

Tammy Lohr: It's good to see for the first time some of you again, I'm Tammy Lohrschweitzer. I cannot figure out how to change my name on Google Meet, but it is, in fact, 10 letters longer. Now, I'm a director with Moss Adams. I've been working with Dgo for a couple of years now, on other engagements, and we're just so excited to be back and helping with this effort. So I'll be helping to support Jesse throughout the project. And I look forward to being able to connect with many of you again with talking about this instead of internal service funds this time. So, To be great.

00:15:00

Jessie Lenhardt: So if I shot Melissa an email and it wouldn't be a presentation with some consultants without a couple of slides and just some visual accused to walk you through the process. And I'm happy to share that in the future. But in the meantime, we'll just kind of talk you through that whole process and timing what to expect with the

Melissa Brown: We've got access to that. So if you want to give it a try, go ahead.

Jessie Lenhardt: say that again.

Melissa Brown: You have access to share things, so please do.

Jessie Lenhardt: Looks like my button might still be grayed out.

Jessie Lenhardt: But that's And we're excellent storytellers. So we'll walk you through the phases, what you can expect that timing different activities as part of this, and then also ways in which we'll continue to stay connected. So it's not a one-and-done, kind of information share Marilee reiterated, At the beginning, we are in hearing from We are interested in talking about this or interested in keeping you up to date. So more to come throughout the process. Nine months is a long time to forget everything that we talked about in town Hall. So we'll make sure that we communicate, as we transition to new phases, we'll reach out to So that everybody kind of knows what to expect, which we find to be a best practice. I don't think that anybody has genuinely enjoyed surprises, probably since they've had a fit, great birthday party. It is our practice to avoid them to the extent possible. So I'll turn it over to Colleen to kind of just cover the overview and some timing. So take it away.

Colleen Rozillis: So our process is really grounded in as gathering as much data as we can both quantitative and qualitative merrily mentioned. That it's not just data from your particular roles and from your agency but also from potential peers and really having them iterative approach so that we get to the right solution. So we approach that through four phases, first is planning, which we do in collaboration with your project team. We've submitted our initial document request and we have received many documents in a ton of data to start with which we're pouring through. Right now, We kicked off the project officially just last month so we're not very far into the process yet. We're going to really devote the next quarter to our fact finding phase which means that we will be conducting interviews and focus groups. We'll be doing a comprehensive survey will be developing our kind of initial observations and then really checking that for our effects. Correct. Things like that.

Colleen Rozillis: Moving in the right direction and we'll get into a little bit more detail there in just a moment. We'll really do our analysis in the start of the year and then start developing our draft report. And final report Again, as Jesse mentioned, We are no surprises organization. And so our goal is to provide recommendations that make sense in our practical and work for your agency. Jesse back to you, she's going to get more into the details.

Jessie Lenhardt: Okay, so we have talked quite a bit about just kind of the process of how we are gathering information. So the benefit of having us involved kind of based on our historic relationships with the state but then also the way that we approach our work kind of as in an auditing and assurance firm as well as a consulting firm really looking at several different ways that we're able to gather information. So, right off the bat, Colleen mentioned that we put in our document and data request. We have a ton of stuff coming in and we just want to get an understanding of how are things currently.

Jessie Lenhardt: Will look through job descriptions. We'll look at salary structures, we'll look at policies, procedures organizational, charts titles, all kinds of stuff. And then what we want to do that will really set us up to understand what's documented in your environment. That's more about quantitative research and in fact, finding and discovery period. But then we'll complement that with a lot of qualitative information. So we mentioned going through and hosting confidential one-on-one interviews for interested in hearing from you. What's the same, How have things changed? What's working really well? And what might need a little bit of clarity. What are operative communities for improvement? Not only in your title roles responsibilities and expectations reporting requirements. But then also, when it comes to thinking about what that looks like, compensation wise, and so, we'll host, a series of interviews, those will be done in phases, really to kind of look at again, starting broadly, getting the lay of the land and then dialing into some more specific or more nuanced.

