This newsletter includes an update on compensation, information regarding feedback practices, and a shoutout to the Collaborative for Community Engagement (CCE).

Thank you to the CCE for organizing the Week of Action. HR was thrilled to participate by visiting Food to Power and learning about the amazing work they do to support the Colorado Springs community. The team helped organize seed packets to get them ready for planting season and assisted with seed-saving by separating seeds from dried plants like sunflowers and dill.

The Careers at CC page is getting a makeover, and we need your help! We’re looking for volunteers to give their personal testimony of why they love working at CC. This will be posted on our new webpage, “Why work at CC?” for potential candidates to see. Please email Missy Liu if you would like to participate. 

Based on your feedback and the need to better support employee growth and development, we are rolling out changes to the staff performance evaluation process this year. All full-time, benefit-eligible staff will participate in quarterly performance conversations with their supervisors (in January, April, July, and October). The first formal performance conversation will take place in April 2024. 

These quarterly conversations will include multiple steps: completion of a self-reflection, a supervisor summary, co-creation of quarterly goals, and a performance rating and conversation. 

To help with the transition, there are multiple training opportunities available to the community.  

We now have on-demand, asynchronous training available in Bridge. These training courses can be taken or reviewed whenever it is convenient for you. Topics include: 

Registration is also open for the following in-person Excel at CC session: 

Register for our upcoming Feedback Practices Open Forum on February 22 if you have outstanding questions not addressed in the training or want to provide additional feedback on the process. 

Please reach out to Sara San Souci to discuss options for 1-on-1 support or to have this topic added to an upcoming team meeting agenda. 

As part of our compensation enhancements last year, we conducted a thorough assessment of our pay approach with the external firm Segal. To help ensure that people at CC are paid in ways that are competitive with other organizations, Segal recommended an update of our band structure to add more bands. We agreed and are working to make this transition now.  

All roles will be reviewed and placed in the new structure. After fulfilling our commitment to ensuring all regular employees earn a living wage, we will prioritize increasing the salaries of anyone who is below the minimum of their new band. We do not anticipate decreasing anyone’s pay in this process.  

Bands in the updated structure are narrower, which will help us offer more competitive starting salaries by increasing the lower end of the bands. We also believe the new structure will help with retention by moving people more quickly to (and beyond) the mid-point of their bands.  

We are now doing a review of every position to ensure that they are compared to good matches in market surveys and placed in the correct band. Each division is reviewing the matches to ensure they reflect the core responsibilities of the jobs.  

When this work is complete, we will communicate with all regular employees, so they know about their new band. We will communicate this information at the same time we share annual pay increase information. 

Compensation is complex and we understand that you may have questions.  We will provide opportunities to discuss these changes as they are finalized. In the meantime, feel free to reach out with questions or concerns. 

Join us in congratulating two HR teammates that are taking advantage of career development opportunities.   

Lisa Strawbridge has taken a role with the Financial Aid team as the Assistant Director of Student Employment. Lisa has been a key partner in our compensation processes by ensuring accuracy in many of our critical processes.  She has brought a supportive spirit to all of her efforts, and we’ll miss her in HR but look forward to partnering with her in her new role.  

Ginger Jurecka-Blake will be moving to Vassar in the role of Associate Vice President of Human Resources and Chief People Officer. Ginger has been a key partner in our Workplace Culture efforts. She has led the team in its efforts to update our talent acquisition, feedback, leadership development, and HR Information technology process. While this is a great opportunity for her, we will miss her commitment to and impact on the CC community.   

We will be using temporary support to backfill Lisa’s role and will be posting for Ginger’s position soon. 

Visit the HR Updates page to check out past editions of the People Connections newsletter, along with recent updates from HR.