Past Issues:

November 2002
October 2002

Reinforcing the College's commitment
to Trinity's outstanding and dedicated administrative staff

Over the last several months, Trinity has conducted a comprehensive review of salaries and benefits for administrative staff members who perform office, department, and technical support work. The results of that review were shared over the last three weeks with administrative staff in public meetings and in personal letters to each employee. The most important outcome of the review is a new salary program that has been designed to reinforce the College’s commitment to our outstanding and dedicated administrative staff by responding to two key concerns. 

The first concern the program addresses is that some salaries of longer-term staff may lag behind salaries of shorter-term staff in the same kind of jobs—a phenomenon known as salary compression. The second issue is that progress through the salary ranges for certain staff members has slowed in recent years because increases in the ranges have been almost as large as annual salary increases—a concern about the rate of salary progression.

To address these issues, the review proceeded to:

•  Analyze compensation data from similar colleges and Hartford area employers.

•  Review the salary programs of other colleges, both union and non-union. 

•  Make a preliminary review of position questionnaires that were recently completed by staff members.

•  Analyze the relationship of each staff member’s salary to time-in-grade to determine if some salaries do not bear an appropriate relationship to time-in-grade as compared to other salaries.  

As administrative staff have now each been informed, the resulting compensation program has several components designed in time to benefit all non-exempt administrative staff in the secretarial, clerical, and technical job categories. Some employees will be affected immediately by the changes in the new compensation plan and will realize increases in their hourly rates as a result of special compression adjustments. The adjustments are intended to bring staff members to an appropriate position in the salary range pertaining to time-in-grade and are retroactive to September 1, 2002.

Effective July 1, 2003, the plan provides for:

•  Annual market increases based on market factors such as competitive salary data, inflation, and other considerations includingTrinity’s financial resources.

•  Annual pay-for-performance progression increases for those whose performance meets or exceeds expectations.

•  Lump sum bonuses, determined on a year-to-year basis, for those with meritorious performance whose salaries are at the maximum of grade.

While many employees had immediate adjustments to their salaries, all employees should benefit from the new plan this upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2003. This new program also will benefit all administrative staff in the future in making steady progress through the pay grade, maintaining a competitive salary, and rewarding meritorious performance. Going forward, a representative committee will spend the next two months reviewing individual job descriptions for the purposes of producing more generic categories to assist in making more accurate comparisons and establishing dependable benchmarks for further analysis. A comprehensive review of benefits will also take place over the course of the coming year.

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