TBEDC

The Tennessee Basic Economic Development Course is a week-long training program for anyone involved in economic development from across the state. This year's course was held in Nashville in May. City and county mayors participated as well as individuals from chambers, development districts and other organizations.

Andre Temple served as course director and did an outstanding job coordinating all the logistics including 25 difference instructors the class heard from throughout the week. Beth Phillips and Donna Bridges provided outstanding support to Andre throughout the week.

The graduation ceremony was conducted on Friday. I heard outstanding reviews and remarks from the participants. Job well done!

Compensation Plan - Part Three

The UT president formed a Compensation Advisory Board last year. I am the IPS representative on the board. One of the tasks of the board is to update the total compensation plan for the university. We contracted with SIBSON consulting firm to conduct the market analysis for the university.

The consulting firm is in the data gathering stage. They are meeting with each campus and institute to learn about the unique challenges for each entity. IPS formed a Market Analysis Team to help prepare for our meeting. The team consists of me, Judie Martin (HRO), Gail White (CBO), Bonnie Jones (representative from the HR Strategy Team) and Steve Thompson (representative from the leadership team.)

The team gathered historical data on the IPS compensation plan including our salary schedule, point plan and other relevant data. We also gathered market analysis data that included every new hire since 2005. In addition, we looked at all offers turned down and all turnovers in the last two years. All these data give us information about our market competitiveness.

Our team was the first to meet with the consultants on May 17. They were impressed with the amount of data gathering we had already completed and went through a list of good questions. If you are interested in seeing our responses,visit the Strategy Team SharePoint site. Click on the Human Resources folder and then the Market Analysis folder. We marked our responses as draft so that we can continue to collect input.

We expect a preliminary report in June and a final report in August. I'll keep everyone updated on our progress.

TGMI

Hopefully you have heard of the Tennessee Government Management Institute by now since we have been conducting this annual program on behalf of state government since 2000.

This year's class met for their first week in Knoxville May 8-13. I gave the class an overview of IPS during their Monday luncheon. President DiPietro talked to them about his perspectives on leadership during their Wednesday luncheon.

Bonnie and Josh Jones made a presentation on social media Wednesday afternoon. Keith Groves gave a presentation on Lean Government Wednesday morning. Macel Ely walked them through working across the generations on Friday. There were many other interesting sessions during the week including a team building exercise at Cove Lake.

This year's class includes representatives from across state government. In addition the the leadership and management development part of the program, they are getting good exposure to UT and IPS. Tom Kohntopp is leading our efforts with the state. Week two is coming up in June.

Compensation Plan - Part Two

Last week I wrote a blog about how we evaluate the credentials you bring to the job above the minimum requirements. So, what comes next? Here's a partial repost of last year's blog on the topic.

The method for calculating what we call the "target salary" is the same for every job family. We subtract the minimum salary from the midpoint salary for each pay grade. This number is divided by 10. The result gives us the value of each point. Your total points are multiplied by the value of each point. This number is then added to the minimum salary for the pay grade and voila - we have your target salary.

Every employee should understand how your points are calculated and thus how we arrive at your target salary. Our goal is to get 100% of our employees to their target salary. We started this process about a decade ago. We've had some good budget years and some lean budget years. We've made progress, but we still have a ways to go. We were hundreds of thousands of dollars below market in 2000 with virtually no employee at his/her target. We are working on a new salary schedule and an update to our plan, so it will be several months before we have new projections.

We are anticipating the legislature will approve the governor's proposal for an across the board increase. In addition, we are evaluating the possibility of awarding market and merit increases. More to come on this as the budget unfolds.

Student Government Day in Roane County

Each year Roane County government hosts a Student Government Day. Students from area high schools are elected to serve as county executive, judge, etc. for the day. They attend meetings and shadow their government employee for the day. County Executive Ron Woody invited IPS to participate in this year's opening ceremony.

MTAS Executive Director Steve Thompson spoke to the group about the value of education and the value of participation in public service whether through running for office, working for government or simply voting.

Thanks to Steve for representing us well!

