Round 4
Dec 2000
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Office of the Provost
Compact Plan
Part Two: Initiatives
B. Initiatives Supporting Unit Goals
12. Improve IT Staff Recruitment and Retention by Expanding EPA Professional Staff
What will be achieved, how, and why it is important to the university
To improve recruitment and retention, we propose to convert approximately 20 percent of upper-level staff positions to EPA professional from SPA positions. Currently, ITD has EPA positions only at the level of Director or above. Expanding the number of EPA professional positions will
· Provide the necessary salary flexibility to hire and keep highly qualified programmers, systems administrators and networking professionals
· Create a new path for advancement for our most productive and valued technologists
These new EPA positions would be for technologists with good academic credentials (master's or higher). In most cases they would be able to contribute to the academic mission of the university though furthering research projects or direct teaching.
Competition from area corporations makes recruiting and retaining highly qualified programmers, systems administrators, and networking professionals particularly difficult for NC State. While NC State, as a public institution, will never be able to match industry's offers in terms of salaries, the academic and research environment at NC State does appeal to many technologists. ITD is hampered in making our best offer to these individuals because of the state SBA salary grade structure. The top-level SPA positions simply do not go high enough to accommodate the kind of technologists we need to develop and advance ITD and the university. The comparative flexibility of the EPA framework will enable us to be more competitive.
Impact or outcomes for students, faculty, staff, external clients or others
The impact of expanding the number of EPA positions will be to improve the reward system for our staff and enable us to make reasonable offers to highly qualified technologists. Improvements in recruitment and retention of our staff will enhance ITD's ability to serve the university both in providing commodity services and in advancing academic excellence and relevance in the research, development, and teaching of information technology and networking. Currently three to four high level professional positions need to be reclassified to EPA. These positions are held by individuals who have excellent academic qualifications (one is currently teaching a for-credit undergraduate course in Computer Science and all are qualified to do so).
Resources needed
No new funds are being requested for this initiative. This initiative will be covered within that portion of the UNC-GA IT infrastructure and other funds originally designated for staff recruitment and retention.