Total Compensation Committee

Type of Committee:
Standing

Purpose:
To provide an avenue for coordinated faculty and staff involvement, input, and advice on NMC's total compensation package that will establish salary and benefits plans that are competitive for the skills and services employed and that allow the College to employ the best people available within its financial means. The philosophy of benefit and salary equity established in the salary and benefit committees' processes would be maintained. Materials from those committees will be available for open inquiry and information sharing. Consensus will be reached on the coordinated recommendation on the total compensation package each budget year.

Membership:
Membership consists of the Executive Director of Human Resources, Facilitator; the Coordinator of Benefits and Human Resources (ad hoc, providing benefit information and cost analyses); and representatives from each of the following committees: Faculty Career Plan Committee, Staff Salary Study Committee, and Benefits Advisory Committee (consisting of equal representation from all employee groups including Maintenance/Custodial staff representatives on the Benefits Advisory Committee. All participants will have equal voice in the operating principles and processes of the committee. To create the Total Compensation Committee (TCC), the Benefits Advisory Committee, Staff Salary Study Committee, and Faculty Career Plan Committee will determine the specific numbers from each employee group to be included on the committee.

The respective employee councils appoint representatives to the above-mentioned committees according to their charges. Representatives rotate membership according to the committee charges. Members should be representative of their employee groups, and it is the responsibility of the councils to appoint and maintain membership accordingly. The Councils may, at their discretion, replace committee members if deemed necessary to ensure proper representation. Members must be capable of carrying a dual role: represent their employee groups and have the institutional vision that is required to participate in open inquiry, information sharing and dialogue.

Reporting relationship:
The Committee makes recommendations to the President and to the Planning/Budget Council, delivered by the Executive Director of Human Resources and delegates from the committee.

Responsibilities:

To create the Total Compensation Committee (TCC), the Benefits Advisory Committee, Staff Salary Study Committee, and Faculty Career Plan Committee will determine the specific numbers from each employee group to be included in the committee, ensure equal employee group representation, and establish a meeting time that will ensure participation of all members.
Develop recommendations using the accurate comparative study information from the Faculty Career Plan, Staff Salary Study, and Benefits Advisory committees, which maintain our competitive salary and benefits package while living within the College's financial means.
Seek the input of and share the views of their employee groups on salary and benefit recommendations. As such, they speak for their employee groups and assume the responsibility of communicating the TCC business to their employee groups and councils. Committee members are empowered to make decisions and recommendations, and report proceedings to constituents and councils.
Follow the communication plan above and publish committee work with councils and constituents (through minutes done within five work days). Published minutes will enable the committee members to meet this responsibility. All members will be able to have a clear, concise, and consistent interpretation of proceedings from the minutes.
Reach consensus on one coordinated recommendation with representative participation. Consensus is defined as general agreement or accord of the TCC (e.g. "Can we live with it?"). In the unlikely event that consensus is not reached, the committee recommendations with the dissenting views will be forwarded to PBC, with a copy to the President. Planning and Budget Council (PBC) is responsible for forwarding a final budget recommendation to the President. The President and the Board of Trustees are responsible for budget authorization as outlined in the then current College policies.

Timeline:
Recommendations will be compiled and presented according to the Planning and Budget Council calendar.

Process:

Faculty Career Plan, Staff Salary Study, and Benefits Advisory Committees will complete their work (surveys, benchmarks, etc.) separately and forward their recommendations to the TCC.
Upon receipt of the recommendations, the Total Compensation Committee (TCC) will meet to compile data and create one coordinated recommendation.
The employee representatives of the TCC will communicate with their respective councils for input and feedback to the group while the total compensation recommendation is being formed by the TCC. On-going communication between the TCC members, the remaining members on salary and benefits committees and the councils is imperative. There will be a designated time line to accept input and feedback from the councils to TCC.
When the TCC recommendation has consensus among the members they (all members) will present the final recommendation to the Councils prior to presenting to PBC. To ensure on-going communications the TCC will publish their minutes in a timely manner (identified as five work days).
The recommendation will be delivered to PBC (cc: to the President) by the Executive Director of Human Resources and delegates from TCC.
After review by PBC it may be necessary to return the recommendation to TCC with budget impact information from PBC. The TCC will work to attain the budget fit, inform the councils of the new information and return a revised recommendation to PBC. The committee recognizes that this could be a "back and forth" procedure with several versions being returned to TCC and resubmitted to PBC.
After a "fit" with budget is attained in PBC, it will be presented in the total budget from PBC to the President.