00:20:00

Jessie Lenhardt: Review, some things that might be a little bit more complex. We also supplement one-on-one interviews, with focus groups, merely mentioned. I made a great point about how you can have a batch of folks, with the same title and vastly different job descriptions. So, what does it look like, what things might be Where might things? Be a little bit different when you are looking at core duties and essential responsibilities. And so those again, really are oriented towards hearing from you. again, all of the nuances about what state the same what's really changed, and what does that look like now? And maybe what are some of the things that you anticipate in the future?

Jessie Lenhardt: The last, way that we will also look to hear from you again, it's that combination of both because why choose when you can have it we will submit to everybody in all staff survey and that will have some quantitative information to ask about workloads Ask you to review your job description and provide feedback, but then there will be an open-ended kind of question not to involved in that. Again really to help us capture the full scope of the nuance of kind of what we're diving into. So, when we do this work and the things that we are looking at, I think, merely really set the stage, about all of the things that we're going to dive into and look at and kind of make recommendations on. So, standardizing job, descriptions and titles roles were spill, roles responsibilities and expectations, say that 10 times fast workloads, professional development span of control. So all of those things that are really natural to check in on

Jessie Lenhardt: Specially after a big merge and a big consolidation. We have a lot of groups coming together. So after we do a lot of that discovery, we like to pause and just recap here are all of the things that we understand to be true Colleen This is where we kind of verify our facts, we'll share those back. It's a great way to identify any other areas of additional follow-up. Really to make sure that before we head into analysis and we You start doing some comparisons. We have a really good understanding of how things are currently and with that I will pass it over to Tammy who's gonna walk you through kind of what that analysis process looks like.

Tammy Lohr: Yeah. Absolutely. So as you can tell from Jesse & Colleen, we're gonna get a lot of information. We want to hear from you. And then after we have been around with you all, for a long time, we'll sort of go away and be in our auditor corner and start doing a lot of our analysis. And so, when we're doing that, we're going to be looking at job descriptions and trying to figure out where are their actual similar functions happening, regardless of what that title might be today. So just thinking through the functionality of what is the role responsible for? Is that a managerial or supervisory role? Is it a technical role or their certifications attached to that? Is there a career ladder that we should be taking into consideration? Should there be a career ladder as well? So we start to put all of that information together to not necessarily standardized, but to create consistency of expectations among different job groupings. So that's the first

Tammy Lohr: Piece is sort of doing that. And then also looking at the marketplace and seeing, Okay, What are some of your comparator agencies in the local area, really doing? What are some of the titles that they might be using to help differentiate these different roles. And we have also heard that there's a really strong interest in having job titles that make sense rather than just sort of have that sort of government speak necessarily. So we'll be looking at what are some of those options? How are other agencies really applying that?

Tammy Lohr: After we are able to sort of figure out those job descriptions, that's when we really move into the salary relationship analysis. So we use that information as inputs to be able to conduct our compensation analysis. As Marilee said, They've been very intentional about being able to identify what are the comparative agencies not Vermont but really looking at your local area of felt like city counties, higher education institutions, those are doing

Tammy Lohr: Similar types of work in the area to where you're actually residing. So we'll do all of that analysis and look at sort of wage scales. So there's a lot that goes into a compensation study and sort of identifying, What is your compensation philosophy? Where do you want to be? What does that scale look like? And then going through and being able to present, again, Those results back to Dgo. So that is a lot of where we're taking the information that we've learned and actually starting to do stuff with them, comparing that to best practices and trying to create that more consistent understanding of what our job titles. Really mean, and how they're compensated, according to what is expected of them,

00:25:00

Tammy Lohr: So we'll write all of that up. I'm sure it'll be a very short report but we will make sure it has all that detail in it so that we can summarize the report within the Executive summary. But it does have quite a bit of additional information in there so that your leadership can be able to implement these recommendations over the period of several years and throughout that graph Report review process if you've been through this process with us before, that we'll have several iterations and opportunities to be able to provide back and forth feedback, where you might want additional analysis, it analysis in one, specific area, and we'll go ahead and do that additional research and make sure that we're going to be able to provide you with what you need to move this work forward. So Merely, I think I'm turning it back over to you now, to feel some questions.

