In May, the University of Minnesota (UMN) Sends out Compensation Guidelines for the Upcoming

University of Minnesota Medical School Handbook For Medical School Accountants Faculty and P&A Compensation Plans Last Date Reviewed: 12/11/17

OVERVIEW

In May, the University of Minnesota (UMN) sends out compensation guidelines for the upcoming fiscal year to academic colleges. This document stipulates the potential amount of compensation increases on UMN salary only that each college can give, (Medical School compensation includes both University of Minnesota Physicians (UMP) salary and UMN salary). The Medical School releases its own Compensation Plan document stipulating any deviations from the UMN guidelines shortly after that.

This instructional document lays out a number of precepts on pay structure for the Medical School along with the historical context from which they emerge. These generally include rules for changes to base salary, incremental salary, and UMP compensation; the role of performance metrics; special considerations (e.g. salaries below market levels); and the allowable magnitude of increases.

The Medical School sends a compensation plan spreadsheet out to the Finance Directors from the Dean’s Office Finance area around the beginning/middle of May. The spreadsheet includes pertinent information on Faculty and P&A employees from the current fiscal year, including position title, percent appointment, applicable benchmarks and last years’ salary by component. Units should first check the provided spreadsheets for accuracy and update as necessary. Changes should be highlighted for reference. Work with the Medical School Administration Finance staff to correct any changes or updates. This will ensure that both parties are in agreement about the information being presented.

Once the Dean’s Office and the Department agree on the data, Departments add in their proposed increases to the spreadsheet (following the established Medical School guidelines), attach any required documentation and submit the materials to the Medical School Administration Finance area for approval by the Dean.

For Faculty/P&A with a UMP component, the department is responsible for ensuring that any changes to payroll resulting in a Faculty/P&A exceeding the 80th % of their benchmark (see SOP for Income Verification) are approved by the Dean. This would be an example of required documentation. University of Minnesota Medical School Handbook For Medical School Accountants Faculty and P&A Compensation Plans Last Date Reviewed: 12/11/17

It is the policy of the Medical School that changes to faculty compensation should be done only twice a year: at the beginning of the fiscal year and then around January. Usually the change at the beginning of the fiscal year is for salary increases and the change around January is for movements between UMN (Increment component) and UMP salary. The movement between UMN (INC) and UMP salary would be due to changes in the faculty’s clinical activity or an increase/decrease in academic time.

It is important that the salaries be treated as two distinct appointments, one for UMP and one for UMN in any correspondence to the faculty member, because rules on salary changes in each institution are different.

Changes in a faculty member’s salary for a retention offer should occur when the offer is being made. In addition, changes in University salary rate can’t be tied to grant awards – this is against Federal policy. Changes in a faculty member’s appointment are allowable though.

DEPARTMENT PROCESS

All of the following steps should be taken by departments, although departments have different timelines for the process.

The first step in determining faculty/P&A increases should be the review process. The employee fills out a self-evaluation, which then goes to their supervisor to complete. The supervisor completes their portion of the evaluation and the supervisory and employee meet to go over the document. Once the evaluations are done, the results are used to determine compensation. The Department Head (in conjunction with the Center Director, Finance Director or others) forwards the salary increases for the P/A staff to the AHC HR Medical School representative for approval. The Faculty compensation spreadsheet are sent to the Dean’s Office for approval.

The Dean’s Office works with the Finance Directors to resolve any outstanding issues with the spreadsheet and/or the plan and then approves the plan once those issues have been resolved. The Dean’s Office then communicates the approval to the Finance Directors. At this point, clinical departments comp plans will go to UMP for approval of the clinical component of the salary. University of Minnesota Medical School Handbook For Medical School Accountants Faculty and P&A Compensation Plans Last Date Reviewed: 12/11/17

Once UMP receives the communication from the Dean’s Office that the University salary increases have been approved, UMP staff compares the UMP salary components and special payments to the upcoming Fiscal Year budget for clinical departments.

UMP works with the Departments/CSUs to resolve and understand any major discrepancies. Once they are in agreement with the Dept/CSU, UMP Finance staff submits the budget to the UMP CFO & COO for final approval.

Once final approval is obtained, UMP Finance staff will send an email to the department telling them the increases have been approved.

This entire process is outside the scope of Department Head salaries. Those are treated separately, outside of this process.

Finally, Finance Directors/Center staff work with HR to get the salary increase information into EFS.