Compensation Plan - Part One

In a recent meeting with the HR/Diversity Strategy Team someone suggested I blog about the IPS compensation plan. I actually did this last year, so here's a repost of part of the blog. The first step in our process is writing the job description, aka PDQ.

The second step in the compensation process is comparing an individual's qualifications to the qualifications of their particular position. We evaluate three primary factors including education, experience and other credentials. We've developed a ten point scale (that varies slightly for a few positions) where you can earn one point for education beyond the minimum required on the PDQ, eight points for experience beyond the minimum required, and one point for other credentials. All these factors must be job related. For example, if you have three years experience in retail prior to becoming a city manager and subsequently an MTAS management consultant, the three years in retail would not count as job related experience above the minimum required for the position.

Once each individual is evaluated, the total number of points earned is calculated. An individual could have anywhere from 0 - 10 points above the minimum. This calculation positions us for the next step in the compensation process.

Judie Martin works with agencies every year to keep our point calculations current. It is important that you keep your supervisor informed when you earn an additional degree or a designation such as CPA. We just completed this process for 2011, so if you have not seen your points calculation - ASK FOR IT!

Can we use Baldrige?

I subscribe to the Baldrige Blog and this interesting piece recently appeared. Basically, two federal government agencies were trying to prove that Baldrige is a good fit for government. Here's a summary of their findings:

STRENGTHS
•The Criteria are time tested, and results are proven.
•Receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is a thrill for the workforce, and the workforce becomes even more engaged and committed to the agency and its mission, vision, and values.
•Organizations that adopt the Criteria become learning organizations.
•The feedback from applying for the Baldrige Award comes from the "world's best consultants" at an extremely nominal fee (less expensive than almost all management consulting).

WEAKNESSES
•There is an incorrect mindset that Baldrige does not apply to government agencies.
•It is hard to capture immediate return on investment.
•There are a lack of role models and benchmarking opportunities among nonprofits.
•Leaders often change in federal agencies, with different leaders valuing performance excellence and Baldrige differently from other leaders.

OPPORTUNITIES
•Great opportunities exist in the feedback received and the chance to stand out among agencies as being stewards for taxpayer money.
•The President or his delegate recognizes Baldrige Award recipients as national role models.
•The Baldrige Criteria force an agency to become data-driven and a quality organization.

THREATS
•Other federal agencies may become jealous when one agency receives this Presidential honor.
•You make yourself transparent (not necessarily a threat) and expose organizational weaknesses.
•Bureaucracies are not very good at sharing best practices.
•Money does need to be spent on benchmarking, and budgets can be cut.
•Some agencies say they are too busy (however, Umber said that once the agency becomes more efficient with Baldrige, you find more space).

Based on this business case, what do you think?

We are beginning the Baldrige process in IPS. I hope we see these outstanding results!

Flying to the Moon

Participants in the IPS Leadership Academy recently spent an afternoon at the Challenger Center in Chattanooga. Yes, in deed, they made a successful trip to the moon. In addition to this experience, the group participated in a series of team building activities that helped us learn more about our work styles and have a little fun in the process.

The group also spent a day learning about "Strengths-Based Leadership" and a half-day touring the UTC campus and reporting on the status of our agency Baldrige projects. Ask your agency academy participants about their experience!

IPS Intern Program

IPS is launching a Statewide Intern program this summer and you can help spread the word!


We have traditionally hired undergraduates, graduate assistants and an occasional post-graduate intern, but we have never had a comprehensive program. MTAS and CTAS are cooperating to launch this initiative. We have several universities who are partnering with us including UT Knoxville, UT Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Middle Tennessee State, Tennessee State and the University of Memphis.

Students will apply for intern positions through their academic home department, and MTAS and CTAS are recruiting cities and counties to hire the interns. This is a great way to grow the public sector work force of the future. And, who knows? Some of them might come back to IPS as consultants one day!

For more information contact Steve Thompson (steve.thompson@tennessee.edu) or Jon Walden (jon.walden@tennessee.edu).