Tammy Lohr: And you're on mute.

Marilee Richins: You know what? A lot of people would say. That's a dream condition for me, they love it when I'm on you.

Marilee Richins: And thank That was a Great overview of the project. I once again, want to reiterate, there will be lots of opportunities for every single person to give feedback to make sure that we understand everything that you would have us understand. And let me add even more to that. And I have asked Melissa to make sure that David and I have time on our calendars, where you can come talk to us, if you feel like there's something that you didn't have an opportunity to say or that you just want to clarify, or if you've got concerns and then absolutely can come talk to either one of us and we're happy to visit.

Marilee Richins: David before I start answering this question, do you have Anything that you would like to add.

David Dyches: Just that this is a big project. Our goal. this all supports Pillar, two of the strategic plan. Hope all of you have read and are acquainted with the strategic plan. And this is a big part of an empowered workforce. So we appreciate Moss Adams, and look forward to this project.

Marilee Richins: Okay, let's get to some questions and if you've got questions, please put them in the chat and we'll answer all of them. So my main question I may miss, this was to know the intended outcomes of this engagement. So first of all, we want To make sure that titles are equitable across the whole department. And that's Number two, we felt like it was time to update 30 year old job descriptions and make sure that we are capturing in your both job description and your classification, the actualities of your job.

Marilee Richins: And the third is to do an in-depth compensation, study on a per job basis. So that we understand where we are in the Utah job market and to review, and make sure that you have a fair compensation range. So, the natural question that would follow that is, okay, so you do this study, then what? So we will take the outcome of this study, we will take the Moss, Adams' report and likely and Marv can push me up if I speak a mess he's tried for the last eighteen months. He's tried to hush me up but

Marilee Richins: I would anticipate that what we would do is take this report and then we would create a strategic plan around it. so let's say for example that you are in a classification called it analyst, And we learn that. In fact, you are doing okay. I'm totally making this up and I don't know what I'm talking about. So don't hold me to this, but you are doing architectural work. And we decide, what, it analysts that doesn't fit what you're doing and so we are going to create this new title called it Guru.

00:30:00

Marilee Richins: That's what we're gonna classify you at and you're gonna move into it Guru. and the compensation range is higher than where you're current range is if I were you I would say, am I going to get an immediate raise? No. We do not expect immediate compensation adjustments. At the end of this study, what we're going to do is look at all of the recommendations we're going to prioritize. Where are the biggest gaps? Likely would be one of the questions that we would look at and Prioritize. What kind of action we're going to take? All of this will be transparent. We're going to share this stuff with you all, the way along. So you will see the findings as well as us.

Marilee Richins: So there's no secrets here but we live in a world where our fate is determined by a legislature. so, we're going to have to make a plan and decide how we get. To where we need to be. So, I hope answered they said that this is a nine-month project which aligns with the end of the fiscal year and…

Geetha Natarajan: It's not easy, whatever your operation.

Marilee Richins: when the next rounds of pay for performance,

Geetha Natarajan: That's why Ranger we're here for you with professional grade industrial supplies.

Marilee Richins: And we mute Geetha. Hey, and when the next round of pay for performance impossible cost of living increase would be applied to our salary, to be going to take this into consideration. So if they determine our position weren't seller, increase our pay for performance, cola aren't washed out in the possible salary increase. So that's fair question. and I'm just gonna say we likely will not be making any kind of salary adjustments that quickly. So we have to figure out the funding around those and these are going to be two separate things. I want to really control expectations here. So the goal here is to get the ranges correct and then we will decide what happens from there.

Marvin Dodge: Hey Marilee,…

Marilee Richins: Yes.

Marvin Dodge: just to tag on to that, I think it's important to point out our budget submission for Fiscal 26, which begins on July 1st of next year, has already been submitted and is under review, so as the results of the study come back, we certainly will use that in formulating our budget next summer in fall.

