Early Bird

Staff compensation and organization structure update

A project is underway to create a more robust and flexible system that rewards talent and allows MSU Denver to remain competitive.

By Angela Bender

October 3, 2019

The Metropolitan State University of Denver Office of Human Resources is developing a new compensation structure that will align with the University’s mission and recognize our most important resource: our people.

Over the past year, the HR team has been working with the compensation firm Innovative TR Solutions to restructure the University’s compensation system for professional staff. This project will address concerns across the University with regard to competitive salaries, career paths, internal professional growth, pay equity, talent retention and more flexible and transparent compensation processes to meet changing talent needs.

After extensive work over the summer, we are ready to begin transitioning to the new compensation structure and process. This transition period is critical to the success of this project as well as to its sustainability. To ensure that we are best supporting the vision and function of each area, it is our intention to meet with department leaders and allow them to review the organizational structure and provide feedback. These meetings will be held between mid-October and early November.

Following the organizational-structure meetings, HR will educate and train the campus community on our new, more modern compensation structure. It’s important that this new structure uses more than one market resource (i.e., not just College and University Professional Association), meaning we will focus on where employees sit in their salary range (as opposed to a percentage of CUPA). The completion of this project will create a more robust, competitive and flexible system that rewards talent and career growth and allows MSU Denver to be competitive in the market.

Because we want to see this project to completion, the University is freezing all reclassifications, promotions and reorganization requests through Dec. 31. This will allow the University to complete the compensation project and move to the new compensation structure Jan. 1. This decision has the full support of President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., and the senior leadership team. It will also allow staff members to look at their areas through a new lens and make necessary adjustments.

The temporary freeze may present challenges, but as the University instituted across-the-board increases Oct. 1, the HR and senior leadership teams felt this was the best time to transition. If you have a critically urgent situation that needs to be addressed, please contact the HR team for support.

Once this phase of the project is complete, we will move into Phase III in early spring and begin reviewing the faculty pay structures. More information on this phase will be available in late January.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the HR team at compproject@msudenver.edu. We promise to respond as directly as possible. Thank you in advance for your support of this important project, and stay tuned for more updates as they become available.