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Inside Iowa State
Jan. 24, 1997

P&S Council to vote on salary discussion form

by Anne Dolan
At its February meeting, members of the Professional and Scientific Council will vote on a recom-mendation to implement this year use of a form ensuring that a P&S employee and his or her supervisor have discussed the employee's annual salary adjustment and the reasons for it. If approved, the recommendation goes to ISU administrators.

In March 1996, the council approved the use of the form, intended to encourage one-to-one communication about pay hikes between supervisors and employees. A 1995 survey of P&S employees showed that 40 percent of respondents received no explanation for the level of their annual salary increase.

The latest recommendation includes several notes on the salary notification procedure, including:

• When an immediate supervisor is not the one who makes decisions about salary adjustments, the official who does will provide the immediate supervisor and the employee a written explanation of the rationale behind the employee's raise and the average percentage raise for that unit.

• If a P&S employee receives a salary adjustment that is below normal for his or her unit, the employee should receive written comments on specific actions that could be completed to receive a normal raise the following year. ("Below normal" is defined in the recommendation.)

The new form is similar to one used now to record that a performance appraisal was completed.

In other business, council members discussed plans for the lunch forum they will host in the Memorial Union Campanile Room preceding their Feb. 6 meeting. All P&S employees are invited to the roundtable forum, titled "Working Toward Solutions." The discussion at each table will be facilitated by a council member. P&S employees can suggest discussion topics on the RSVP portion of the invitations they received this week, or the council will provide topics. Participants can bring their lunch or purchase it there; serving will begin in the Campanile Room at 11:45 a.m. The forum begins at noon.

Following are other meeting highlights:

• Ten council members' terms expire this spring, creating open seats in the areas of academic and research (4), IPRT and Ames Lab (2), Extension (1), External Affairs (1) and Student Affairs (2). Nomination forms for new council members will be mailed to all P&S employees soon. The completed forms are due to Jody Danielson, 2114 Sweeney, by 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10.

• Plans are shaping up for a professional development day this spring sponsored by the council. Most likely, the day- long event will be held Tuesday, May 27. All P&S employees are invited, though space limitations will restrict attendance to around 300. It will be held at the Holiday Inn/Gateway Center and will include kickoff, luncheon and closing speakers.

In between will be two time blocks for concurrent sessions that will look at topics such as professional ethics, involvement in the university community, mentoring, making yourself marketable, making your workplace a better place to work. Members of the Training and Development Office are involved in planning the day, which will not duplicate anything the office currently offers.

The next council meeting begins at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, in the Memorial Union Gold Room.

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