TO: Carolina HR Council and Secondary Contacts
FROM: Linc Butler, Sr. Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Academic Personnel
We’ve recently received updated information on EHRA and SHRA salary action preapproval requirements.
EHRA Salary Preapproval Requirements
In April, the UNC Board of Governors (BOG) approved revisions to Sections 200.6 and 600.3.4 of the UNC Policy Manual. These revisions provide a significant rebalancing of delegated authority for approvals of EHRA salary actions. Revised tables detailing these delegations for EHRA compensation actions are effective immediately and can be found on the Classification and Compensation Resources page of the HR at UNC website. These changes do not impact approval requirements for EHRA position actions, which remain unchanged. Salary actions for classification titles (SAAO Tier I, Head Coach, Assistant Coach) for which UNC-Chapel Hill does not have delegated authority will still require Board of Trustees (BOT) and/or BOG pre-approval.
EHRA Salary Range Authority
Under the Board of Governors’ recent policy changes, all EHRA salary range development authority will revert to System Office Human Resources. Over the next year, System Office HR will work with campus Chief Human Resources Officers to develop ranges that fully address the needs of campuses presently operating with campus-designed SAAO Tier II and IRIT ranges. The targeted completion date is Fiscal Year 2023-24. The University will continue to use the current SAAO Tier II and IRIT ranges for EHRA Non-Faculty until they are fully replaced by newly developed System Office salary ranges.
SHRA Salary Preapproval Requirements
Effective immediately, System Office Human Resources approval for SHRA salary actions will be triggered, with a few exceptions, only for salaries that exceed 15% above the market/reference rate. This applies to both permanent adjustments and temporary salary increases. A table detailing these revised delegations of authority can be found on the Classification and Compensation Resources webpage. Similar to the EHRA-related changes, this does not impact SHRA position management and approval requirements. Salary actions for classification titles for which UNC-Chapel Hill does not have delegated authority will still require System Office preapproval.
Change in Salary Administration for Promotions with Respect to Salary History
With these preapproval requirement ranges, the System Office is also introducing a change in salary administration procedures for both SHRA and EHRA new hire and promotional actions. Specifically, this relates to moving away from use of employee salary history and current salary amount in promotional and new hire salary determinations and instead making these determinations by relying on other relevant factors, which include:
- Salary range of the proposed position.
- Candidate’s qualifications and credentials.
- Equity to similarly situated employees.
- Available budget.
Prohibiting the use of current salary and salary history in new hire and promotional actions is being incorporated into a draft of a newly revised Regulation on Pre-Employment Background Checks, which the UNC System Office has provided to campus HR teams for comment. Planning for implementation of this practice is already underway in anticipation of this regulation change. Please be aware that we expect to remove the “Starting Salary or Rate of Pay” and “Ending Salary or Rate of Pay” fields from applications in PeopleAdmin by the end of May 2022. These changes do not prohibit consideration of current salary or salary history in salary actions that are not related to new hires or promotions such as reclassifications, additional duties, labor market, etc.
Existing SHRA and EHRA Salary Actions in Process
Effectively immediately, any SHRA or EHRA salary actions already in the preapproval pipeline that no longer require System Office or BOG approval are being returned to OHR. Decisions on those actions will be communicated to you by the appropriate OHR unit via their standard process.
Questions
We will be holding two Q&A sessions about the new requirements over the next two weeks, so please be on the lookout for the calendar invites. You need only attend one, and we will make an FAQ available based on the questions we receive. However, if you have more immediate questions, please contact:
- For SHRA actions: Your assigned Classification and Compensation Consultant
- For EHRA Non-Faculty actions: Your assigned EHRA Non-Faculty HR Consultant
- Faculty Actions: Academic Personnel Office – Email apir@unc.edu