Marilee Richins: Thank We get compared some time to Adobe zoom in what we do and policies, are we going to be compared to public jobs or private and public compared entitles and pay? So I have specifically asked Moss and Adams, We want to compare to Job market, that includes. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah State. Public sector jobs, but also private sector jobs. So that we know we have a 360 view of what our job market is paying for your job. Now, I had an interesting conversation with Jesse yesterday and by the way, I just want to thank our Moss Adams team. They are available to us. They

Marilee Richins: Were overloading them with information and with questions and we just really appreciate how responsive they are. But I had a conversation with Jesse yesterday and I said, I think what we're going to find here is Oftentimes, it will be very difficult to find an apples to apples comparison easily. So the example that I used with her and this is not an isolated example but I use the director of Dfcm overseas mass construction so they would be and Oakland at Big D or something like that. But they also oversee the maintenance of

Marilee Richins: Several hundred properties. They also oversee, a real estate division. They oversee an energy group, so it's extraordinarily difficult to find To apples comparison, and I asked them flat out, Do you have the expertise to take something like that? Assimilate, the data that you get, and then say, We can't give you an apples to apples comparison. But in our professional opinion, this is what the range should be taking into account the scope and skill set required. And, She nearly broke her neck saying, Yes, yes, yes, yes, we do. So I have absolute confidence in that. So all of those things will be taken into account, but we absolutely want to know what the private sector is doing because they are competing with us for the same workforce.

00:35:00

David Dyches: Let me take the next one. Marilee are all promotions or…

Marilee Richins: Yes. Please.

David Dyches: pay increases on hold? Until the project is complete answer. That is no division. Directors are still going through the process for ASIS paper performance. any openings for advancement? The bill, all that is ongoing, this will just be behind the scenes. This will be taking place behind the scenes but day-to-day operations will continue.

Marilee Richins: Take the next one. David.

David Dyches: Dwight's employees. Get to see the full findings and report Obviously transparency is another pillar of government operations. So absolutely, there'll be updates as we go along. In fact, Melissa maybe you want to add on the Internet site but that'll be our primary vehicle for providing information.

Melissa Brown: Yeah, we're gonna have a page, it'll be up and running tomorrow. Unfortunately, when we had these big meetings, like this it takes a little bit for the video to render and we want to make sure that everybody can watch the recording. Somebody asked about the documents that the consultants were talking about will also post those there. We'll have available the govops info at Utah. if you want to send a question through there, that's monitored daily. So we are compiling those questions to make sure that everybody's questions get answered.

Marilee Richins: Awesome.

David Dyches: Do we want to answer the next one if exempt versus non-exempt?

Marilee Richins: I'm not sure. I actually understand the question. So Jared, are you talking about will the status of exempt or non-exempt be evaluated or will all employees, regardless of whether they're exempt or non-exempt to be evaluated, or if you could just Give us a little bit more information. happy to answer that. And the next one along with potential title changes, should we expect potential cheat team or organizational changes reporting structure? Changes teams being consolidated or shuffled within Dgo? That is within the scope of this project. So,

Marilee Richins: I can answer yes or no but we will be looking at that. So one of the things that we have long been talking about and hopefully we'll be able to dress a little bit is the potential of a dual career track. So if you want to grow your career right now, the best way to do that is to go into management. And I have a son who is I won't tell you what he does. I love them to death but he has this T-shirt that says I hate people and I can't deny that. He often acts that way.

Marilee Richins: Management is not for everybody. And some people just say I don't really want to do that but it's the only way that I can make more money and a second career track that we would really like to firmly establish. I call it the Yoda Track. it's our content expert. Our folks who are brilliant in their area of expertise. and they are as valuable to us as managers they are as important in mentoring and helping us make Strong decisions and making sure that this department continues to grow and adapt to changing needs as leadership is. And so we will be

Marilee Richins: that will be looking at how vertical structures are and Maasan Adams we have asked them to make recommendations. There. So yes, we will be looking at that. Don't freak out about that that will not happen without lots, and lots of discussion and exploration

00:40:00

Marilee Richins: David. You want to say anything more about that?

