Overall, Harvard currently pays its nonunion town employees less than the market rate in a dozen comparable towns. That was one of the key findings in a just-completed personnel study by the consulting firm Human Resources Services Inc. The study was presented to the town’s Personnel Board Monday and to the selectmen Tuesday evening.
Both boards approved the report unanimously. Final approval and implementation of the report is up to voters at Town Meeting. Article 42 of the warrant asks for money to bring some salaries and wages up to at least the minimum levels recommended for their positions, based on the report. Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro told the selectmen that doing so would require adding about $56,000 to the fiscal 2019 budget.
The report begins the process of moving Harvard from a “step-and-grade” system of compensation, in which nonunion employees receive raises based primarily on their length of service, to a “merit” system, in which raises would be based on meeting specific performance goals.
As a step toward that change, the Personnel Board tasked the consulting firm with revising the nonunion employees’ job descriptions, which had not been updated since the early 1990s, according to Sobalvarro. The positions studied ranged from teen library assistants to the town administrator. Under the new job descriptions, the town’s 45 nonunion positions would be grouped into 15 pay grades, each with a pay range that varies by 35 percent from lowest to highest.
The towns to which Harvard’s pay scale was compared were Ayer, Bolton, Boxborough, Boxford, Carlisle, Groton, Hopkinton, Littleton, Middleton, Newbury, Stow, and Topsfield./p>
