Exempt Compensation Plan

Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3886 (CUPE) and Royal Roads University Faculty Association (RRUFA) members are covered by compensation provisions articulated in their respective collective agreements. The compensation plan for all other employees is based on imperatives derived from the external and internal environment, chiefly the provincial government compensation mandate and the university’s financial position, while recognizing the importance or attracting and retaining an engaged and productive workforce.

Guiding Principles

RRU has identified the following guiding principles that inform the design of reward programs and the way in which compensation should be managed.

1.   Performance-Based

Rewards are linked to the performance of individuals, teams and the university’s key performance indicators. This means that employees can expect:

• Monitoring of individual and team-based performance measures via performance and development planning (PDP).
• Quarterly performance reviews where employees receive feedback on their performance and recognition for the level of contribution made.
• Annual merit pools and variable incentives that reflect the financial performance of the University.
• Accelerated merit increases for employees who are exceeding expectations on performance reviews

2.   Transparent

RRU aims to offer transparent reward programs so that employees are clear about how they will be rewarded and for what they will be rewarded. Compensation decisions will be determined by guidelines that are communicated both by Human Resources and managers.

3.   Fair and Equitable

The appropriate salary range for a job will be objectively determined based on a robust assessment of job size and complexity. RRU will apply a reliable job evaluation methodology and process to allocate jobs into grades and provide the fundamentals of internal equity. The methodology and process will be pay equity compliant to ensure equal pay opportunity for work of equal value.

4.   Aligned with the Business Model

Reward programs at RRU are aligned with and enable the university’s operating plan while being accountable to the government mandated framework. RRU has a different funding model from traditional universities and relies on its cohesive profit formula to fund its reward programs.

Compensation Plan

Base Pay

RRU views base pay as the core compensation mechanism for rewarding individuals for the work that they do and how they perform within that role. Base pay is also key to attracting and retaining high quality talent. As such, base pay is designed to reflect a balance between: the size and scope of the job;
the incumbent’s performance in that role; base pay offered in the external market for similar positions.

The impact of job size on base pay is determined using job evaluation to measure the complexity of the job and place the job into a grading structure that organizes work into groups of similarly sized jobs.

External market positioning will be incorporated into base pay using external market data to establish salary ranges for each grade. These salary ranges will be reviewed against the market annually, and adjusted as necessary to ensure that they continue to reflect the RRU Business Model.

Individual performance levels will be reflected in the rate at which individual incumbents’ progress through their salary range. On balance, the base pay of high performers (Above Plan) will progress more quickly than those of low performers (Below Plan).

Job Evaluation

RRU uses the Hay Guide Chart and Profile Method of job evaluation to measure the size and complexity of jobs. The Hay Method is the world’s most widely used job evaluation methodology. It is robust, pay equity compliant, and can be applied to all types of jobs.

The Hay methodology evaluates jobs against a set of common factors that measure inputs (required knowledge, skills, and capabilities), throughputs (processing of inputs to achieve results), and outputs (end result expectations from applying inputs constructively).

The input-throughput-output model is reflected in the Hay method as Know How, Problem Solving and
Accountability.

Know-How

To achieve the accountabilities of a job requires “Know-How” (or inputs), which is the sum total of every capability or skill, however acquired, needed for fully competent job performance. Know-How has three dimensions:

• Technical/Specialized Skills: Depth and breadth of technical or specialized knowledge needed to achieve desired results.
• Managerial Skills: The requirement to undertake managerial functions, such as planning and organizing staff or directing and controlling resources, to achieve business results over time.
• Human Resources Skills: The interpersonal skills required for successful interaction with individuals and groups, inside and outside the organization.

Problem Solving

The value of Know How is in its application to achieve results. Problem Solving (or throughputs) refers to use of Know-How to identify, delineate, and resolve problems. We “think with what we know”, so Problem Solving is viewed as utilization of Know How, and has two dimensions:

• Thinking Environment: The job’s context and the degree to which problems and solutions are defined.
• Thinking Challenge: The nature of addressable problems and the difficulty in identifying solutions that add value.

Accountability

Every job exists to add organizational value by delivering some set of results (or outputs). Accountability measures the type and level of value a job can add. In this sense, it is the job’s measured effect on an organization’s value chain. It has three dimensions:

• Freedom to Act: The degree of empowerment to take action and the guidance provided to focus decision-making.
• Scope: The business measure(s) the job is designed to positively impact.
• Impact: The nature of the job’s influence on business results.

RRU has established and trained a job evaluation committee which is accountable for determining final and binding evaluations for all staff positions at RRU. This committee collects job information through role profiles, organization charts and interviews with the relevant manager(s).

Grading Structure

The grading structure at RRU groups jobs into pay grades based on job evaluation points. Hay point ranges for the RRU grades are as follows:

Salary Ranges and Market Positioning

Salary ranges for each grade are determined through comparison against the external market. Specifically, the midpoint for each range is set at the median (P50) of the British Columbia Broader Public Sector and National Educational Institutions. The range minimum is set at 80% of this midpoint and the maximum is set at 120% of the midpoint. The salary ranges are designed to overlap, such that the pay at the top of one range is similar to the pay at the bottom of the next range.

Salary Ranges:

*Compensation for the position of President (Pay Grade 9) is determined by the PSEC guidelines and as approved by the RRU Board of Governors.

Salary Ranges for Recruitment Purposes

To ensure internal equity and reduce compression, salary ranges for recruitment purposes will be from the range minimum (80%) to the midpoint (100%). Application to pay over the midpoint for a new employee will require approval of the HR Steering Committee.