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Office of Human Resources

Career Path Modernization Project

Enhancing our job titles, pay grades, and compensation policies

The dedicated employees at the University of Rochester are at the heart of the institution. It is through their contributions that we are able to fulfill our educational, research, and healthcare missions, and to be a research university of global consequence. The University is committed to creating a supportive, equitable, and inclusive work environment where everyone can thrive, and to making the institution a model employer that attracts, retains, engages, and motivates the best people.

With these guiding principles in mind, the Office of Human Resources, with the full support of President Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, is embarking on the Career Path Modernization (CPM) Project, a multi-year initiative to completely transform our 40-year-old job title and compensation program.

The end goal of the CPM Project is to have a modern and relevant library of job titles and job descriptions that accurately reflect the work being done at the University, career paths to guide employees’ professional development, and pay grades that are tied to regional market conditions and appropriately reward the University’s valued employees.

It will take approximately three years to complete the CPM Project. In that time, the project team will review and update approximately 20,000 non-faculty and non-union positions in 1,000 job codes across the College, Medical Center, graduate and professional schools, and the Memorial Art Gallery. It will also develop new compensation policies and create clear career paths for employees that reflect the University’s Meliora Values and its commitment to equity and inclusion.

Project scope

The CPM Project scope includes University of Rochester staff, including Medical Center staff, and including Senior Administrators and Vice Presidents. The project does not include faculty, bargaining unit positions, students, post docs, residents, fellows, department fellows, or employees included in executive compensation reviews or IRS key employees.

Learn more in the kickoff message from University leadership below.

August 26, 2020

To our University employees,

Our community has endured a great deal of change during this unprecedented time. What has remained constant, however, is the dedication and innovation of our employees who help us realize our educational, research, and healthcare missions. Thank you for your continued contributions and service during this difficult period for our University. At this time, we are pleased to announce that with the full support of the Office of the President, the University is embarking on the Career Path Modernization (CPM) Project, an initiative that was planned long before COVID-19 entered our lives and will have a profound effect on so many who currently works at our great institution or will one day join us. This project reflects our commitment to creating a supportive, equitable, and inclusive work environment where everyone can thrive and to making the University a model employer that attracts, engages, and motivates the best people.

The CPM Project is a multi-year endeavor to transform our 40-year-old job description, job title, career path, and compensation program. Job titles and descriptions will be updated to accurately reflect the work being performed by our employees. The project will also establish a new pay grade structure that aligns salary ranges to the regional job market and appropriately compensates our employees with fair and competitive salaries. Importantly, CPM will provide clear career paths for employee development, which is of great importance to our staff, and develop policies that reinforce the University’s Meliora Values and its commitment to equity and inclusion.

We anticipate that it will take approximately three years to complete this initiative. In that time, the CPM Project team will review and update more than 1,000 non-faculty and non-union positions across the College, Eastman School of Music, Medical Center, graduate and professional schools, and Memorial Art Gallery.

This is a large and complex project for our University and we have much to accomplish over the next three years. Holly Crawford, senior vice president for administration and finance and chief financial officer and treasurer, is leading the CPM Project, working closely with a University-wide steering committee and human resources staff. Given the project’s size and scope, we have also engaged the HR consulting firm Mercer on a limited basis to assist us. Mercer has expertise in compensation programs and career development and has worked with other universities and academic medical centers on similar initiatives.

The implementation team has begun interviewing stakeholders in key departments and leadership roles to help us understand how to frame this project. This first phase is scheduled to last through June of 2021 and will assist us as we build the foundation for our compensation system and update and catalog job descriptions. Your department will be hearing from the team in the coming months as we embark on the next steps of reviewing job descriptions. We will also be building a website later this year, where we will post important milestones and information about the CPM Project. Again, thank you for your support as we create substantial change for the University of Rochester together.

