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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 10283 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10283 June 4, 2019 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 1 of 3 SUBJECT: LEAVE BENEFITS STUDY Human Resources has been reviewing employee leave benefits compensation and recruiting/retention objectives while ensuring good fiscal stewardship to our taxpayers. In addition, HR has conducted focus groups with employees. HR recently solicited proposals for consulting services to conduct a Leave Study. The objective of the Study is to examine and recommend ways to simplify and modernize the City of Fort Worth leave benefit structure for General, Police, and Fire employees. Issues with the current leave structure at the City which include: It is overly complex The policies have evolved over time, in some instances because of litigation. This has caused the structure to no longer serve the objectives There is not a clear policy on how to handle employees out for extended absences The compensatory time accrual policy, for exempt staff, is excessive Leave payouts when an employee leaves are excessive due to compensatory time policies and categories of unlimited leave accrual The number of Holidays appear to be fewer than other local public and private employers No provision for maternity / paternity leave Change to retirement credit for sick and major medical Therefore, the goals of this study are to develop an employee benefit leave structure that is: 1. Simple to understand and administer 2. Providing employees with adequate financial protection 3. Appropriately competitive with other employers to attract and retain talent 4. Affordable and sustainable for the Organization long-term PFM Consulting was selected as the vendor for the project and will conduct the following series of activities in order to address the objectives of the study: Phase 1: Data Collection In this phase a project kickoff meeting has been held to discuss goals, timeline and the study design, and work with the City to collect reports, policies and analyses that provide the data required for the analysis. They will also verify our understanding of the current benefits and preliminary concepts developed by the City, as applicable. This data will include: Reports containing data on accumulated days of leave by leave type for each employee, with coding indicating the type of employee (General, Fire, Police), number of years of service, unique employee number, employee daily pay rate, and other information as required based on kickoff meeting discussion Reports with data on leave usage for 2-3 recently-completed fiscal years, preferably at the employee level (with identifiers subject to confidentiality) with the amount and length of leave usage periods separately indicated, and with coding as described above ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10283 June 4, 2019 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 2 of 3 SUBJECT: LEAVE BENEFITS STUDY Written documentation on the source of leave benefit provisions, i.e. statute, code of ordinances, personnel policy manual, labor contracts, etc. Estimates of the actuarial impact on pensions and, if applicable, Other Post-Employment Benefits Previous survey data collected by the City for private and public employers Phase 2: Data Analysis Based on their prior experience work to date, they will have a work session with the City to identify and agree upon 1-3 alternative scenarios for analysis. They will configure a model replicating current baseline results and estimating the potential multi-year impact of the preferred scenario changes, in terms of: Average leave usage per employee Fiscal impact of leave usage/ absenteeism Average per-employee and total leave balances, by type of leave and employee Annual payouts Pension service impact In addition, they will interview 1-3 public sector employers that have implemented similar reforms to review their experience with implementation, HR issues, actual cost savings, any unanticipated impacts, etc. They will also estimate the cost of disability insurance policies, through comparable employer data and interviews and discussions with insurance brokers and actuaries, as a potential replacement for certain leave categories. Phase 3: Review and Present Findings They will prepare a draft presentation document summarizing findings and estimated cost impacts of the preferred reform scenario for discussion with the City for purposes of receiving feedback or direction to test additional scenarios. After PFM has completed their report, Human Resources/City Management will meet with Police and Fire representatives to ensure that any changes that might conflict with state law and/or labor agreements are agreed upon. The proposed schedule is noted below. An employee communication plan will be developed to ensure the workforce is informed throughout the process. Stakeholder input beyond the peer employers noted above will be sought to - supportive policies. Please contact Brian Dickerson, Director of Human Resources at (817) 392-7783, if you have any questions. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10283 June 4, 2019 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council Page 3 of 3 SUBJECT: LEAVE BENEFITS STUDY ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS