I. - Methodology

The Position Classification/Compensation Plan

The study of positions in Berrien County, Georgia was made at the request of county officials and conducted by the consulting county manager. The manager was instructed by the board of commissioners to study all positions in each county department. The following outlines the major steps undertaken to complete the work:

1.

A meeting was held with department heads and elected officials participating in the study to outline the scope of the study and describe the type of assistance each department was to provide to allow for adequate data collection. Department heads and officials were informed of their responsibility to review the job description for each employee under his/her supervision and to return any comments to the consulting county manager.

2.

All departmental supervisors in the county were distributed proposed compensation rate schedules by the county manager. The supervisors were requested to complete the forms (copies in the appendix section) without the advice of the consulting county manager. Department heads/elected officials were urged to ensure that each worker's job classification describes his/her duties and responsibilities as the worker. Finally, elected officials and department heads were cautioned not to allow themselves to treat lightly their responsibility in completing their recommended pay portion of the questionnaire.

3.

The consulting county manager examined each completed form to determine the adequacy of the responses from the elected officials and/or supervisor. Based on information given on the form comparison data from other counties were prepared.

4.

Once the analyses was completed and any additional and/or new information analyzed, similar positions of essentially similar duties and pay scales reviewed, responsibilities, desirable qualifications, and pay ranges were assigned to a single class. It is emphasized these "desirable" or "entry level" qualifications, describe skills, knowledge and abilities desired of the next person hired into the position. It is admitted the qualifications and pay range of any incumbent may be higher; but such is irrelevant to determining entry level requirements and assigned pay ranges.

5.

Having made a tentative grouping of positions into classes, the next step was to prepare a class specification for each category of work similar enough to justify the same desirable qualifications and the same compensation. The class specification is a brief (one or two pages) description of the work that is characteristic of each class and identifies desirable entry level job information relevant to each class.

6.

Upon completion of the classification phase, a pay grade system was developed for each department. Each position has been listed in alphabetical order. Also each employee's class title and the recommended pay scale has been included in the recommended section.

7.

Upon completion of the class specifications, an alphabetical list of all classifications was prepared.

8.

The proposed classification plan and pay scale system was then presented to the board of commissioners by the consulting county manager. The individual presentation was held to allow the board an opportunity to review the plans with the manager and discuss particular areas of interest and pinpoint specific classification changes or pay differentials.

9.

Based on additional and/or new information obtained from the board's review, if justified, changes were made in the tentative plan and a final class pay plan developed and forwarded to each department for budget preparation purposes.