What is Career Tracks?
A new classification system designed to appropriately classify and group positions into job families that more accurately reflect job duties. The process of moving jobs from the current classification into Career Tracks is referred to as mapping.
Who will be affected by Career Tracks?
Staff who are not represented by unions and are not part of the Senior Management Group will be migrated to the Career Tracks system.
Why is Career Tracks being implemented?
Our current classification system is built on UC systemwide classifications that have become outdated. Career Tracks will more accurately reflect current job duties within job fields and families and will more closely match the labor market. This will set the foundation for a fair, objective classification and compensation system going forward. Job titles and salary ranges at UC Merced will more closely reflect the labor market.
Why Career Tracks? Specifically, why didn’t Human Resources bring job descriptions up to date and then ensure that each position was accurately classified in to one of the title codes? It seems as if mapping according to incumbents’ current job description won’t ensure they are accurately mapped.
Job descriptions were not the only basis for mapping. Mapping was done in consultation with managers and supervisors. If a job description is not accurate, it is the supervisor’s responsibility to bring it up to date. HR consulted with departments to make sure their employees were appropriately mapped. We also acknowledge that during the course of the mapping, some individuals’ job changed after they were mapped. There will be a reconsideration process beginning July 1, 2012. A supervisor will be able to create an updated job description using the new Job Builder tool and submit it for review during the reconsideration process if it is believed a position is not appropriately classified.
How will Career Tracks affect employees?
Each employee will be assigned a new job title that is part of a designated job field and family. (Example: The field of Student Services has 11 different job families including Academic Achievement Counseling, Admissions/Recruitment, Career Services, Financial Aid, Student Life and Development to name a few.)
Will employees lose any vacation or other benefits as a result of Career Tracks?
No, there will be no reduction in pay or loss of benefits as a result of Career Tracks.
Is there a timeline for implementation?
Yes. Career Tracks was initially planned for implementation July 1, 2012. However, due to competing workload demands created by the UCPath project, the bi-weekly payroll conversion and fiscal year close, HR was asked to delay implementation until Oct. 1, 2012.
Shouldn't managers/supervisors be given the mapping of their staff prior to this being implemented?
Yes. On July 2, 2012, final mapping was distributed to the deans, vice chancellors, assistant and associate vice chancellors, who in turn provided managers and supervisors with the mapping of their staff.
Will staff be able to review the classification change before it goes into effect and how will they be informed?
Employees will receive individual notification packets informing them of their new title code, job standard and pay grade on or about Aug. 1, 2012. Notification packets will be provided to the departments for distribution to individual employees.
Will employees receive new updated job descriptions?
Not initially. After the implementation and the reconsideration period ends, managers and supervisors will be asked to update all non-represented employee’s job descriptions through Job Builder.
Many individuals wear multiple hats. How were positions that do not cleanly fit into the job families or fit into multiple families mapped?
The major duties of a given job determine how to map it to a new job family. Positions that are multi-functional were mapped according to the job family that constituted more than 50 percent of the job. If that wasn’t possible (i.e. no one component of the job description was 50 percent or more), the job family that had the greatest percentage of duties was used, or if the combination of duties was better captured by a more multi-functional family, such as administrative operations within general administration, then a more broad job family was used.
Will there be a crosswalk for comparing? How will the new job families/positions be compared to positions at other campuses?
There will not be a crosswalk for comparison. Jobs are reviewed based on the job duties and functions at UC Merced. Salaries are determined on salary survey market data. Upon occasion, internal UC salary information is requested from other campuses for comparison. There will not be a crosswalk for comparing. UC Merced is only the second campus to go to Career Tracks.
Is there detailed information an individual can review to compare their job duties to the job family they are mapped to?
Yes. Currently the HR website has links to the Career Tracks job fields, job family descriptions, and job scopes (levels). Complete job standards will be available July 1 through Job Builder.
I am concerned that direct supervisors and staff have not been involved in the mapping process. It is my understanding that only management services officers (MSOs) and assistant vice chancellors (AVCs) have been involved in this process. As a direct supervisor, I have given feedback but there is no communication loop with those in HR who are making the decisions.
Mapping was in done using job descriptions and consultation with MSOs, managers, directors, AVCs, deans and assistant deans. Input from supervisors was also used in the mapping decisions. Although HR may not have spoken directly with immediate supervisors, mapping was a collaborative effort and not the sole decision of HR.
Will there be salary impacts from these classification changes? How will these be communicated and/or paid?
Employee salaries will not be negatively impacted. Salaries below grade minimum will be brought up to the minimum upon implementation. If an employee’s salary is above the maximum, it may be reviewed.
Will this program mitigate the inequities across campus and if so, how?
The problem with the current classification system is that employees are classified in the same title code across campus, and as a result, the jobs have been perceived as being the same. In actuality, even though jobs are classified the same, the functions of each specific job are very different. Career Tracks will classify positions in different job families based on what the position does, i.e. recruitment, student advising, financial aid, business systems analysis, database administration, etc. Different families have different comparable job markets and thus, pay differently. Once employees are classified in the appropriate family and pay is reflective of the market, the appearance of many inequities will be gone.
Employees with additional questions should send inquires to comp@ucmerced.edu.
