Aspen freezes wages, keeps bonuses
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado
ASPEN ” The 314 employees who work for the city of Aspen will have their wages frozen this year, but some will still receive bonuses that reward them for meeting goals and being outstanding workers.
The city government has budgeted $536,550 for employee bonuses in 2009, while millions of dollars have been shaved in operational cuts, wage freezes and pending layoffs.
At the end of 2008, when city financiers were preparing for cuts to this year’s budget, a total of $637,731 was given out in employee bonuses through a variety of programs, records show.
City Manager Steve Barwick said the bonuses are crucial to employee performance and are not on the chopping block.
“We’ll cut back on payroll but [bonuses] will be one of the last things to go,” he said.
The largest program that accounts for most of the payouts is the “Goals and Outcome Measures Bonus” for employees who achieve department goals. Employees are eligible to receive up to $1,800 annually if they meet goals determined by teams in their respective departments.
The goals emulate those of the City Council, and are measured on fact-based results from the employee’s peers and the public in terms of customer service, Barwick said.
“It’s the public sector version of profit sharing,” he said. “The whole notion is that everybody is a supervisor.”
The program encourages people to make adjustments in how they operate ” employees who might not otherwise make the effort unless they are rewarded monetarily.
“It’s the most productive thing you can do,” Barwick said of the 14-year program. “We have gotten huge customer satisfaction scores as a result.”
There are tens of thousands of dollars given out in a number of other programs including “The “Lookin’ Good” reward program, the “Over the Top Award,” the “Outstanding Employee Recognition,” the “Top of Range” bonus and the “Safety” bonus. Likewise, select employees receive bonuses on their hiring date anniversaries.
The “Lookin’ Good” reward program enables employees to give each other $20 in recognition of doing outstanding work.
The “Over the Top” is a $150 bonus and recognizes employees who do something extraordinary.
The “Outstanding Employee” bonuses come in increments of $500 and are awarded quarterly. A committee reviews which employees deserve the reward, and up to $2,000 can be given to groups for outstanding performance, according to the city’s human resource director, Alissa Farrell.
The “Top of the Range” bonus is a plan for employees who have reached the ceiling of their pay and receive a 4 percent bonus.
The “Safety” bonus is given out to employees who go through training to reduce workplace accidents, or those who have avoided accidents during the year.
Barwick and Farrell said the city receives discounts from insurance companies and rates are kept low as a result of having safety programs in place.
The anniversary bonus program is being re-evaluated and is a candidate for being cut from this year’s budget, Barwick said, adding it was designed to retain employees for more than a year or two.
A wellness program, which included a host of offerings for employees, has been discontinued for 2009, according to Farrell.
There are year-end bonuses for department heads such as Barwick, who said he didn’t take one for 2008, given the current economic conditions.
He also noted that half of the employees who receive bonuses are paid out of the general fund, with the remaining being paid from separate funds that are self-sustaining, such as the Wheeler Opera House, the utilities department and the municipal golf operation.