David Dyches: No, I think You've handled it? and I want one of those T-shirts that your song.

David Dyches: maybe I'll Jared has elaborated a little more. So, anything dealing with the Department of Labor, as far as Exemptor or non-exempt, none of that will be impacted by this study, but, of course, will be doing so if you're in an exempt position today, we'll be comparing or We moss Adams, we comparing with other exempt, positions and same. if it's known exempt.

Marilee Richins: I'm just gonna add a little bit to that Jared, I see your overtime pay by pay by position. So I am aware that in some places in the department. because this is my understanding, this is my listening and I may need more information but that we have some positions that we feel like we are not able to compensate at Fair market value. And so, we have created a situation where we try to augment that through overtime pay Our goal here is to make sure that we understand what fair compensation is. For each job title.

Marilee Richins: You shouldn't have to work overtime in order to get fair compensation for your job title so we need a strong evaluation for that. Now In some areas of the department over time will always be a thing. Depending, especially those who are in the agencies where they just require more effort or certain projects require it And that's a separate conversation. and…

David Dyches: Yeah.

Marilee Richins: that's really not what We're looking at fair compensation. For your job description. so, Iii. I hope Jared that answers that.

Marilee Richins: What about longevity? If two employees get the same job title will both get the very same pay or will there be a difference between one that has worked for five years versus the employee that has worked for 25 years?

Marilee Richins: David, do you want this one or do you want me to tack it?

David Dyches: I

David Dyches: I believe, there will be ranges in any sort of position. There is a range and part of that range is experience years of service. So I don't see any of that changing newer employees we'll typically be More experienced employees will be on the upper end of the range that won't change. what we do expect is that if there are two employees who are doing the same job that they're both within the range. and I don't think we have that today and we will. So again, that's Jess Jesse. If you want to elaborate on that, I think maybe you can add some value.

Jessie Lenhardt: Yeah, happy too. when you are looking at longevity years of experience, either in your current role or even previous years of experience. Those are all pieces that we will ask about and put into how I like to call the total mix of information.

Jessie Lenhardt: So when we are looking at how that impacts compensation, a couple of important considerations and a lot of this is also balanced with what is already established as kind of a standard practice within DJ. what other agencies are doing and how that's incorporated into putting together, their pay structure. So David was absolutely right when we are looking at say, for example, it help, desk, bob, sorry, we don't need to keep picking on it. What's another great example, if we're looking at a mechanic and you have two different folks, who are coming in one person, and one person has five years of experience, and other person has 10 years of experience. What we want to make sure that we're doing is that all mechanics kind of, regardless of their years of experience or paid between x and Y. And what that helps us do is then when you think about,

00:45:00

Jessie Lenhardt: What does a lead mechanic or a supervising mechanic? How does that compare? So that you don't end up necessarily? And it isn't typically best practice to have a mechanic, who's been there for 20 years. Be paid more, maybe then a supervisor, or a manager, or a lead, but what you'll find is that when you set kind of a broader range, you'll have that broken down potentially into different steps and that could be based off of years of experience. Again, thinking about certifications and that helps to kind of distinguish the competencies or skills of different folks, based on their experience, education background, and yours in the industry, all of those pieces, it helps distinguish people who are maybe more experienced and compensate them, accordingly, compared to folks who may be new into their role. And so that is kind of how those pieces come together. And so years of experiences,

Jessie Lenhardt: One of the pieces that we'll look at, and Education is another piece. We also look at different kind of certification requirements. So there are a couple of different pieces that we will look at and kind of use to frame our understanding to define. How are we establishing our ranges? And then, how are we really clearly defining the different kind of steps in between there, and so that there's consistency between how people can expect to go from one to the other or one to the next?

Marilee Richins: And Jesse while you have your mic on, why don't you attack the before you do that? Let me just add one more thing. I would expect at the end of this study that we will be sitting down with each division director and going over the results that impact them in their division. and we will be looking at a variety of factors as we create a plan of what action needs to take place. So,

Marilee Richins: Some of these questions. The answer isn't super simple. Jesse, will you take the Howard's Moss Adams quantifying and…

Jessie Lenhardt: Yeah.

