Public employee salary info = managerial quagmire

[Ma'ake]

I'm an IT manager in a medical research institution associated with the U of Utah. In the past six months, since the more widespread availability of state employee salary information on the web, morale has suffered markedly.

RANT - I understand the rationale for why the public has "the right to know" all the salary information for every person who works for the state, or for, in our case, an organization that gets <3% state funding, but this is REALLY causing problems, the kind of which management in the private sector can just squash. In private organizations, if somebody was exposed to this type of information they would be threatened with their jobs if they spread it.

ADVICE NEEDED / MANAGERIAL PUZZLE TO BE SOLVED - realizing most of all of you have never dealt with this particular type of situation...

What actions would you take to repair morale & re-inflate motivation among employees disgruntled because of access to this information? (Note: due to state mandated caps on employee compensation increases, merit increases must be fairly modest, ie, not sufficient to close gaps in relative productivities)

EDITORIAL - for conservatives who push for disclosing all salary information for government employees, by employee name, the managerial problems that result lead to another tenet of conservative ideology, namely the poor performance of governmental entities. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

[MikeWaters]

How about treating employees fairly and giving them the pay they deserve?

I'm familiar with a situation like this, where an employee found out that he was making very little despite bringing in A LOT of money. The managers gave him the finger and said if you don't like it, leave. So he left.

If you can't treat employees fairly, then it is in their interest to leave. Also, if morale drops, and an employee doesn't peform, fire him/her.

[Ma'ake]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

How about treating employees fairly and giving them the pay they deserve?

I'm familiar with a situation like this, where an employee found out that he was making very little despite bringing in A LOT of money. The managers gave him the finger and said if you don't like it, leave. So he left.

If you can't treat employees fairly, then it is in their interest to leave. Also, if morale drops, and an employee doesn't peform, fire him/her.

Quick reply - we can boost pay about 10% per year for the "stars" (and we identify them privately to let them know they're valued & will be getting higher raises than the norm)

It's a long, drawn out process to have somebody fired, unless somebody assaults someone.

Nonetheless, good advice... we're pushing in those directions.

[MikeWaters]

Is it not pretty easy to make it clear that someone is not valued and will not be remunerated and is in the doghouse.......that person will sometimes/often quit as a result.

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by Ma'ake

I'm an IT manager in a medical research institution associated with the U of Utah. In the past six months, since the more widespread availability of state employee salary information on the web, morale has suffered markedly.

RANT - I understand the rationale for why the public has "the right to know" all the salary information for every person who works for the state, or for, in our case, an organization that gets <3% state funding, but this is REALLY causing problems, the kind of which management in the private sector can just squash. In private organizations, if somebody was exposed to this type of information they would be threatened with their jobs if they spread it.

ADVICE NEEDED / MANAGERIAL PUZZLE TO BE SOLVED - realizing most of all of you have never dealt with this particular type of situation...

What actions would you take to repair morale & re-inflate motivation among employees disgruntled because of access to this information? (Note: due to state mandated caps on employee compensation increases, merit increases must be fairly modest, ie, not sufficient to close gaps in relative productivities)

EDITORIAL - for conservatives who push for disclosing all salary information for government employees, by employee name, the managerial problems that result lead to another tenet of conservative ideology, namely the poor performance of governmental entities. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Excellent post. They've really opened Pandora's Box on this one.

[MikeWaters]

In Texas you can always get the info, but it requires jumping through the hoop of applying for a public information request. At least to my knowledge.

The stuff on the internet, is it 3rd party stuff for all states, or is it something that Utah put out itself?

[Tex]

I'm an IT professional and I have to agree with Mike: paying market value solves all woes. Well, most of them. If everyone knows what everyone else is making, that can still be problematic, but a fairly compensated employee is typically a happy employee.

[jay santos]

My theory on why salary discussion is so taboo is that it is "the man" keeping the employee down. Big business created a culture where discussing salary is taboo because it works for big business. The problems that were created by salaries going public I'm guessing were only problems for management, not for the the average employee who now realizes they're worth more than they're being paid.

[FMCoug]

Originally Posted by Tex

I'm an IT professional and I have to agree with Mike: paying market value solves all woes. Well, most of them. If everyone knows what everyone else is making, that can still be problematic, but a fairly compensated employee is typically a happy employee.

The problem with this is that market value tends to be as much individual as it is for a given position. You take your salary history with you. If you've made more in the past, you'renot going to take a pay cut to go work at X. And X is not going to give everyone else a raise to match you. This IMO is where the discrepancies come from.

[FMCoug]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

Excellent post. They've really opened Pandora's Box on this one.

No doubt. I'm sure it will do wonders for recruiting too. Everyone wants to go work somewhere where there next door neighbor can look up their salary online. :-S