Florida Department of Education: Food Services Study

Nationally, the meals of more than two million students who are eligible for free or reduced price breakfasts go unserved. While this is a problem nationally, Florida is one of the states with the highest percentage of eligible students who are not consuming the free or reduced price meals they are eligible for, especially in secondary schools.

The purpose of Evergreen Solutions’ contract with the Florida Department of Education, which concluded in August 2008, was to study the reasons for this lack of participation in Florida’s 67 school districts. The scope of services includes designing tools, strategies, and preparing for the use of effective, tailored market research for secondary students, staff, and parents.

Florida Department of Health: Staff Augmentation

Evergreen Solutions, in association with Five Points Technology, provided the Florida Department of Health outsourcing services to fulfill the Department’s Public Health and Medical Preparedness and Response Consultant position.

As a function of this agreement, the consultant:

  • reviewed the relationship of other community providers as well as local Emergency Management Plans.
  • assured that exercises and plans were in keeping with practical aspects of the problem being addressed.
  • attempted to formulate a building block approach to disaster planning that allowed for public and private entities to achieve success and not be overcome by the scenario.
  • promoted the integration of rumor control into public information operations.
  • worked with the projects’ already established local and state committees to obtain consensus on the planning.
  • worked with project managers to obtain final approvals from the SWG and the DSOC, as appropriate.
  • advised, when appropriate, the ongoing information exchange with other response partners, in particular hospitals, long-term care, fire/rescue, law enforcement, and education.
  • worked with exercise design consultant in development of scenarios.

Evergreen Solutions maintained outsourcing contracts with other municipal government organizations.

Florida Department of Management Services: Best Practices Study and Human Resource Strategic Planning

The Florida Department of Management Services (DMS) retained Evergreen Solutions to create a statewide workforce strategic plan. The purpose of this project was to develop a strategic planning document with recommendations that served as the State’s roadmap for human resource policy guidance for the next five years. This roadmap assisted DMS in providing innovative, world-class human resource services designed to recruit, retain, reward and recognize a high-performance workforce for the State of Florida through 2012. The Strategic Plan was created to address three critical components: workforce design, compensation and benefits, and workforce training and development.

To generate a comprehensive understanding of stakeholder perspectives, Evergreen Solutions interviewed state-level leaders, engaged employees through focus groups, and conducted trend analysis. In addition, Evergreen Solutions administered an electronic survey statewide and that generated feedback from more than 20,000 employees across all departments and agencies. This research assisted Evergreen Solutions in creating meaningful action-driven recommendations.

Evergreen Solutions was also retained by the DMS to conduct a Best Practices Review of its internal human resources operation. A multi-faceted, multi-level approach was utilized that included focus groups, interviews, peer review, process analysis, best practices, benchmarking, and gap analysis. Based on data from each of these tools, a variety of operational commendations and recommendations were made.

North Idaho College: Compensation Study

Evergreen Solutions was engaged with North Idaho College (NIC) to provide professional services to review compensation (salary/wages) for identified regular, full-time positions (estimate between 60-75 benchmark job descriptions) and adjunct faculty positions, and recommend possible wage adjustments in alignment with the College’s compensation structure. The College’s labor market is generally private and public employers in the Inland Northwest for exempt staff positions and more specifically, Kootenai County and Spokane County areas for nonexempt. The labor market for faculty is generally the Northwest and Mountain States regions. The study provided the actions that should be taken to avoid loss of qualified staff and faculty, and difficulties in recruiting new employees to NIC employment.

New Mexico Highlands University: Classification and Compensation Study

Evergreen Solutions was engaged with New Mexico Highlands University to conduct a Classification and Compensation Study. The study included: an analysis of the ranking and rating of each job to the appropriate salary grade level to ensure fairness, internal equity, and pay range and a review to ensure positions were compliant with the Fair Labor Standards Act; an analysis of the University’s salary structure and existing position titles to propose recommendations for external competitiveness so that the University might be able to attract and retain well-qualified employees that reflected not only to job titles but duties and responsibilities of the job description; development of a compensation philosophy and compensation plan based on Highlands University strategic priorities ensuring alignment with Highlands’ mission, vision, and values; implementation of a maintenance plan for Highlands University that would keep job descriptions and salaries current and competitive; and recommendations for updating the University’s policies and procedures.

