SR 06:110 - Laserfiche WebLink

UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROJECT The City of Pleasanton desires consultant assistance to conduct a total market salary survey of its Management/Confidential Employee Representation Unit that consists of 52 classifications. In 2005, a staff report was presented to Council regarding salary increases based upon the traditional methodology of comparing City classifications to other appropriate comparator city agencies. There was public concern expressed regarding using only public agencies in developing salary recommendations. A decision was made to conduct a market salary survey that uses both public and private salary data. The scope of work, as identified in the Request for Proposal, includes a total compensation market survey (salary and benefits) using a core of up to twenty-two comparator agencies (currently being used by the City) as well as appropriate private sector employers for inclusion in the study. Not specifically identified in the RFP is whether the study should limit itself to only those classifications that can be found both within private as well as public agencies (for example, Director of Finance, Engineer, Attorney, Information Services Manager) or whether the study should be more extensive and also include classifications that would be found only in public agencies (for example Director of Library Services, Fire and Police, Building Official). We think it useful to share our experience when conducting "public/private organizational salary studies" so that your organization will be knowledgeable and understand the different outcomes of the study, depending upon the selected methodology utilized before beginning the process. Option One It is assumed that the objective of this study is to determine if the City's compensation program is competitive with the private sector. Assuming that specific objective is the primary reason for conducting this study, it would be suggested to consider limiting the scope of this project to include only those classifications that can reasonably be expected to be found in both public agencies and private companies. In this way, the study (and the representative sample of benchmark classifications) would be used as a litmus test to determine the competitiveness of the City's salaries overall. Even using a very select number of classifications, the study will still not be exactly an "apples to apples" comparison for two reasons. Using private organizations as comparators is difficult because it is highly unlikely to find matches in EACH comparator organization for ALL benchmark classifications, even if there are only a limited number. For example, it may be fairly easy to find KOFF & ASSOCIATES, INC.