HUMAN RESOURCES

Pay grades group jobs together paid similarly in the market, while considering:

• Essential functions
• Required knowledge/educational attainment
• Work complexity
• Accountability level
• Other factors that may be unique to the role at NU

Pay ranges have minimum and maximum pay rates and are broad

It is important that every employee has a job description reflective of their role. Before updating your description, we advise:

• Speaking with your manager, as the job description may already accurately reflect the role that helps the department meet its business needs.
• If your manager believes that your work differs from the general description, they may work with you on updating the job description.
• Job descriptions are a summary of the most important features of a job, not comprehensive lists of each task that you perform.

Market data is reliable, third-party validated, objective data on how similar jobs in peer organizations are compensated, and a key factor in determining how NU sets compensation rates and pay grades. A role’s essential functions, scope of responsibility, accountability levels within the organization, and required skills/experience determine how a market match job is identified. These factors are evaluated without respect to a job’s title or to any one person.

Visit myHR/Pay/My Appointment Detail to view your own pay grade.

Individual pay rates are determined via a consistently applied and collaborative process involving:

• Central HR – Compensation Team, HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition
• School/Unit HR Representatives
• Leaders
• Managers may often provide input and feedback 

Central HR assigns grades, reviews University equity landscape, and provides guidelines for setting pay rates. School/unit HR Representatives and Leaders make decisions on individual pay rates and may include input from Managers.

We review pay ranges periodically, analyze them in the market, and adjust them as necessary to remain competitive.

Not necessarily. Remember that job descriptions are not task lists, but instead are summaries of the primary bodies of work performed by the role, the scope of the role, and the skills and education necessary to perform the role. They are usually 1-1.5 pages in length.

Job descriptions are not formulated with a particular individual in mind. Instead, they reflect a specific business need.  

The first step is to speak with your manager. Talk to them about why you think an evaluation is warranted. Your manager will then speak to the appropriate school/unit HR representative who will follow up as needed with central HR.

A manager’s first point of contact on pay-related questions should be the Compensation website and their school/unit HR representative.

The Compensation team is always available to support and provide guidance on pay decisions and discussions.  

As pay discussions with your employee can be challenging, it is important to prepare for these interactions. If you are asked questions that you are unsure of the answer, it is best to say, “Let me check on that and get back to you.”   

Northwestern encourages career progression, and the first step is to speak with your manager about your interests. 

Visit Talent Development for more information. You can also review current postings for a complete listing of opportunities within Northwestern.

Roles are assigned a grade based on its alignment to a similar role in the market data. All roles reflecting a similar market value generally share the same grade. Fairly wide ranges are provided within the grades to allow latitude for the consideration of the knowledge, skills, and relevant work experience of the employee, their job performance, etc.

It was determined that the market reflected wide variances in pay for IT roles, and sufficient unique characteristics of technology jobs exist to warrant a separate pay structure.

Compensation conducts market analyses to determine appropriate pay ranges and grades for a given role. All roles are assigned grades based on the closest match in the market data.

The Compensation team and/or HR Business Partners are always available to provide support and guidance. 

The Compensation website includes considerable information and resources on compensation principles and guidelines.

The Compensation website includes considerable information and resources on compensation

principles and guidelines.

Your manager would then be your next source of information.  

While positions may have the same posting title and grade, the desired skill set for a qualified applicant can be different depending on departmental needs. The position might call for a more experienced candidate resulting in a higher target range.

Talent Acquisition can partner with each school to determine what internal approvals are needed before posting to confirm appropriate hiring range. Once TA receives the requested hiring range, each partner will review equity, confirm budget, add hiring range to job posting, and approve the job in erecruit. 

This will be reviewed by job code across the University to confirm the hiring range is equitable for posting. Similar reviews are currently done during the approval to hire process when reviewing/approving requested offers.

The current process is reviewed on a case by case basis. If the positions posted are the same job code and same grade then TA will continue to consult and align offers to allow the candidate to make the best decision for them. However, salary grades consist of many different job codes. Each job code could have different hiring ranges based on equity, budget and market rates. In the event of multiple offers for same grades but different job code position, TA will make all efforts to align the offers within the given hiring range. With positions having varying hiring ranges, there will be times offers cannot be directly aligned.   

No there will not be a special process.  HR already has a process for completing job assessments and market reviews.  A position being posted at a higher range does not by itself warrant a review.  The school/unit may be looking for a candidate with more experience and is willing and able to pay more.

Determining individual pay considers multiple factors, including:

• Market data
• Knowledge, skills, abilities, and relevant work experience of the employee or candidate
• Job performance (if a current staff member)
• Internal equity
• Departmental factors