Compensation Study Services

The Vendor is required to provide consultants to conduct a comprehensive classification and compensation study and analysis to address recruiting, retention, and total compensation.
- The compensation study designed by July 2026, recognizing that full implementation is subject to budget restrictions and approval.
- Provides employees with a total compensation package of pay and benefits, which is, within our ability to pay, comparable to other counties and private employers in our community.
- The County has approximately 166 full-time employee positions filled, and approximately 13 part-time employees.
- Work will include, but not limited to, a process which includes the following:
•    Study and evaluate full time positions (class/position description) for purposes of determining the proper classification and salary. Meet with department heads, human resources, and an identified sample of employees regarding job duties as needed. Assess any equity concerns that may arise, including differences in work hours, work week, etc.
•    Conduct a comprehensive salary study to determine if the salaries offered by county are competitive within the appropriate job market. The current market survey data or survey to be conducted will include the collection and summary of data from an agreed upon set of participants, both public and private, or other survey sources.
•    Review and analyze existing compensation philosophy. Make recommendations for updates and/or changes to existing policies, practices, and other information which aligns with the county’s operations, competitive outlook, and compliments our vision to be the employer of choice.
•    Identify existing market data sources and with the assistance of the internal team determine market references for benchmark jobs.
•    Conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current compensation program and make recommendations for improvement and suggest plans to address issues including but not limited to target comparison market, internal equity assessment, competitive salary analysis, index or standards for cost-of-living comparison, compression, and strategies for critical skill recruitment and retention.
•    Analyze existing compensation, identify recommendations for review and propose implementation methods to address issues/concerns.
•    Recommend compensation levels, range spread, and range placement for positions based on market survey and internal analysis, including the sheriff’s office step plan.
•    Review our salary structure and pay plan to ensure the county can support recruitment and retention of employees more effectively.
•    Together, the selected consultant and the internal team will develop a detailed outline for implementation, develop training and informational vehicles for the ongoing administration of the plan.
•    Throughout the process, the county will assist the selected consultant with appropriate employee communications.
•    Recommend pay progression methods to include sound practices to prevent salary bypassing and mitigate pay compression. Implementation recommendations must address any pay equity issues discovered as part of this compensation analysis.
•    Evaluate and recommend hiring rate policies for external hires and for internal promotions. Provide salary offer guidelines to facilitate increased fairness in determining hiring rates based on a candidate’s qualifications and within budgetary contraints.
•    Must be based upon sound compensation principles in which both internal and external equity are considered within the pay structure as well as the concepts of equal pay for equal work, equal pay for similar work, and equal pay for comparable work.
•    Attend meetings, if requested, throughout the process with employees, the county administrator and/or designated staff, and the board to explain the methodology, survey results, and recommendations.
•    Prepare a written final report of recommendations, including a discussion of methods.