Consultant offers mixed assessment of Ascension Parish government pay structure – The Advocate

GONZALESA consulting firm offered a mixed assessment Tuesday night of the parish's pay structure after an in-depth dive into parish government's pay structure for the past several months.

On the plus side, SSA Consultants say Ascension Parishs retirement system, unlike many others in the state, is fully funded. And it offers generous health insurance and other benefit programs.

But the results are mixed when it comes to salaries paid for different job categories, according to a report presented to the Ascension Parish Finance Committee Tuesday evening.

The consultants found that slightly more than half of the job positions pay below market value while about a fourth of employees are paid more than what their job salary range calls for.

In sum, Christel Slaughter, a partner in Baton Rouge-based SSA, described a pay and evaluation system that needs updating and adjustment but a benefit program that needed fewer tweaks.

Slaughter said the parish's compensation structure rewards longer serving employees among its 472-member workforce, not newer ones.

Alhough Ascension Parish government has low turnover among longer serving employees, Slaughter said, that dynamic is changing.

The parish is like other businesses and governments facing a major round of retirements with departing Baby Boomers who will have to be replaced by a new generation of workers with different demands, she said.

"I think from a total compensation perspective, I'm not sure that the magic that has worked with your current workforce is going to work with your next workforce," Slaughter said.

She suggested the new generation may not be as interested in hanging around to accumulate the benefits that accrue to longer serving workers and that, while the parish's pay is not far off in general, the parish does not have lucrative salaries to attract and retain some of the more skilled workers.

Slaughter said that if benefits are important to workers, Ascension is "really attractive. It is just one of the best that I have seen. I just dont know if they're making many people like that any more."

Slaughter offered seven recommendations that Parish President Kenny Matassa and the member of the councils finance committee backed for the full council to consider.

Among them, Slaughter called for freezing the pay of the 65 employees whose pay falls above the salary range for their jobs even after coming market adjustments for salary ranges are taken into account.

The 65 employees represent about half of the 116 total employees whose pay is currently above their job's current salary range. For the remainder, their pay would fall back in line after salary ranges are adjusted to current market rates.

She also called for altering compensation methods to include more merit-based pay with regular evaluations. She noted that the parish personnel manual has systems set up for evaluations but said they often are not used.

Slaughter noted many employees being paid above their pay ranges had gotten salaries that way through across-the-board, cost-of-living increases through the years.

And though many positions had below-market salary ranges, she said, it would only cost a bit more than $55,000 per year to bring the positions up the current market levels.

Slaughter said a second report on parish government's organization will be presented next month to the Council Finance Committee.

In an interview, Matassa said that, while he has not yet received the report, he is already looking at making changes in the Human Resources Department.

Martin McConnell, parish government spokesman, confirmed in an interview prior to the meeting that Cheryl Kinchen, the long-time Human Resources director, moved Monday from her post to another position in parish government.

"Cheryl Kinchen has taken a new opportunity in parish government working with Chief Administrative Officer Ken Dawson working on project management," McConnell said.

Hel declined to say whether the move was related to the coming report on parish organization and suggested Kinchen had decided to pursue a new opportunity in parish government.

Kinchen was among five top parish administrators the council has refused to ratify, as the home rule charter calls for. In November, the council put off that decision until after the SSA organizational report was finished.

Follow David J. Mitchell on Twitter, @NewsieDave.

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Consultant offers mixed assessment of Ascension Parish government pay structure - The Advocate