Sampson County Human Resources Director Nancy Dillman speaks to the commissioners during the Monday night, April 7 Board of Commisisoners meeting.
Sherry Matthews | Sampson Independent
Sampson commissioners have taken steps to pay county employees in what has been termed a fairer way. At the Board of Commissioners meeting last Monday, Human Resources Director Nancy Dillman spoke to members about ways to eliminate salary compression.
Commissioner Lethia Lee, Dist. 4, asked Dillman to explain, in simple terms, what salary compression is to the public so they would not think it eliminates salaries.
“Every position has a pay grade assigned to it,” Dillman explained to the board. “That pay grade is based on the process that Sampson County adopted back in 2014 for examining all the responsibilities, all of the educational requirements, all of the requirements to perform that position. And then that position is rated a pay grade. That pay grade has an associated scale. You have a minimum, mid-grade and maximum salary. We encourage employees to work toward that mid-point of their pay grade within the first 10 years. But we have very few employees that stay in their pay grade their whole career. There are some, but most people are moving around, taking other jobs or other positions and looking for advancement within Sampson County government, which is a good thing, when you can promote from within.”
“The compression occurs when people don’t move as often or people are promoted and brought in at a higher level,” she continued. “When we say that those salaries are compressed, that means that someone with a lot of experience and someone with a little experience are making near the same amount.”
The item on the agenda, which had originally been on the consent agenda but was moved to regular discussion, would amend the current personnel resolution to eliminate salary compression. “We are asking that we can amend that personnel resolution to include a third step,” Dillman said. “And what we’re hoping to achieve with this is to ensure that we no longer have subordinates who make more money than the people who are supervising them.”
Salary compression tends to occur when there is a lot of movement among personnel, such as turnover or promotions, she explained.
Commissioner Chip Crumpler asked how many positions this would affect. “Immediately, we are looking at the Sheriff’s Department,” Dillman replied. “This would result in 12 individuals, $21,768 that would be added to those salaries permanently. That would be a recurring cost, just like all other salary line items. That would adjust all the disparities within that particular office.” The $21,768 was the total cost.
Other departments don’t have the tiers and levels that the Sheriff’s Office does, and they also don’t experience the same level of turnover.
“With not having step plans that are tied to evaluations, sometimes, disparities do come about because of compression,” Dillman said. “When you bring on new employees and by virtue of their experience or by virtue of their educational attainments, you bring them on at a higher level. It’s a complicated process. The approach we’ve taken here is to look at the time and grade of our employee.”
“Those hard to fill positions are in pretty good shape right now,” she added, but reiterated that when people move on, or move around within county departments it can cause compression.
Crumpler asked Interim Sampson County Manager Jeffrey Hudson his opinion on the matter, to which he stated, “Compression is not unique to Sampson County. It happens in any large organization such as any county and areas where you have hard to find employees, such as in the medical fields. So, in looking at a way to solve this, I believe this is the most cost effective way we could implement this.”
Crumpler made the motion to approve the correction of the compression of salaries and the motion carried unanimously.
Chuck Thompson, a correspondent covering Sampson County government for The Sampson Independent, contributed to this article.