Meliora,

Holly G. Crawford, Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Mark B. Taubman, CEO, University of Rochester Medical Center

Tony Kinslow, Associate Vice President for Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer

Kathy Gallucci, Vice President for Human Resources, URMC, and Executive Director for Human Resources, University of Rochester

Project committees

  • Lance Drummond; Board of Trustees HR Committee Chair
  • Sarah Mangelsdorf; President, G. Robert Witmer Jr. University Professor
  • Holly Crawford; Sr. Vice President for Administration & Finance, Chief Financial Officer
  • Dr. Mark Taubman; Sr. Vice President for Health Sciences, CEO of URMC, Dean School of Medicine and Dentistry

Purpose: To provide leadership and support for the project

Members:

  • Mike Andrews; Sr. Associate Vice President Budgets & Planning, Deputy to CFO
  • Adam Anolik; Sr. Vice President, CFO of URMC
  • Kathy Gallucci; Vice President of HR URMC, Exec Director of HR University of Rochester
  • Michele Hill; Sr. Director Total Rewards
  • Elizabeth Milavec; Associate Vice President Financial Ops & University Controller
  • Donna Gooden Payne; Vice President, General Counsel
  • Mercedes Ramirez Fernandez; Vice President for Equity & Inclusion, Chief Diversity Officer
  • Elizabeth Stauderman; Vice President for Communications

Purpose: To provide expertise regarding divisional needs, department resources, and position specific functions

Members and the organization they represent:

  • Brenna Rybak; Biology
  • Molly Jacob; College Enrollment
  • Jessica Foster; Dean’s Office: Arts, Sciences & Engineering
  • Joseph Testani; Dean’s Office: College
  • George Vanderzwaag; Dean’s Office: College
  • Timothy Woodward; Dean’s Office: College
  • Holly Barone; Eastman Institute Oral Health
  • Elaine Tennity; Eastman School of Music
  • Michael Liberty; Environmental Health & Safety
  • Cathleen Dierna; Facilities
  • Amy Lerner; Faculty Senate
  • Karen Sodoma; Finance
  • Caterina Caiazza; Genesee Staff Council
  • Amber Whitlock; Human Resources
  • Steven Stagnitto; Lab for Laser Energetics
  • MaryAnn Capuano; Medical Center Info Systems
  • Patricia Giordano; Memorial Art Gallery
  • Eric Loomis; Office of Advancement
  • Jack Bailey; Office of Counsel
  • Janice Holland; Office of Equity and Inclusion
  • Jennifer Faler; President’s Office
  • San Cannon; Provost’s Office
  • Maggie Graham; Provost’s Office
  • Amy Happ; Provost’s Office
  • Gunta Linders; Provost’s Office
  • Dana Perrin; Public Safety
  • Debra Flotteron; Purchasing
  • Randy Cook; River Campus Libraries
  • Kelly Talarczyk; School of Nursing
  • Jim Newton; Simon Business School
  • Amy McDonald; University Communications
  • Kathryn Crowley; University IT
  • Teri D’Agostino; URMC Administration & Finance
  • Karen Davis; URMC Administration & Finance
  • Gerard Mikols; URMC Administration & Finance
  • Kathy Parrinello; URMC Administration & Finance
  • Germaine Reinhardt; URMC Administration & Finance
  • Aileen Shinaman; URMC Administration & Finance
  • Victoria Godwin Hines; URMFG Administration
  • Jason Sabel; Warner School of Education

Purpose: To facilitate transition from current to future state, carryout project deliverables, coordinate with other committees and provide updates to the University community as project progresses

Members:

  • Sonya Garlington; Director Compensation
  • Danielle Kutas; Director HR Communications
  • Christine Ludwig; Human Resources Business Partner
  • Mike Mulherin; Sr. HR Compensation Analyst
  • Charmaine Pionilla; Human Resources Business Partner
  • Dan Salamone; Interim Senior Director University Compensation
  • Kim Sedlak; Sr. HR Compensation Analyst
  • Jeni Sharp; Sr. HR Compensation Analyst
  • Dawn Smith; Associate Director URMC & Affiliate Compensation
  • Rhonda Smith; Sr. Human Resources Business Partner
  • Leah Stormo-Soles; Project Manager for Human Resources

Project timeline

This project is anticipated to take approximately three years and will include review and update of Job Descriptions, development of Career Streams, Job and Pay Structures, Compensation Policies and Employee Training.

