POSITION CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

The College will divide all full-time professionals and paraprofessional positions into classes according to a specified system. This system will define the qualifications and responsibilities for each class.

Adopted November 19, 1981
Revised March 13, 1986
Reformatted October 7, 1986
Reformatted February 2012

Procedure 4120A

POSITION CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

Position classification is a system for grouping positions with similar levels of responsibility. All positions are categorized into either the Professional category or the Paraprofessional category. Specific criteria are applied to categorize professional positions. Position classification is also a system for differentiating positions within the Professional and Paraprofessional categories and a system for assigning titles to positions. The Human Resources office maintains the system and coordinates the classification processes.

Position Titles
The title for each position is the official title for use on official personnel records, publications, and payroll documents.

Professional Positions
Criteria for Placing a Position into a Professional Category
There are four criteria:

• Non-exempt positions (as defined by the FLSA) are not included.
• Exempt positions (as defined by the FLSA) are included.
• Positions belonging in one of the following EEOC primary occupational activities areas are included:
  
  • Executive, Administrative, or Managerial
  • Faculty
  • Professional, Non-faculty
• The position must meet one of the following criteria:
  • The position is primarily instructional.
  • The position primarily involves advising and counseling students, faculty, or administrators involved in student recruitment, retention, job placement, or other student activities.
  • The position primarily involved institutional research/planning, institutional financial or data management, or management of programs that necessitate professional expertise and that have large budgets.
  • In the organization, the position is not lower than one level below the Associate Vice President level and is classified as either Executive/ Administrative/Managerial, or Instructional, or Professional, Non-faculty.

Classification of a New Professional Position
When a new position is created, the following classification process takes place:

• The appropriate College officer submits a proposed position description to the Human Resources office.
• The Human Resources office ensures that the position description is in proper form.
• The Human Resources office signs off on the position description and secures the signature of the supervising vice president.
• The Human Resources office convenes a meeting of the Professional Standards Board which reviews the position description and submits an approved position description to the College President for final approval.

PARAPROFESSIONAL

Criteria for Placing a Position into the Paraprofessional Category
There are three criteria:

• Non-exempt positions (as defined by the FLSA) are included.
• Exempt positions (as defined by the FLSA) may be included.
• Positions belonging to one of the following EEOC primary occupational activity areas are included:
  (1) Clerical and secretarial
  (2) Technical and paraprofessional
  (3) Skilled craft
  (4) Service/maintenance

Responsibility for Maintaining the System
The Human Resources office will maintain the system. Periodically the system will be updated, but individual position description will be reviewed and possibly updated whenever an employee terminates employment. Position descriptions will be considered “approved” when the supervising vice president, the Human Resources office, and the College President have all signed the position description.

Classification of a New Paraprofessional Position
When a new position is created, the following classification process takes place:

• The appropriate College officer submits a proposed position description to the Human Resources office.
• The Human Resources office ensures that the position description is in proper form.
• The Human Resources personnel signs off on the position description and secures signatures from the supervising vice president and College President.
• The Vice President for Administrative Services analyzes the position, interviews the supervisor, and convenes a meeting of the Executive Council.
• The Executive Council meets to assign a salary grade to the position. The supervisor of the position shall be included in the meeting together with four (4) full-time paraprofessional staff members appointed by the Chairperson of the Paraprofessional Association. The Executive Council solicits input from these employees. After soliciting input, the Executive Council determines which salary grade should be assigned to the position.

Reclassification of a Paraprofessional Position to a Higher or Lower Salary Grade
A paraprofessional position can be reclassified into a higher or lower salary grade based on one of the following situations:

• A multi-year trend, based on benchmarked salary survey data, indicates that the current salary range for a benchmarked position is either too low or too high.
• Based on changes in the classification of a benchmarked position, a closely related non-benchmarked position may be worthy of reclassification consideration.
• The kind and/or level of the work assignment has changed sufficiently as to warrant the significant revision of the existing position description.

No position will be considered for reclassification to a lower salary grade if there is an incumbent in the position.

The Human Resources office is primarily responsible for identifying those positions which should be considered for reclassification based on a multi-year trend of a benchmarked salary survey.

Any employee or supervisor may request a change in the classification of a position when the kind and/or level of the work assigned has changed sufficiently as to warrant the significant revision of the existing position description.

Paraprofessional Reclassification Request Process

Based on Multi-Year Trends of Salary Survey Data:

• The Human Resources office confers with the Executive Council and the supervisor of the employee in the affected position. The Executive Council determines whether or not the process should be continued.
• If the process is to be continued, the Human Resources office convenes a meeting of the Executive Council, the supervisor of the employee in the affected position, and four full-time paraprofessional staff members appointed by the Chairperson of the Paraprofessional Association (exclusive of the affected employee). The Executive Council solicits input from these employees. After soliciting input, the Executive Council determines which salary grade should be assigned to the position.
  If a position is reclassified to a higher salary grade, the resultant salary increase will become effective the first day of the month following the Executive Council decision.

Based on the Change in Kind or Level of the Work:

• The requesting party submits a written request to the supervisor with supporting documentation, including a proposed position description.
• Within 15 work days, the supervisor shall act on the request. Each supervisor shall attach to the request a supportive or non-supportive recommendation. The request shall be given to the supervising vice president with 30 days from the submission of the original request.
• Upon receipt of the request, the supervising vice president shall have 10 working days to determine the following:
  
  • (a) That the request is appropriate and should be forwarded to the Human Resources office with a positive recommendation;
    OR
  • (b) That the request is inappropriate, meaning that the existing position description should not be changed significantly and that the incumbent employee should perform only those essential duties included in the existing position description. Should this action occur, the request is deemed denied, and there is no appeal through this process. (Employees who feel they have been treated unfairly may file a grievance through the grievance and appeal process.) The vice president shall notify the incumbent employee, requesting party and the appropriate supervisory personnel;
    OR
  • (c) That the request is inappropriate, meaning the proposed changes in the position description are satisfactory, but that the new duties do not change the kind and/or level of the work assignment sufficiently as to warrant a change of classification. Should this action occur, the vice president shall notify the incumbent employee, requesting party and appropriate supervisory personnel. The requesting party or the incumbent employee shall have ten (10) working days from the receipt of the vice president’s decision to appeal same to the Human Resources office.
• The Vice President for Administration Services shall analyze all requests for reclassification that have been filed with the Human Resources office, as described in (a) and (c) above.
• The Vice President for Administrative Services convenes a meeting of the Executive Council, the supervisor of the requesting party, the requesting party, and four full-time professional staff members appointed by the Chairperson of the Paraprofessional Association. The Executive Council solicits input from these employees, considers the analysis by the Vice President for Administrative Services, and then determines if the reclassification request should be approved and which salary grade should be assigned to the position.
•  If the position is reclassified to a higher salary grade, the resultant salary increase will become effective the first day of the month following the Executive Council’s decision.

Adopted November 19, 1981
Revised March 13, 1986
Reformatted October 7, 1986
Paraprofessional - Revised December 14, 1989
Professional – Revised February 25, 1993
Revised November 8, 2007
Reformatted February 2012