The Village of Northbrook is reorganizing the village manager’s office and will have a new human resources division (not department) amid a revised employee flowchart for 2024.
The village also has a new employee handbook which took effect on Jan. 1 for nonunion employees. A Feb. 1, 2024 effective date was projected for union employees. The employee handbook revisits standard operating procedures but now within a handbook format, viewable at https://www.northbrook.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/7188/Employee-Handbook—January-1-2024.
To consider reorganizing the village manager’s office, the Northbrook Village Board of Trustees approved last July 11 a consultant agreement with HUB International, a Chicago-based firm providing employee benefits consulting services, for a fee not to exceed $39,500, according to the consent agenda-placed resolution.
On Jan. 9, the board of trustee’s Committee of the Whole (COW) discussed next steps in the Village Hall’s Terrace Room. Reorganization includes the hiring of GovHR USA, a recruiting firm, for an approximate $72,000 fee.
Northbrook Village Manager Cara Pavlicek said on Jan. 9 the GovHR contract amount, “would be covered with salary savings from vacancies.”
The GovHR resolution is tentatively scheduled for the Jan. 23 regular board of trustees meeting agenda.
Creating a human resources division comes after the Dec. 1, 2023 retirements of two full-time Northbrook Village Hall employees, Debra J. Ford and Judy Butch, who handled human resources as part of their duties.
According to the HUB report, the Village of Northbrook has an estimated 292 employees. The report indicates the director of administrative services (formerly Ford) spent 20 % of time on HR duties. The executive assistant (formerly Butch) spent 50 % of time on HR duties.
The director of administrative services is proposed to be replaced with a director of human resources title. The executive assistant would become office manager, not part of a human resources division.
The new flow chart of the village manager’s office identifies the new office manager reporting to the deputy village manager (Madeline Farrell).
Reporting to the village manager (Cara Pavlicek) would be the director of human resources with two subordinate positions identified as an employee support coordinator and a senior human resources generalist.
The flow chart has 11 boxes as positions in the village manager’s office (including Pavlicek) and 10 positions are full-time. The 11th box for the management intern is a part-time position active only in the summer and for a few weeks during the holiday break (college students).
The HUB report recommended three combination options ranging from three to four human resources positions.
The preference shown in the flow chart is three HR division positions (HR director, two HR generalists) with estimated base wages as a total expense of $306,800. The HR director is proposed to have a compensation benchmark salary of $152,000, according to the HUB report. The report does not indicate if base salary estimates include employee benefits costs.
The organizational chart, “I think works best,” Pavlicek said, ” … was that you really go to a three person specific structure for human resources.”
The HR director would be chief negotiator for collective bargaining and “overseeing the whole mission and vision,” of human resources, Pavlicek said.
Ford’s and Butch’s base salaries added to more than $261,000. No salary numbers were available regarding what a future office manager would earn.
Both Ford and Butch started village employment as part-time administrative clerks and were promoted to full-time status with opportunities to pursue certifications as job scopes and salaries increased. Ford started village employment in 2000 and Butch in 2005.
“We had some unique circumstances happen with retirements of a couple key people that were doing pieces of HR,” Pavlicek said.
The report was helpful, Pavlicek said, in that, “And so luckily, because we had a lot of advance notice on those retirements, and we knew this was coming, and we knew they were going to give us some recommendations what to do, we held off on trying to make some decisions on backfilling those vacancies permanently because we’re like, ‘Well, let’s see what this says,’ and then, maybe we’re restructuring.”
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Pavlicek indicated the current budget authority of funding the village manager’s office of 10 full-time positions, “more than covers us hiring these three people with the vacancies.”
Pavlicek also told trustees regarding the, “salary and benefits authority for the full 10 people, (that) I think you’ll have some say … with this new structure just because of how we were with some of the way things were plugged in with long tenured, and some of that salary structure.
“So I think we’ll be very competitive,” Pavlicek said.
Informal conference room discussion during Tuesday evening’s COW meeting included Trustee Johannah K. Hebl who said, “I think this is a no brainer and I’m so glad this is being presented.
“So I’m 100 % in.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.