See an anticipated timeline below.

January 2020-June 2020

Plan and Discovery

July 2020-June 2021

Philosophy and Foundation

April 2021-December 2021

Job Structure Development

April 2021-June 2022

Assessment

April 2022-December 2022

Pay Structure and Guidelines Development

January 2023-December 2023

Implementation and Deployment

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

The CPM Project is a multi-year endeavor to transform our 40-year-old job description, job title, career path, and compensation program. Job titles and descriptions will be updated to accurately reflect the work being performed by our employees. The project will also establish a new pay grade structure that aligns salary ranges to the regional job market.

This project reflects our commitment to creating a supportive, equitable, and inclusive work environment where everyone can thrive and to making the University a model employer that attracts, engages, and motivates the best people.

We will be reviewing jobs that cover approximately 20,000 staff in about 1,000 job codes that include staff through the senior administrator and vice president levels. At this time, we will not be reviewing faculty positions, bargaining unit positions, student workers, Post Docs, Residents/Fellows, Department Fellows, IRS Key Employees or Executives.

Building the job structure requires that we identify a set of representative jobs from across the entire University. These jobs are called Phase I jobs and have core responsibilities and requirements that are found in other large, complex academic medical centers and employers. We are targeting approximately 500 jobs for this first phase of review. These are planned to be completed by June 2021. The remainder of the jobs within the scope of the project will be reviewed and updated with a target completion date of June 2022. Jobs in the department and/or division may be reviewed together.

Yes; all jobs in scope for the CPM project will be reviewed and updated as appropriate. If it’s determined that a position included in the grade 50-52 hourly transition meets the federal and state criteria for exemption and should be categorized as a salaried position in the new structure, it will be defined accordingly. Federal and state legislation regulates positions that must be paid hourly and the CPM project will comply with those standards.

Yes, the new structure will be flexible enough to grow with the University, including the Medical Center, for many years.

Given the number of jobs being reviewed during the three-year CPM project, the job review process will continue through June 2022. The HR and Compensation teams are currently working together with managers to assess, prioritize and update the job descriptions.

The University of Rochester is a large institution with unique jobs and operational needs. The project team will work to build a structure that balances categorizing like positions together with reflecting the complexities of our organization and special positions where appropriate. The consultant that we have hired to support the project, Mercer, will be able to provide expertise in finding that balance having worked with a number of similar organizations to implement a job structure.

Based on the size and scope of the project, the University has engaged Mercer, a global human resources consulting firm with expertise across industries including a specialization in health care and higher education, to assist the project team on a limited basis to provide insight into our institution’s needs related to compensation and total rewards. Mercer has expertise in compensation programs and career development and has worked with many other universities and academic medical centers on similar initiatives.

This page will be updated to provide information and keep the community up to date on progress over the course of the project.

The CPM project will involve new titling guidelines that will create consistencies across the institution and will result in updates to some job titles. This is important to accurately support transparency, create career paths and understand the positions and pay opportunities available at the University.

The new job structure will provide alignment internally to comparable jobs and externally to the market. The new job structure may use different numbers to indicate pay grades than today’s structure, so the number associated with a specific pay grade will change in some instances.

The new structure and pay grades will enable us to more accurately assess pay relative to our internal pay ranges and the external market. This will help guide future planning and decision making through the University’s standard budgetary processes. In some instances it may lead to pay increases. At this time, we do not expect employee pay to be reduced by the changes.

Managers may be asked to participate in job reviews by validating employees current job responsibilities. For positions that exist in multiple departments across the University, managers will also be collaborating with colleagues across the institution to arrive at one generic job description.

There may be times where the project team will ask for managers to seek input from their teams and they will need to respond timely to requests for information.

Have questions?

Contact information

Please reach out to your HR Business Partner with questions related to this project. This website will be updated with new information and updates as they become available.

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