FAQ
Frequently asked questions about View2022.
Frequently Asked Questions
You have multiple resources available to connect and learn more about View2022. The most successful order to find more info would be; this website (FAQs below), your direct supervisor and leadership within your area, your HR Partner, or HR Service Coordinators, then the Compensation team.
This page will continue to be updated to address common questions as they come up.
View2022 FAQ
It is common for employers to periodically review and update their human resource processes and systems. At the University, it has been many years since we’ve holistically reviewed our classification and compensation system. A new job classification and compensation system will help the University achieve four goals:
- Attract and retain qualified employees
- Provide fair salaries for all workers at UM
- Provide clearer paths for staff career growth and advancement
- Provide a salary structure to enable UM to be competitive with other employers and higher education institutions over the long term
This classification and compensation study looks at how the University defines and groups staff jobs and determines the appropriate pay for them. The study draws upon internal information, like our current job descriptions and pay structure, feedback from current employees, but also looks at external information like salary data and approaches taken by other universities. The study will produce recommendations for new job categories, pay grades, and pay administration policies. Ultimately, the study will help us understand how our compensation levels compare to regional and higher-education employers and ensure that our compensation levels are competitive. The goal is to build a sustainable, competitive, and consistent compensation structure.
The project is focused on classified, professional, administrative (staff) positions. The University currently has more than 1,200 active job descriptions for these types of positions. See breakout below for groups that fall within scope of this project:
- Outside of Scope
- EEO1 Executives
- Faculty
- Researchers
- Coaches
- Librarians with academic rank
- Within Scope
- Non-exempt, hourly staff members
- Exempt, salaried staff members (not listed as unclassified above)
View2022 looked at the university’s compensation levels compared to the marketplace locally, regionally and nationally, within public higher education (nearly 60 universities), and in some cases general industry. In the end, we want to use data comparable to the market where we compete for talent.
Leadership and staff members from all levels of the university have been engaged and involved in the synthesis of this new structure. Please visit https://hr.olemiss.edu/compensation/contacts-project-teams/ for a full list of project participants and engagement opportunities.
The level of work within a career track is in reference to its relative complexity, scope of work, leadership responsibilities, etc… A helpful resource in understanding individual career levels will be the Dimension Guide available on the View 2022 Resources Page.
View2022 creates new structures and processes for setting and adjusting pay. The goal is to build clear, data-based compensation program that can be consistently replicated to serve our staff’s compensation. Pay adjustments will be a likely output of this goal, although not all employees will be recommended for an adjustment.
This study will look at the University’s compensation levels compared to the marketplace locally, regionally and nationally, within public higher education, and in some cases general industry. It will provide insight into how our salaries compare. One overarching goal has been and will continue to be to provide a structure that enables our employees to have competitive pay.
After the creation of new View 2022 profiles defining all the work our staff carries out, we depended on individual unit leadership to help us map employees to these profiles. Going forward, we’ll always depend on unit leadership to help us navigate View 2022 placement and progression for our staff.
An employee’s View 2022 profile should describe an employee’s core work, the functional focus of their work. It provides a starting place for the analysis of compensation.
University Human Resources is leading this project. Bryce Drew, the University’s Manager of Compensation and Jody Bevill the University Compensation Specialist will be the primary point of contacts. Leadership and staff members from all levels of the University have been engaged and involved in the synthesis of this new structure. Please visit the View2022 Project Participants page for a full list of project participants and engagement opportunities.
Yes. Transparency is a guiding principle for the overall project. This website will serve as the central location for all up to date information. As View2022 progresses, many communication channels will be used to share information and updates including UM today messages, the Red and Blue employee e-newsletter, in-person meetings, zoom sessions, Open forums, HR website updates, and town halls meetings, among other channels. We will also rely on engagement from all employees. Please share all information as it becomes available across your respective teams and peers and as always reach out to HR if you have any questions.
You can be confident that your compensation is based on data and reason. We will compare your set of responsibilities to those who perform that same type of work in the market at large and calculate your compensation based on that data. This program will reduce inconsistency, inequity, and lack of definition in the way we compensate our employees.
- A general or automatic university-wide pay adjustment
- An effort to reduce headcount
- Specific reorganization of departments or re-structuring of the University’s hierarchy
- An employee-specific or unit/department performance review
HR Compensation has not communicated with employees directly on their placement within the structure. The implementation plan has employees being notified closer to go live (October 2024) through 2 channels. MyOleMiss Link and through their supervisors. Specifics will be shared through open forums in July / August, as well as direct communication via email, UMToday. Please connect with your supervisors first for any questions!
We want to base your View 2022 profile on the majority of your work. At times where there is a true even split between roles, we’ll want to base your View 2022 on the more complex of those roles. In either case, we’ll then reward that employee within our much larger pay range for taking on that extra work.
The appeals process will begin with an employee’s supervisor. If additional guidance is needed, HR business partners/employee relations representatives can be consulted.
Yes, all supervisors will have access to it via Box and will be encouraged to have conversations with their employees.
Identification of compression issues will be department specific and may be addressed beginning with Phase II in 2025.
Phase 1 of View 2022 implementation will take place in October 2024. Its focus will be to ensure that all our staff employees have market relevant pay. After this phase, our staff employees will all be in the proper pay grade for the work they perform.
Phase 2 of View 2022 Implementation will begin in January 2025. This phase of View 2022 will be ongoing. Its focus will be to ensure our employees’ compensation is market competitive. After this phase, our staff will all be in the proper range for the work they perform and the proper quartile of that range based on their consistent contribution, tenure, experience, etc....
For Phase 1, the university has more than $3.5 million in central funds budgeted for Phase 1. Phase II involves shared costs across departmental budgets and available central funding.
Employees in areas with external funding (grants, contracts, etc.) and/or other factors may have a different View2022 implementation timeline than outlined in Phase I and II.
Movement through our grade structure within View 2022 will be based on foundational changes in work, either the level of or type of work being performed. Each View 2022 profiles is linked to a particular grade. An employee would likely have perform wholly new or different work to change grades within the structure.
Movement through your pay grade and into each of its four quartiles will be based on the employee’s consistent contribution within the tasks they’re assigned along with that employee’s tenure, experience, training, unit structure, etc… Generally, as the level of an employee’s consistent contribution increases, their unit will have the ability to reward them by moving them through each quartile of their pay grade.