Ball State University is committed to providing a comprehensive total rewards program to attract, retain and reward highly qualified, diverse, and productive staff employees. The following objectives help to facilitate our classified staff compensation program.

  • The total rewards program emphasizes alignment of employee efforts and results to support the university's mission and goals.
  • The university strives to be both externally competitive in relevant labor markets and internally equitable.
  • The program also promotes fiscally responsible pay decisions, encourages efficient use of university resources, and ensures compliance with applicable legal and contractual requirements.
  1. All classified staff positions must have a job description that accurately describes the essential functions, job-related qualifications (i.e., experience, education, and functional competencies), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemption status, working conditions, and mental and physical requirements.
  2. Positions are evaluated based upon the job content in the job description.
  3. Critical inputs into a base pay decision include employee performance, relevant skills and job experience, and budget availability.
  4. University Human Resource Services (UHRS), in conjunction with unit leadership, review non-union staff employee base pay during the following activities:
    1. Job evaluation process
    2. Annual compensation process
    3. Employee job changes such as promotions, demotions, and changes in scope of responsibility
  5. All pay decisions must conform to the university's policy of equal employment opportunity, and federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

Review Dates

The annual review timeline is established to align with the university’s fiscal year. The review period for classified staff is April 1 of the previous year through March 31 of the current year.

The annual compensation process is our formal process for reviewing classified staff employee base pay levels. This process provides UHRS and managers the opportunity to review base pay levels and make appropriate adjustments to ensure base pay levels are differentiated to reflect performance and internally equitable.

Performance evaluations are recommended for all employees either before or in conjunction with the annual compensation cycle. Managers should document and then consider employee performance when making base pay decisions.

A percent of the budget is set aside for each annual performance rating to recognize and differentiate employee performance. All active, classified staff employees are eligible for the annual compensation process.

The Staff Classification System is a job evaluation plan that measures the internal worth of a position to the university. Grades are established by the evaluation plan and the accompanying salary ranges for each grade are shown below. For more information, go to Classification of Staff Positions, an online training module provided by Learning and Development.

Salary Ranges for Staff Personnel 2022-2023 (Last Update 12/2022)
Grade Minimum Maximum New Hire

6

23,504

31,158.40

23,504

7

25,584

34,049.60

25,584

8

27,872

37,211.20

27,872

9

30,368

40,705.60

23,628.80

10

33,072

44,491

33,072

11

37,336

52,852.80

37,336

12

40,560

56,867.20

40,560

13

43,992

62,379.2

43,992

14 47,944 67,766.4 47,944

Employee job changes, such as promotion, demotion, transfer, and changes in scope of responsibility may impact base pay. In these situations, UHRS will collaborate with the department to facilitate the job evaluation/audit process, which may or may not result in an adjustment to the base pay level.

Related Links

Online Training Modules 
  1. Assure a fair distribution of salaries, wages, and fringe benefits by adopting and maintaining a formalized job evaluation system which establishes internal equity between jobs and by administering an effective employee appraisal system to evaluate work performance.
  2. Provide a well-qualified staff to perform the work of the university by establishing a compensation program that is competitive in the marketplace.
  3. Administer a system of cost control for human resources' expenditures to ensure the prudent expenditure of state funds and student payments.

Job Audits for Classified Staff Positions

Request an Audit

An employee who has been working in his/her respective classified staff position for at least one year and who believes the position’s responsibilities have significantly changed from when he/she started in the position may request a job audit. If a department undergoes a reorganization, the department can request an audit six months after new duties have been assigned or significantly changed.  An employee who has been working in his/her respective position for more than five years since it was last audited and has had changes to his/her job description verified by the supervisor and University Human Resources Services may also request an audit of that position.

  1. The request for an audit of a Classified Staff Personnel position may be made by completing a Request for Review of Position Classification (HR-17) which is available in the HR forms section of the website. The form must be completed with the signatures of all required levels of supervision and then sent to UHRS.
  2. When the form is received in UHRS, a Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) will be emailed to the first level supervisor of the employee whose position is being audited. The supervisor will give the PAQ to the employee and go over with the employee the audit instructions received from UHRS.
  3. Then the supervisor or the employee, if approved for the Hiring Manager role in HR-TMS, will make the necessary revisions to the duties and responsibilities on the position description in that system.
  4. When the employee has completed his/her portion of the PAQ, additional comments and signatures must be obtained from the supervisor along with each subsequent level of supervision through the Vice President for the area. The completed PAQ is uploaded to the revised position request in HR-TMS and moved through the workflow to UHRS.
  5. Upon UHRS’s receipt of the completed PAQ and the revised position request in HR-TMS, the HR Representative for the area will contact the employee and his or her first level supervisor to schedule a time to conduct an on-site job audit interview with both those individuals.
  6. After the interview is completed, it will usually take approximately four weeks before the result of the audit is communicated back to the supervisor.

An audit may result in any of the following outcomes: No change in salary grade, title or exemption status; a title change; a change in exemption status; an upgrade; a downgrade.

Outline of Audit Appeal Process for Classified Staff Positions