Marilee Richins: processing? All of this data?

Jessie Lenhardt: Absolutely. So because we're auditors and we have a couple of different ways that we are quantifying and capturing an analyzing the data so first off what we will do. So you see three people on the project with you today, we are also supported by another three analysts and so there is a group of six folks minimum who are involved on the team. And what we do is we will gather the information through those different channels that we talked about. So interviews, focus groups, the All Staff survey and the document request, but we do that information, we capture it. everything that you tell us and everything, that's provided to us is our own. So this is where I'm kind of. We take, really seriously that confidentiality requirement. We are interested in your open and honest feedback about how things are going updates. You would like to see and those pieces. Then what we do is as a group, we will meet

Jessie Lenhardt: Together will review all of the information that we get will start to identify some themes. And so that's how we bring in some of our qualitative analysis and kind of looking at some of those pieces. As you heard today, we have a national practice leader for our government services been in the industry for over 20 years, we have another analyst on the team that's been doing compensation benchmarking for over a decade. And so there is a lot of kind of baked in experience. Based on just simply are ways of working and the education an experience that we bring to the table. The other thing that we'll do is, we'll apply What we have learned through our ways of working and all the projects that we have done. And then we'll also pull in kind of some national standards and practices again because we want to make sure that we are looking at and kind of bringing in those standards Society of Resources is a really great resource that we like to tap. And we also really like to look at

Jessie Lenhardt: City Cameron Managers Association especially when we were looking at guidance for developing a compensation policy and procedure. What are kind of reclassification or kind of title change best practices and steps? And so what we start to do is we start to bring in kind of our knowledge and experience with established standards. And then we complement that with a third prong by looking really locally at kind of your labor market and peers and competitors to see what they're doing. And so that kind of helps that three point analysis. We want to make sure that we are pulling in a lot of good contextual information and we don't rely on a single source. So hopefully that answers your question Tammy calling. Please feel free to jump in if there are any other kind of nuances or anything, I may have missed in that response.

00:50:00

Marilee Richins: Great.

David Dyches: Marilee, can I take the one about from Derrick?

Marilee Richins: And yeah, and I was gonna break Brooke speak to this one too.

David Dyches: Yeah, apparently, that's why he's gonna answer. Brooke is not able to speak. she's at a mode where she can only listen. So how much involvement will have in this initiative or…

Marilee Richins: Okay.

David Dyches: is it fully independent of them? Brooke Baker. The field director for Dgo is part of the team. She is completely involved and she is the internal expert. So she and John Behrmann are very involved and our part of the DJ team working with Moss Adams.

Marilee Richins: And that feeds into. I'm going to come back to you. But into that question, How will jobs that cross into other agencies? Be analyzed? So we have involved because they absolutely need to be in this project. And we want Brooke's guidance and every step of the way we want her to have a strong voice in this. And that's why she's on the steering committee of this project, but we do have jobs. Let's go back to the financial analyst like All the agencies. Have that job. So how what we do affect the other agencies? what we would do is

Marilee Richins: give that information to R Brooke is going to see the process play out. Then she'll take that back to the R team and very likely. They can use the information from our study to inform any changes that might need to be made statewide. So let's say that And we decide that the financial analyst title is correct. Here's an updated job description and we need to adjust the salary. Benchmark, Let's say by 4%, Don't hold me to this. I am totally making stuff up, but let's say that that's what happened. Then would review that material. If they feel like, yep, this is sound. We see where Moss, Adams came up with this, then they're gonna reach out to other agencies and say Here's what we found. We'd like to adjust the range.

Marilee Richins: So, they'll go through their process and that's why it's so important that they are part of this project.

Marilee Richins: With paige-based experience and background. Are you going to interview every employee? So it might not.

David Dyches: Tammy. Sorry,…

Marilee Richins: Do you want to take it?

David Dyches: Tammy, you want to address that one?

