Overview

This section provides an overview of the HISD processes used to manage the compensation program and the HISD compensation philosophy, from evaluating positions and establishing pay rates to administering pay programs over the long term.

The compensation philosophy of HISD has two major components:

• Compensation position: For non-teacher, central administration, and business support positions, HISD targets compensation at market competitive levels for which HISD competes for talent. Compensation for teachers and school-based administrators is targeted at the top quartile for large urban Region IV school districts and the school districts surrounding the greater Houston area.
• Labor markets: Primary labor market is the greater Houston metropolitan area with an emphasis on education. HISD may consider general industry pay practices for administrative, business operations, and technology jobs.

Compensation management at HISD is a multi-faceted process focused on furthering the organization’s compensation philosophy. The major aspects include defining and evaluating jobs, establishing pay rates and ranges for jobs, determining the proper compensation level for employees, and administering various aspects of the pay program over the long term.

The following policies reflect the major elements of the compensation management process at HISD.

• Defining and Evaluating Jobs: Job evaluation is a systematic process for determining the relative value of various jobs within the district. Once a position has been in use for a period of time, re-evaluation may become necessary if the scope of the job has changed substantially.
• Determining a Job’s Market Value: Once a position’s relative internal value has been established through the HISD job evaluation process, the Compensation Department determines its dollar value in the external marketplace. To accomplish this, the Compensation Department relies on a series of surveys that allow comparisons with numerous types of positions.
    Through combining the information obtained from both the job evaluation process and the market valuation process, jobs can be assigned to appropriate pay grades. A more detailed discussion of determining a job’s market value and pay grade assignment is presented in Section IX. For more details, see page 89 of this manual.
• Determining an Employee’s Actual Pay Rate: Once the position has been assigned a specific pay grade, that grade’s pay range will be used to assist the Hiring Manager in assigning the employee’s salary or pay rate.