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K-State Today

March 31, 2017

Total Rewards takes next step

Submitted by President Richard Myers

Dear K-Staters,

Next week, our university takes another step to implement Total Rewards. There have been many discussions and questions, with a tremendous amount of work accomplished. We continue to hear that adopting a formal salary structure for our staff members has caused some angst within the organization. This is a natural response to change, but not one that should keep us from moving forward.

At the core, Total Rewards is about becoming more professional and formalized in how we manage and compensate our workforce. The first step is to create a structure and see where people fit. This is where we are now.

On Monday, most university professional staff and university support staff employees will receive a letter with their personal Total Rewards information. Please note we are still involved in the meet and confer process with Kansas Association of Public Employees for maintenance and service employees covered by our agreement, so those employees will not receive their letters until that process is finalized.

This information will be routine for most of you, and for some there may be questions. We have stated many times that no one will have their pay reduced as a result of this study. Our first priority will be to address employees who are below the minimum in their grades, which will take some time due to budget constraints.

Another source of concern has been compression in salaries. The first task is to define and understand the issue, then we will work as a university family to address it. Human Capital Services offers training for working with salary grades, and will roll out tools to assist with reclassification and salary increase requests. Again, we all know about the current budget situation and hope to have more specifics this summer.

The structure will become official in fiscal year 2018. If you have questions, please work with your supervisor to get answers. While this is new to Kansas State University, we are following best practices that have been in place for years in other organizations and that will allow us to be more accurate when assigning titles and pay.

We still have some work to do, and I ask all of you to help with this important step forward.

Richard B. Myers
President

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