The staff compensation program is ready for implementation and this update will inform you about how the implementation will proceed.

The University has set aside $1.3 million over the next two years to make salary adjustments necessary to ensure that staff and administrators are paid appropriately. This new program, consisting of ten salary bands, is designed to be market-competitive and reflect the roles and responsibilities of jobs within the University.

As you will see later in this summary, approximately 20% of Villanova staff and administrators can expect a salary adjustment in the first year of the implementation. This, coupled with the 2007 increase in the minimum start rate to $10.50, has enabled Villanova to make considerable progress in bringing salaries to a more competitive and equitable level. Between the 2007 adjustment and this first-year adjustment for the new program, approximately 40% of University staff and administrators will have received a market adjustment salary increase over the last two years, with the majority of the adjustments occurring in clerical, support and service positions.

Although you have received updates throughout the year via Blueprints and the President’s email messages, we wanted to summarize the entire process.

Planning and Goal Setting

Prior to beginning the search for a consulting partner, Villanova had developed a set of goals for the new program for administrators and non-union staff. Upon its conclusion, the University expects to have a contemporary, fair, and equitable compensation program that:

• Enables the University to attract and retain a diverse workforce of high-caliber, community-oriented staff and administrators who are dedicated to supporting the University’s mission and educational goals
• Recognizes the multiple markets within which Villanova University must compete
• Recognizes individual contributions to the institution
• Is based on the commitment to fair and equitable pay, within the financial resources of the University
• Is clear, administratively streamlined, and understandable
• Is consistent with the University’s Catholic and Augustinian traditions

In the spring of 2007 Villanova selected Sibson Consulting as our partners in this important project, after reviewing proposals from several of the top national HR consulting firms in the country. We chose Sibson because of their extensive experience with national and regional higher education institutions, such as MIT, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Lehigh University, New York University, Fordham University and many others.

It was important that the program be customized to Villanova’s culture and expectations rather than be an ‘off the shelf’ program. Therefore, the project began with our consultants learning as much as possible about Villanova (its mission, culture, strategy, structure, and jobs), the way salaries are currently managed and the expectations for a new compensation program. The consultants interviewed the President and 23 other members of leadership, conducted staff and manager focus groups and worked regularly with the Compensation Advisory Committee, which is composed of staff and administrators.

Working with the Human Resources department, the Compensation Advisory Committee and the President’s Cabinet, Sibson developed a compensation strategy and identified the markets within which the University must compete, to serve as the foundation for the market analysis and the new program’s design.

Overview of the New Program

The new program is designed to be market competitive and to reflect the roles and responsibilities of jobs within the University. The development process began with a comprehensive market study to determine Villanova’s current positioning relative to the market and to provide data for building the new program’s salary ranges. On an overall basis, Villanova’s salaries are competitive with the market, although there were areas where salaries were identified as less than competitive.

The new program is completely different from what is currently in place. The new program consists of ten broad market-competitive salary bands. Each band is defined by job-related criteria and jobs are assigned to the bands based on their best fit with the criteria, which are:

• Job Scope and Responsibilities
• Complexity and Impact
• Knowledge, Skills and Competencies
• Education and Experience

The salary bands are flexible enough to tailor salaries to staff contributions and capabilities, yet maintain sufficient structure to ensure internal equity. A set of pay guidelines has been developed to ensure consistency of administration and clear understanding of how the new program works.

Human Resources and Sibson worked together to assign jobs to bands on a draft basis, considering job content and roles, not titles. These initial assignments were then reviewed with each Vice President and modified as necessary to ensure that all jobs were assigned to the appropriate bands. Once all the job assignments to the bands were completed it was time to plan for the program’s implementation.

The Implementation Process

The major steps in implementing the new program are outlined below:

• Ensuring that staff and administrators affected by the program are paid within the new guidelines
• The University has set aside $1.3 million over the next 2 years to make the salary adjustments necessary to ensure that staff and administrators are paid appropriately under the new program
• This round of adjustments is focused on bringing salaries up to the minimum of the new salary band, plus adjusting individual salaries for internal equity purposes
• The next round will focus on fine-tuning salaries and will involve a more in-depth review of skills, experience and performance


• Providing training for managers so they understand their roles in the new program and how to use the program to make pay decisions and orienting non-managers to ensure that everyone understands how the program functions
• These sessions are planned for the weeks of September 8 and 15. You will receive more information about the specific dates and times
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• During the week of September 22, all staff and administrators will receive letters informing them of their band assignments
• Ensuring that information about the program is clear and readily available
• The Human Resources compensation website is in the development stage and is expected to be available by the last week of September.

Immediate Next Steps

If you are among the approximately 20% of Villanova staff who will receive a salary adjustment this year, your manager will inform you of the amount during the weeks of August 18 and August 25. Your increase will be effective as of August 11th and will be reflected in the August 29th paychecks. Also, during the week of August 25, these individuals will receive a letter mailed to their homes informing them of the adjustment.