Union City Council Feb. 21 approved a Pay and Classification Study designed to help recruit and retain city employees. The study will be conducted by Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC).

Set to begin immediately and be completed and presented in May, ARC Governmental Services Division Chief Kelly Brownlow said the two-part study would include a classification component and a compensation component. The study is a result of the November approval by the council to have ARC compile the information. The city’s most recent pay and classification study, also conducted by ARC, was performed in 1996. The cost of the study was estimated at $9,700 or $50 per employee.

Study goals include producing revised, enhanced and/or new standardized job descriptions, updating pay scales, estimating the cost of implementing the new system and establishing a performance evaluation process recommendation.

Brownlow said development of the classification component and any new job classifications will be aided by questionnaires to be completed by all city employees. Those results, combined with information to be provided by department managers and other sources, will lead to development of the classification component.

Development of the compensation component, said Brownlow, will be based on a survey that uses a job-to-job approach rather than one based on a salary-to-salary comparison. ARC will use information gathered from pay rates established in other cities in the area. The information developed in the compensation component will be shared first with the mayor and council, she said.

The study will not include benefits, Brownlow said in response to a question from the council, because of the difficulty involved with equating benefits to pay rates.

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