Tammy Lohr: Yes, so what we'll do is for each of those job titles, we will go ahead and develop the compensation band, so that range and then help DJ. identify the policies for how you place individual employees within the band based on years of experience and things like that. And then ultimately, it would be Dgo. That is placing individual employees within the band, using the employment information that you have for each individual employee. So we would love to be able to meet with each and every one of you. And I mean that genuinely however, we do have a budget and so we do want to be able to get information from. You will be doing that via the survey. However, we won't be the people individually placing you into the band will be helping you identify the band itself that compensation range and then

Tammy Lohr: Will do we as an agency place, people within that range and then ultimately, it's up to dgo management to implement that framework.

Marilee Richins: I think this is really important so in the conversation that I had with Jesse yesterday, I was quizzing her as to what the questions were on this survey and are they ended enough that employees can answer questions that? They feel like they should have been asked but weren't asked, and is this going to be an adequate enough tool and she assured me that the survey does have lots of boxes where you can add your input and I'm always worried about the questions that you feel like we should have asked and didn't ask and make sure that you have an opportunity to be thoughtful in the way that you answer this survey if you choose not to answer it.

00:55:00

Marilee Richins: Then you know what? You don't get to complain about what the results are. You got to give The feedback and then she said, And this isn't the only way. So we'll gather information through the surveys and then, we'll assimilate that and then we'll find the areas where they're still holes and we'll keep digging and we'll keep going. And so, I felt a lot better after talking to her that If you want to be heard, there is a way for you to be heard. And that's also why I'm telling you about your ability to come talk to David and I as well if you want to be heard. The avenue will be presented for you to be heard.

Tammy Lohr: And then Marilee, could I just address the last question that came in…

Marilee Richins: that's,

Tammy Lohr: since we're on the topic of the survey?

Marilee Richins: Yes.

Tammy Lohr: So the surveys are confidential. So we administer the survey ourselves at Moss Adams, you will be asked to put in some information around demographics or how long you've been there. your title, etc. So not personal information, but things that you think, this could identify me because I'm the only person that does XYZ at X agency. However, the way that we use the survey results is that it will be presented in aggregate to Dgo. But we have all of those comments and things like that, that stay within Moss Adams and that's written within our contract. So the survey really is a place where you will have some open-ended questions and we do welcome all of the feedback that you'd like to be able to provide in a way that is safe and will be handled appropriately to help inform this assessment. So I just want to

Tammy Lohr: that out.

Marilee Richins: While this project is going on camera divisions, continue working within the current classification framework to try to address in equity in the short term. Although Moss Adams Project will address these. Systemic problems those will take years to implement, what can we do in the meantime to address pay and title inequities and disparities to prevent talented employees, from leaving our organization. Before the Moss Adams project is done. First of all. Respectfully. Let me say, If this takes years, I'm going to stick a needle in my eye because this cannot take years. we need to move on this. So

Marilee Richins: But as far as, Is everything on hold until the completion of this project. I would say that we continue to address these case by case. Are we going to make wide range changes to titles? No we're going to see this project through. If we have individuals that

Marilee Richins: that we felt like, we Need to make some decisions on right now. Then we'll do that case by case and you work through your division director for that.

David Dyches: And Brooke is moving forward with targeted funding that that's already taking place. what we have positions identified that there will be attention paid to in the short term.

Marilee Richins: Hey, that's the end of the questions. And speak now, Or hold your peace and tell you can submit a question through the Internet. On the Internet, we will post these questions and answer and as more questions come in,

Marilee Richins: You can submit questions to Govops info at Utah.gov and we will answer those out on that employee Internet website. Marvin. Take us home.

Marvin Dodge: Wow, thank you, All of you who have joined and thanks for all the questions. We appreciate that. You have that much interest in this. As Colleen said earlier, This is the most comprehensive study of compensation that I have seen in my career. We've really want to peel back the onion and drill down into these issues. So we're grateful for the legislative funding that allows us to do this and look forward to engaging and a really robust conversation. So thank you all for participating. We wish you a happy rest of the day and the week. Thanks for all you do.

Meeting ended after 01:00:28 👋

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