More on Compensation

I have written several blog posts about the IPS compensation plan and the system-wide compensation advisory board's work. The Market Analysis subcommittee is working with a consulting firm to gather current market data since we have not updated our salary schedule since 2007. We anticipate doing so later this year.


I thought it would be good to report on our progress after the recent round of salary increases. Across the entire institute 82.9% of our employees are at or above their target salary based on the current salary schedule. Another 14.6% are between 90 and 99% of their target salary. 2.5% are below 90%. We have been working for more than a decade with very limited resources to make our salaries more competitive. We have made significant progress.

When we receive an updated salary schedule I'm sure we will see that we have fallen behind again, but I'm hoping it will not be as significant a gap as we saw in the late 1990's when we had so much improvement to make. We will continue to make total compensation a priority across the institute so that we can attract, retain and reward the best employees. This is consistent with our goal to be "the employer of choice" in public service.

Board of Trustees Action

Several exciting things happened at last week's board meeting.

First, Marty Spears, CTAS County Government Consultant, was named the new IPS representative to the Research, Outreach, and Economic Development Committee of the board. Thanks to Sharon Rollins, MTAS Program Manager, for her previous service.

Second, the board approved the UT budget, which of course includes the IPS budget. Overall, it is a good, solid budget. We're on an encouraging path forward.

Third, the board approved the salary increase plan for UT including the IPS plan. Details are included in an IPS-wide email, but the 2% across the board for all employees performing at a satisfactory level is very much appreciated.

Several other actions were approved by the board during the two day meeting, but these are the three that most significantly impact IPS.

Salary Increases

Employees who follow my blog will be the first to know!

Last week you received an e-mail from President Joe DiPietro regarding the 2 percent across-the-board salary increase for UT employees and this week the UT Board of Trustees approved the budget. Each campus and institute has developed a compensation plan that suits the particular entity.

After several years without increases, I’m extremely pleased to announce our plan for 2011- 2012. We will be giving three types of salary increases – across-the-board, market/equity adjustments and merit adjustments.

• The 2% across-the-board increase is for everyone who had satisfactory performance last year (at least a 3.0 out of 5.0 on the last annual performance review). The minimum increase will be $1,000; this will be pro-rated for part-time employees. This increase will appear in employees’ July paychecks.

• The market/equity adjustments are for staff members who are not at their target salary and who scored at least a 3.0 on the APR. These adjustments will appear in the August paychecks.

• The merit increase is available only to employees who scored greater than 3.0 on the annual performance review. These employees will see one of three tiers of increases based on their APR rating.

Agency directors will begin communicating increase information soon and every employee will receive a letter with the new annual salary.

Thanks for your continued outstanding work!

Budget Update

We had our first budget hearing with new President Dr. Joe DiPietro recently and were very pleased with the feedback. Because this was our first budget meeting with Dr. DiPietro, we pulled together quite a bit of background information on IPS, our workforce, customer measurements and of course financial specifics.


All of you are aware of the economic woes and budget constraints we’ve experienced for the last few years. However, thanks to everyone’s efforts we have survived reasonably well and things are looking much better. Because of cuts in the state budget over the years, IPS relies more on local appropriations, fees and program income, and gift revenues. IPS maximizes the impact of state funds by leveraging every $1 of state appropriation to produce $1.62 of additional funds.

Dr. DiPietro and the UT Treasurer’s office are also well aware that IPS along with parts of the Institute of Agriculture and UT Health and Science Center, are unable to use a tuition increase to raise funds. We had a good discussion during our meeting about the possibility of crafting an outcomes-based formula for state funding, along the lines of the formula used by the state to compute funding for academic campuses.

IPS revenues and expenses are expected to be approximately $22.5 million in FY 2012, down approximately seven percent from FY11 because of the loss of stimulus funds, which we had accounted for all along. You can find additional detailed information on the IPS Intranet site under the budget tab. The budget must be approved by the UT board of trustees before it is official.

Thank you again for your efforts in helping IPS come through these last few years without having to sacrifice the top-notch service we provide to our customers.

Professional Development

Professional development plays an important role in keeping each of us current with the knowledge, skills and abilities we need to perform at a high level. IPS requires a minimum of 32 hours of professional development per year. There are several training programs going on throughout IPS.

Judie Martin runs our supervisors' training program. Every supervisor is required to attend a half-day session per quarter. During the first quarter we learned about conducting effective performance reviews. During the second quarter we learned about diversity in the work place. Two additional sessions are being planned for our 40 supervisors.

Sixteen employees from across IPS are participating in the IPS Leadership Academy. We finished two sessions last year in Townsend and Martin. This year we have visited Chattanooga and we will also visit Tullahoma and Memphis before the end of the year. The class is divided into teams and each is working on a Baldrige application as the class project.

