01-08-1990 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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management The Lowerihg'of the Raises^ has died down, but Bramson remains sensitive to the ^'^^We^don ’t claim that the system is in polished form, .he savs "We’re learning every year and improving and changing. It’s bloody at the moment use of local politics. And it’s a philosophical issue, too. We in the ibhc S:tor have put a higher value on ^uity than on performance; it’s an issue of organi^tional culture. The organizational culture m Hillsborough may be changing more than many suspect. A study of county salaries bv an outside consultant is expected to recommei^ diat the -ntire payroll be moved to a performance-based system \t this earlv stage in its life as a management tool for the public sector, puv for performance is generating an array of e.xperimental variations. Biloxi didn’t want to abandon the familiar ground of step increases altogether, so ft kept them as a framework but gave managers permission to award multip e steps for high performance. Scottsdale chose to be bolder: It budgets one lump-sum amount for pay increases and leaves it to managers to allocate that amount among individuals, with no limit at all on individual raises. Still in the planning stage in several plac« is the idea of "lightning bonuses, immediate cash rewards for good work that are completely separate from the regular annual review. Another pro vocative idea is the two-tiered system, in which a government places its newly h.red employees on pay for perform ance and encourages senior employees to sign up for it voluntarily. But whatever the details of an indi vidual plan, all pay-for-performance schemes face one problem. They are no stronger than the evaluation system used to justify the disparity in annual compensation. Even where such a sys tem is not loved, it must be accept^ as fair in design and objective in practice. Favoritism, whether real or perceived, is fatal. Still, it is hard to avoid, especially when the employees involved are not doing the sort of measurable work that A Barry Stevens does in Michigan. A manager cannot reasonably evaluate a [ social worker, a clerk at the Depart ment of Motor Vehicles and a public information officer by the number of - clients seen, licenses issued or press releases written. A degree of subjectiv ity is inevitable, even in the fairest , equator, and with it the issue of favoritism always creeps in. Xttortaia (Mart The most devout believers in pay for performance imist they can assess performance in a fair way even where numbers are irrelevant. “I can measure how things are going in the Department of Motor Vehicles by calling up and asking a question.” says New Jersey s Charles N^ry. "Their response to mv question tells me a lot about what s going on over there. Are they helpful? .\re they con cerned? Or do they put me on hold?" But not all employees have quite so much confidence in that type of evaluation. .\nd equally important, not all managers in state and local government feel comfortable making it. , . r. . ^ » When .\urora. Colorado, made its first run at a Annual percentage salary increases for state government employees during the past decade #197? >80 " GOVERNING December 1989 31