Village of Elburn considers employee compensation study

Elburn is considering hiring a consultant to come up with a formal classification and compensation system to guide personnel decisions.

The village is acting on recommendations made by a study conducted by the Northern Illinois University’s Center for Governmental Studies in 2021.

As the employee population grows and becomes more complex to accommodate Elburn’s population growth over the next five to 15 years, it will become more important for the classification system to work toward eliminating actual or perceived inequities, properly classify positions based on job content, skill level and market competitiveness and ensure employee advancement is based on merit, according to documents based on the study.

A request for proposals elicited responses from eight companies. The one that Assistant Village Administrator Chris Ranney identified as the best fit for the job, HR/Gov/HR USA, based in Northbrook, specializes in public management consulting services.

Ranney said the firm has conducted more than 270 compensation and classification studies over the past 10 years, many of which were for Chicago-area municipalities. Many of the firm’s staff have previous experience as city managers or municipal human resources directors.

They have conducted similar studies for Geneva, Sugar Grove and Plano. The study will take about four to five months and will cost $22,200. The board will vote on the decision to hire at its next meeting.