These two programs involve about half our staff. We are nearly half way through the year - are you working your plan?

Leading in Today's (crazy) World

I recently received a newsletter from Ackermann Public Relations firm*. They had a really nice article on leading that I thought was worth repeating here:

The challenging times in which we find ourselves call for today's business leaders to stretch beyond their comfort zones. Several recent research studies show that strong and effective leaders do the following:

* They Know Themselves - they understand their leadership style and how to optimize their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses. They are honest with themselves in this regard.
* They Focus on Outcomes - they help their teams prioritize and stay focused on what matters most.
* They Listen - they practice "active listening" and ask lots of questions. They also emphasize and reframe issues when necessary.
* They Understand Their Audiences - they are able to identify with their audiences and put themselves in their customers' and their employees' shoes.
* They Know Their Role - they understand that their job is to help put things in context and to motivate desired behavior.
* They Understand the "New Normal" - they provide an optimistic yet realistic view of the future, based on an accurate reading of the present.
* They Understand That the Intangibles Matter - they look beyond the obvious and try to understand and respond to the more subtle, intangible needs of their audiences and stakeholders.
* They are Short on Hype and Long on Consistency - their communication is regular, constant and positively repetitive.
* They Take Care of Their Best People - they help their brightest performers grow and don't expend energy on negative people and non-performers.

Are you practicing good leadership skills?

*Ackermann pr, 111 Northshore Drive, Suite N-400, Knoxville, TN 37919, www.ackermannpr.com

ARRA Funds for IPS

When the state announced two years ago that is was cutting our state appropriation but providing us with ARRA funds to help us plan for the upcoming permanent cut, IPS invested the money in strategic hires and projects to help pave the way.

Visit the IPS Intranet here for details. In summary, MTAS hired three positions in anticipation of future retirements. CTAS developed two new training programs and a resource database that will serve counties well into the future. LEIC transitioned from a Y-12 "loaned" Executive Director to a permanent director and CIS invested in new product development. We also invested funds to study the impacts and ramifications of the automotive restructuring on Tennessee's economy so that we can help transition the supply chain.

Overall, the investment of these funds has been successful. We are not making any lay-offs and we have structured our services and delivery mechanisms to maximum our efficiency and effectiveness. Congratulations to all the staff who helped manage our organization through this transition.

Leadership Retreat

I took the two assistant vice presidents and five agencies heads on a retreat last week in Townsend. We spent a day and a half focusing on Trust, Curiosity and Veracity. This particular group had never met as a group which is hard to believe considering all the meetings we have!

At any rate, we thought it important to reflect on how well we work together and what we can learn from each other if we are expected to lead the institute to a better future. In addition to the above mentioned topics, we revisited the notion of what we value individually and as an institute. It should come as no surprise that we all agreed individually and then collectively that integrity and quality are at the top of our list of values.

We also agreed that we need to revisit our mission and vision statements and conduct a fresh SWOT analysis. This is perfect timing as we work on the third year of our current five year plan. We will discuss how to go about this process and share additional information as we move forward.

I left the retreat encouraged by our open and honest conversation and I look forward to a stronger and more effective leadership team.

Roadblocks and Winning Strategies

I recently received a newsletter from Ackermann Public Relations firm* that included a list of helpful hints for new businesses development that I think also apply to IPS. We have regular turn-over of elected officials and manufacturing managers, so really we are starting over with them as "new" customers. What do you think?

Roadblocks:
Lack of adequate resources - not putting the necessary time, money and/or people behind your new business generation efforts.
Lack of focus and discipline - being too reactive as opposed to proactive; failing to have a true business development plan that is based on a well-researched and consistently implemented strategy.
No prospect identification - not going after prospects who have been identified as receptive to your marketing messages and in need to your company's products or services.
Random pitching - not being selective in terms of how you spend your time and resources pitching new business.
Unclear or non-existent positioning - not offering a truly differentiated marketplace positioning; not giving our prospects a clear reason to choose you over your competitors.

Winning Strategies:
The right team - paying attention to the importance of having great chemistry with the prospect and putting a team in place to assure that.
Research - doing your homework in advance to give you deep insight into the needs and preferences of your targets and then forming a careful "capture plan" around that.
Strategy - understanding the critical intersection of your prospect's needs and your company's expertise and putting a sound strategy in place that reflects that.
Creativity - going beyond the usual, "tired and true" approaches and offering your prospect a truly new and better mousetrap.
Desire - if you really want the business, don't hesitate to tell your prospect that. Don't be afraid to express your "blatant eagerness."



*Ackermann pr, 111 Northshore Drive, Suite N-400, Knoxville, TN 37919, www.ackermannpr.com