By: Diane Benjamin
I found this payment to the company that did the study:
If this was the only payment, the City of Bloomington still got ripped off. The report they received is a worthless 9 pages.
See the report here: 2017 Hay Results
From PDF page 6 – Executive Salaries:
This is a special cut of our broad national market of over 600 companies consisting of all types of jobs from all industries and is a stable marketplace for setting compensation policies
Notice anything strange?
NATIONAL MARKET ?!?
Yes, all executives working at the City of Bloomington need national salaries. The Cost of Living here is exactly the same as in San Francisco, New York, even Chicago. (on what planet?)
They used private sector and hospitals in their survey.
The report claims they all need 11% raises.
Command Staff are on PDF page 7. Surprise, surprise! They surveyed 600 companies in a national market! They need 11% salary increases too.
Exempt employees are on PDF page 8, of course compared again to national salaries. They are obviously over-paid because most of their salary increases are less.
Finally, non-exempt employees are on the last page. Instead of comparing them to 600 nationwide companies, they used 1000!
This report is so generic the company who did it probably resold the same information over and over. It has absolutely no basis in the local reality.
Did the City Council ever see this report?
Did the City hand out raises based on this worthless information?
I believe another compensation study is being completed now. If they are paying for more worthless information they are throwing your money away again.
They should demand a refund for the June 2017 study. Instead, HR is probably patting themselves on the back for paying less than suggested while using the same to justify spiking pensions.
Yikes! Korn Ferry is a well respected organization, so I can only presume they delivered exactly was requested by their client. That may be different of course than all the free data that is actually relevant. One would presume that compensation for these roles are a matter of public record in cities across the state and even nationally.
I grew up learning that most Government “leadership” roles are not intended as a profession. They are by definition, occupied on a temporary basis by those who are elected/entrusted to represent and serve their neighbors, their community. Make a difference or make room for someone who can. Everyone else, vote.
11% is absurd, unless you want to put it where it will actually make a difference: those IN the classrooms shaping our next generation…. our teachers. How about another 11% Challenge .. to reduce taxes by that amount?
openthebooks.com has all the information they need for public salaries. Unfortunately private sector salaries aren’t included, so Bloomington would raise their to match Champaign, Decatur would raise theirs to match Bloomington etc etc etc.
Where is the non-salary compensation? Benefits such as medical, pension, 401k matching, paid time off/sick time should also be included in these study’s to calculate total comp.
You expected more for $5000+
Every, and I mean every, consultant study is an absolute waste! No matter what the industry, organization, business, etc., it’s a frickin’ waste. A consultant will do nothing but tell the organization paying for it what they want to hear. If they didn’t, they would be out of business. Why money is spent on these “studies” absolutely baffles me. But what do I know? Maybe I should become a consultant.
I would but I’m against stealing money.
I’m sure the government unions will stick this in the City’s face when the next contract comes up for renewal. “See, the City’s own commissioned study says we’re underpaid by 11%, so what’s the big deal about a 5% rise.” Tari and friends, of course, will now have cover fire to give raises to their voter base, er…I mean City employees.