Miami-Dade College, FL: Compensation Study

Evergreen Solutions was engaged with Miami-Dade College to conduct a Compensation Study. Evergreen’s consultants performed the following tasks: reviewed existing position descriptions to ensure they reflected the appropriate duties, responsibilities, qualifications and FLSA status and recommended changes accordingly; provided recommendations on the current salary structures; conducted competitive analysis to determine whether the College led, lagged or was consistent with the market; recommended new salary structures for non-instructional and part time positions that was internally equitable and externally competitive; assigned each position description to the new structure. Included, if determined by study, a list of position titles that were determined to be under or over classified; designed salary administration guidelines/procedures to assist the College in all compensation related actions such as job evaluations, hiring, promotions reclassifications, etc.; identified positions that could be grouped into job families/career levels that had similar skills, effort and responsibility for development of career progression; and provided an implementation strategy to include employee communications for an updated compensation and classification system.

Metropolitan Community College, MO: Compensation and Classification Data Review

Evergreen Solutions was engaged with the Metropolitan Community College (MCC) to conduct a Compensation and Classification Data Review for 650 full-time employees in approximately 80-100 job classifications. Evergreen reviewed the current structure for staff and administrators and made recommendations for simplification of the compensation structure. For the Facilities, Public Safety, and Information Technology compensation structure, Evergreen reviewed and recommended separate and distinct salary structures for job families to ensure the College had a fair and equitable compensation system in place. Evergreen analyzed position classifications and based on labor market survey data, revised existing position descriptions to include more accurate and specific position data, as well as FLSA and ADA compliance. Evergreen conducted training and created manuals for to Human Resources staff to use to administer and maintain the adjusted compensation plan and classification system using our Job Force Manager tool to ensure continued relevance and competitiveness for MCC.

Middlesex Community College, NJ: Classification and Compensation Study

Evergreen Solutions was engaged with Middlesex Community College in New Jersey to conduct a Management Classification and Compensation Study for approximately 131 full-time management/administrative employees. Evergreen’s consultants discussed with the College’s Project Manager, the Vice-President, Finance and Administration (VPFA), and the Director of Human Resources (DHR), the strategic direction of the College and some of the short- and long-term priorities to assess where the College should be going and what type of pay plan would reinforce current and future goals. Evergreen gathered relevant materials and information to assist in the assessment of the current system and developed a projected classification plan, incorporating data gathered from the external labor market salary survey. Weekly updates were provided to the College’s Project Manager, VPFA, and the DHR throughout this engagement. Final reports were provided to Middlesex Community College and revised Class Descriptions and FLSA determinations were provided.

Santa Fe Community College, NM: Compensation Study

Evergreen Solutions was retained by the Santa Fe Community College to conduct a Compensation Study. The primary goals of the study were to: manage a classification/compensation strategy and organizational structure that is consistent with SFCC strategic and organizational objectives and in accordance with organizational mission, vision, values and financial resources; establish and maintain a competitive compensation structure based on comparisons to appropriate external labor markets while also considering relative internal worth; ensure that the compensation strategy is administered strategically, consistently, effectively, efficiently, fairly and equitably; design an organizational structure for career progression and recognition of high performance; establish a compensation strategy that is transparent, accountable and designed to ensure sound stewardship of available compensation funding; and establish the principles and processes for regular review of market competitiveness and effectiveness of compensation strategy.

Shawnee Community College, IL: Compensation Study

Evergreen Solutions was retained by Shawnee Community College to conduct a Compensation Study of its classified, professional, and administrative positions. The compensation study included the following primary components: perform an analysis of the College’s existing compensation structure; identify appropriate comparison institutions for the study; conduct a comprehensive compensation study surveying a group of comparable institutions, using job titles as well as duties and responsibilities; provide an accurate assessment of how the current compensation system compares with selected comparison institutions; provide recommendations on how the College’s current compensation structure can be strengthened to better support its goals and strategies, including ranking and assigning each position to an appropriate salary level to ensure equity and fairness and proposing a salary structure which provides equitable and fair compensation for all classifications; and assist in the development of a strategy to implement the recommended compensation plan.