Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994                   TAG: 9411170120
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

INCENTIVE PAY SQUEEZED BY TIGHT STATE BUDGETS

Under the state's incentive pay plan, workers were to get raises Dec.1 based on five different performance ratings they received during evaluations this fall. Employees could get raises of 6.9 percent, 4.56 percent, 2.25 percent or, for those in the bottom two categories, nothing.

The General Assembly provided enough money to give an average 3.57 percent raise this year. As a result, if state agencies give too many employees top ratings, they won't have enough money to give everyone the raises they are due, said Bob Weaver, a consultant for the state Department of Personnel and Training.

That's led some agencies, such as the College of William and Mary, to be tougher in performance reviews so the number of good evaluations matches the budget.

``It's a disincentive pay plan,'' one worker at the college's Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester County told the Daily Press. ``It has nothing to do with your performance. Your rating is driven by the amount of money on hand.''

Other agencies, such as Christopher Newport University, have formed committees to ration out raises among their top-performing employees.

At Christopher Newport, 33 of approximately 170 employees received the highest ``exceptional'' ratings this year, said Bill Brauer, vice president for administration and finance. The university has enough money to give just 15 of them the biggest raises.

University administrators are now ranking those 33 workers to determine who will get the 6.9 percent raises and who will have to settle for the 4.56 percent raises.

``You have those who are exceptional who don't get exceptional pay,'' Brauer said. ``It doesn't mean they're any less exceptional.''

Some agencies have no problem staying within their budget because only a small percentage of their employees receive exceptional performance ratings.

Only 8.3 percent of employees at the Department of Corrections and 7.6 percent of workers at the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation received exceptional ratings last year.

Statewide, about 14 percent of state workers received exceptional performance ratings last year, according to numbers compiled by the state Department of Personnel and Training.

But at some schools and agencies, as many as one in three employees were considered top performers last year. At the Department of Military Affairs, 36.5 percent of employees were rated exceptional.

Charles James, director of the personnel department, has encouraged all state supervisors to be conservative in issuing the performance ratings.

``The design of any performance evaluation system recognizes that the highest rating should be used with restraint,'' James wrote in an Oct. 14 memo.