Evaluation Salary System
New Salary System meets fundamental requirements, while some aspects require further improvement
For the last ten years, the salaries paid to non-academic staff and senior scientists in permanent employment have been based on the New Salary System (NSS). An external evaluation has found that the system meets the fundamental requirements and should be retained. Areas for improvement include the description of role profiles and the information provided to managers on the use of the system.
Salaries for a particular segment of employees in the ETH Domain have been based on the New Salary System (NSS) since 1 January 2006. The NSS does not apply to professors at ETH Zurich or EPFL, assistants, postdoc and doctoral students, nor to temporary staff paid at an hourly rate.
Employees are assigned to specific function levels in the NSS. Within the confines of available resources, individual salary increments are based both on experience and on the supervisor’s assessment of the employee’s performance. This assessment takes place as part of the annual appraisal interviews.
In late 2014, the ETH Board commissioned Zurich-based consulting company GFO to evaluate the NSS and identify options for improvement. The evaluation report has now been made available. The university assemblies, social partners and staff commissions have also had the opportunity to comment on the report. The Downloadstatement (75 KB) (German) from the ETH University Assembly was critical of the report.
Retaining and refining the NSS
The evaluation has concluded that the NSS is a serviceable instrument for defining salaries appropriate to roles, and managing these based on performance and experience. The NSS is a specialist system that combines elements of both public and private law. In this respect, it is similar to the system used by the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund (Suva). The NSS should be retained and further refined.
The absence of wage differentials between men and women in the ETH Domain was worthy of special mention. The review has also highlighted the active use of bonuses as a performance tool particularly at ETH Zurich. Over a third of ETH Zurich employees received a bonus for exceptional performance in 2014. A comparison of the salary structure in the ETH Domain with the wider market reveals that salaries tend to be higher than market rates at the lower function levels. On the other hand, at higher function levels (level 10 and above), and particularly in leadership positions, the average salary is below the market level.
Meanwhile, there is still room for improvement with regard to the implementation of the NSS. The role profiles are viewed by some as too technical, and do not always do justice to specific job profiles. In addition, not all line managers feel that they have been sufficiently trained in NSS mechanisms. The evaluation report recommends strengthening the role of supervisors by granting them greater influence in appraising and rewarding employees’ performance. Regarding the pay scale, the report states that there is no need for fundamental readjustment. In response to the evaluation, the ETH Board has instructed the institutions in the ETH Domain to take appropriate steps in order to further improve the NSS. Objectives include enhancing the transparency of the NSS, and improving information provided about the NSS to managers and staff.
Helpful review
“The in-depth analysis of our salary system has revealed that is generally working and that it has made it possible to implement the performance-related pay principle in an academic environment”, says Ulrich Weidmann, ETH Zurich Vice President Human Resources and Infrastructure. “I’m particularly pleased that today we have no wage gap between women and men in the same roles across the entire ETH Domain. On the other hand, no salary system is perfect; it requires continual refinement”, says Ulrich Weidmann. ETH Zurich will review the descriptions of role profiles, expanding them where necessary, and draft measures to communicate and strengthen the role of supervisors in assessing performance.
All personnel managers in the ETH Domain will meet with specialists from the company that made the recommendations in June 2016. “We’ll discuss how we can more clearly define the role profiles”, says Lukas Vonesch, Head of Human Resources at ETH Zurich. “We’ll also approach the departments and discuss how they apply these profiles and the freedom available to managers within the system.”