Help
This Help page provides information in two categories:
- Technical Support - Addresses issues surrounding the operation of this site using a web browser. Topics include:
- Compensation Support - Addresses basic issues related to compensation and salary structure development. Topics include:
If the information you need is not here, please contact us.
Technical Support Help
Getting Started
If you're new to the Internet (also called the Web), you will need to get instruction in how to effectively navigate the Web before using this site. This site's help information is intended to support regular users of the Internet and does not contain technical support for basic Internet functions. If you are comfortable exploring the Internet, we suggest that you browse through this help page to familiarize yourself with our site.
Log In and Password Security
Every subscribing user is assigned a unique user ID and password. As with most password-protected subscription sites, the user agrees to have one subscription per person. It is your responsibility to protect your user ID and password.
In the case of counties, one department may have a subscription that is shared by multiple users. For example, the Human Resources Department may have one departmental subscription that is issued to the Human Resources Director. The Human Resources Director may then choose to share his or her user ID and password with the Assistant Human Resources Director.
Again, protection of user ID and password information is the sole responsibility of the subscriber. User IDs and passwords are not intended to be shared across department lines.
If you have logged in but have not had activity for 20 minutes, you will encounter the log-in page again when attempting to use the salaries or benefits pages. If this occurs, simply re-enter your user ID and password and continue using the site as before.
If access is denied or your password does not appear to work, this could be the result of one of the following:
- You typed in the wrong password, or did not enter the password using
upper and lower case letters as received. Passwords are case sensitive.
- Another person is logged onto the site using your user ID and
password.
- Your subscription payment is past due. Contact billing.
- Your subscription has expired. You need to subscribe again.
If you believe that your subscription password has been compromised, send an email to technicalsupport@watersconsulting.com with your user ID and current password. After verifying your identity, we will send you a new password to the email address on file for your user ID within 1 business day.
If you have forgotten your password, send an email to technicalsupport@watersconsulting.com with your user ID. After verifying your identity, we will send your password to the email address on file for your user ID within 1 business day.
When a County Does Not Appear in the Results
If a county does not appear in the results, possible reasons include the following:
- You unselected the county by mistake.
- No information was provided by the county.
- Selection criteria mismatch (for example, the county's population is outside the percentage range you specified).
Copying/Pasting to a Spreadsheet or Word Processing Program
To copy information from a Web page into a worksheet or document, select (highlight) the information you want to copy, click the "Edit" menu, and then click "Copy". Open the program that you want to paste the information to (for example, Excel) and click "Paste".
Printing
You can print results for salaries or benefits choosing the Print option from the File menu of your web browser.
You may need to change the page orientation to Landscape to avoid cutting off information. You can do this by choosing the Print option from the File menu of your web browser, clicking the Properties button, and selecting Landscape orientation.
Lost Connection or No Response
Losing a connection can happen for a number of hardware or software reasons. This site was designed for maximum efficiency and information downloads within seconds. If your connection continues to be interrupted, you should contact your county's system administrator.
If you have logged in but have not had activity for 20 minutes, you will encounter the log-in page again when attempting to use the salaries or benefits pages. If this occurs, simply re-enter your user ID and password and continue using the site as before.
Compensation Support Help
Determining a Good Job Match
You can determine the job match by reviewing the job summary for any position. To review job summaries, select one or more job titles on the Salaries page and click the Display Job Summaries button.
Choosing Benchmark Jobs for Comparison
To gain a good representation of your county's status in the market, we suggest that you survey at least 30% of all job titles when developing a salary structure. We also encourage you to include job titles that have a large number of incumbents such as "Clerk" in addition to difficult-to-place positions such as "Information Technology Director." Make sure to use the same benchmark jobs each year for true comparison purposes. But since this site can so easily and quickly analyze survey data, there would be no reason not to collect survey information on all job matches within your county.
Choosing Benchmark Counties for Comparison
The most appropriate counties for comparison are those that are truly seen as "competition." Questions to consider are the following:
- Are their characteristics similiar to ours, such as tax base, population, and number of employees?
- Are they near us geographically?
- Are we truly losing employees to them?
- How will I explain why I chose these counties in my survey database?
- Does my county have certain requirements for benchmark counties? If so, have I followed these guidelines?
Converting Salaries
To convert salaries, use the following formulas:
- Yearly to monthly = Yearly salary divided by 12
- Yearly to hourly = Yearly salary divided by 2080
- Monthly to yearly = Monthly salary multiplied by 12
- Monthly to hourly = Monthly salary divided by 173.35
- Hourly to monthly = Hourly salary multiplied by 173.35
- Hourly to yearly = Hourly salary multiplied by 2080
These conversion formulas are based on the standard number of working hours in a calendar year (2080 hours).
Aging the Salary Data
It is generally not possible to collect data at the exact time frame it is required for decision making. Also, compensation programs designed for future implementation depend on the ability to project previously collected data meaningfully. Aging is a method available for ensuring the timeliness of information used, by adjusting for the time between data collection and data use. By applying market trend analysis, one can determine the average percent movement of salaries during a specific period. This enables defining the percentage that salaries are expected to be moving each month, which can then be used to age data to a specific future point in time.
The Effective Date that you enter determines the aging factor used to calculate the Aged Average displayed at the end of the results table. The displayed Minimum, Maximum, and Average data are unaged. Only the Aged Average has been forecasted using the entered Effective Date.
About the Data
Salary information is solicited yearly by asking participating counties to review their data and to provide necessary changes in writing.
You may wonder whether an error has occurred if you find that data for a job title that you acquired one day is different from that acquired on another day. If this occurs, it is most likely because we have updated our database between the dates of your two data retrievals. Other possible reasons for data being different are that you inadvertently specified a different effective date or entered a different salary amount for comparison.