To: Board of County Commissioners
Through: Patrick L. Hernandez - Human Resources Director
Prepared By:
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Dusty Sash - Total Compensation Division Manager
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presenter
Presenter: Dusty Sash - Total Compensation Division Manager
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Subject:
title
2:30 PM *Human Resources and Compensation Policy Changes
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Purpose and Request:
recommended action
The purpose of this study session is to discuss and gain approval on several total compensation policies.
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Background and Discussion: As part of the Human Capital Management (HCM) system implementation and collective bargaining, Human Resources has been looking for efficiencies in current processes and practices. While looking at the County’s time off, On-call pay, Dual Language program and our peer network, HR has created several changes for the Board of County Commissioners to review. This includes the following:
1. Compensatory Time - Current policy allows employees (in departments/offices that allow for comp time) to accumulate up to 78 hours of compensatory time. The CBA with the FOP was intentionally written to allow for 80 hours of compensatory time to accumulate. Requiring coding for separate policies and potential errors based on eligibility.
a) Request: Change policy to 80 hours of compensatory time accumulation for all employees. System and communication efficiency.
2. First and Last month accruals of Vacation and Sick paid time off - in 2017, the BOCC approved a simplified accrual for vacation and sick. If the employee works at all in the month, they receive the accrual for the whole month. However, payroll is still manually calculating a proration in the first and last month of employment for employees.
a) Request: Apply the intended policy of full accruals if you work in the month to the first and the last months. This would increase system and last paycheck efficiency.
3. Exempt Holiday, Bereavement and Jury Duty - Employees in exempt jobs are paid to do the work regardless of the time it takes to do this, not based in hours worked. However, currently these paid time off benefits are restricted to 8 hours per day and those on an alternative schedule (4-10 or 9-80) have missing time for these benefits. This has led time entry to vary significantly from team to team. Some put in 8 and others require staff to supplement with vacation. The new system can manage days off not just hours off.
a) Request: Communicate with managers and time administrators to stop requiring supplemented time.
b) Request: Refund supplemented time in 2025 back to vacation banks when it has been required up to this point.
c) Request: Use SuccessFactors to allow entry on days rather than hours for employees in exempt roles. This would increase system functionality and encourage consistent practice.
4. Court Holiday Schedule - Currently, the county observes 13 set holidays with 3 floating holidays or an equivalent Holiday bank for employees working in a 24/7 office. Neither of these schedules work well for those whose work is based on the Courts schedules, including the entire DAs Office, some in the Sheriff’s Office and some in Community Resources. In these cases, all employees in exempt roles today receive two fewer holidays and employees in non-exempt positions receive premium pay for working on those holidays. The Board of County Commissioners is required to approve Holiday schedules annually.
a) Request: Add a third holiday schedule called Court Holiday. This schedule will have 11 observed holidays and five (5) floating holidays. If the Courts are closed (situational decision by Judge), the employees on this Holiday schedule will be required to use a floating holiday, if they have one available, or take the day unpaid as they have already been paid for the day off through their use of the floating holidays.
5. On-call pay - The current policy states that the flat rate is for each day on call but does not define “a day.”
a) Request: Define a day as the 24-hour period immediately following the on-call shift start time.
6. Dual Language Testing - Current policy requires re-testing every two years. This seemed reasonable at the onset of this policy, but after two years of application, this requirement is excessive and cost prohibitive. Employees who have tested and are demonstrating this skill in their day-to-day duties don’t need to retest.
a) Request: Change the policy to only require re-testing when the supervisor requests it for any or no reason.
7. Peer Group - After two years of disruption in data sources for compensation market benchmarks, HR now has reliable data on 20 of the County’s peers, plus the State of Colorado. To do this, the counties and municipalities in the Denver/Boulder area came together to create the Colorado Public Employers Compensation (CPEC). Through this process some of our current peers are not providing data, some are delayed, but one that didn’t provide data in the past now participates and we could leverage (State of Colorado). Arapahoe County’s Senior Compensation Analyst, Julie Weaver, organized a meeting with Denver and Denver is now participating, where previously they had declined. Englewood provides data for Sworn step only. Greenwood Village and Englewood (for non-sworn jobs) will not participate. Commerce City, Wheatridge, Fort Collins and Colorado Springs are still evaluating. If they decide not to participate going forward, we will advise the Board at that time.
a) Request: Add State of Colorado to our peers and remove Englewood (exempt Sworn) and Greenwood Village from peer list. This would mean that the County would go from 26 peers to 25 peers.
b) Discussion on removing Fort Collins and Colorado Springs from the peer list. If the decision is to remove these two then the County would have 23 peers to define and inform our compensation structure.
Fiscal Impact: Dual Language Testing removal would save approximately $14,000 every other year. First and Last month accruals could result in a few hours additionally being paid out at separation. The cost of this is subject to employee behavior regarding Vacation and Sick usage, the pay rate of the employee, and the carryover limit.
Alternatives: Changes are not required. If changes are not adopted, there is the potential that efficiencies will not be achieved, consistency may not be achieved, competitiveness may not be achieved. Additionally, the Board could approve some but not all of the requests.
Alignment with Strategic Plan:
☒Be fiscally sustainable
☒Provide essential and mandated service
☐Be community focused
Staff Recommendation: N/A
Concurrence: E-team has reviewed and supports these requests. Dan Perkins has reviewed the Exempt Holiday, Bereavement and Jury Duty request.