Dunn County proposes 2026 wage plan tied to quarterly performance reviews, seeks to end 11‑step system

Dunn County Human Resources presented a proposal to tie 2026 wage increases to quarterly performance ratings and to remove the county’s existing 11‑step pay system, HR Director Jenna Nutter told the Health and Human Services Board.

The proposal would lift pay grades by a 2.25% market adjustment, then add an additional 0.50 percentage point for employees who “meet expectations” and 1.00 percentage point for those who “exceed expectations,” producing effective increases of roughly 2.75% and 3.25%, respectively. Employees rated “needs improvement” would not be eligible for a 2026 increase, Nutter said.

County Talent Development Manager Sarah Sainsbury described a parallel overhaul of the county’s performance management: managers will hold formal performance check‑ins about four times a year (around Jan. 1, April 1, July 1 and Oct. 1), document those conversations in NeoGov and use a three‑tier rating scale — “exceeds expectations,” “meets expectations,” and “needs improvement.” Sainsbury said the county’s goal is to shift from annual evaluations to ongoing feedback that supports retention.

Jenna Nutter said the change to the pay grid is intended to give the county flexibility and to direct limited funds toward higher performers. She told the board that keeping the current step system — 25 pay grades (A–W) with 11 steps each and a fixed 2.75% step between them — makes long‑term budgeting difficult and is fiscally unsustainable at historical step levels. “We are proposing to remove what we currently call our step system,” Nutter said.

Nutter presented county cost comparisons projecting that if the county kept the step plus a cost‑of‑living adjustment, personnel costs in 2026 would be about $51.6 million; the proposed grid would cost about $50.6 million, a difference of roughly $986,000 for 2026. She said the county needed about $2.0 million in 2025 to fund step/COLA increases and that future years under the status quo trajectory could push personnel costs to about $62 million by 2030. Nutter noted a key revenue constraint: the county’s allowable levy growth is largely limited to net new construction (about 1.75% in 2025), which in recent years produced roughly $126,000 in additional levy — far short of the millions the step system requires.

Under the proposal, employees already at the top step of a pay grade would be eligible for a lump‑sum payment if they exceed expectations rather than a permanent step‑increase. Sainsbury described training and audits to support managers in using the new ratings and the NeoGov forms, and she said employees will be able to see completed forms and provide input on the narrative portion.

The County Administration Committee approved the wage grid proposal and it was scheduled for a first reading before the full county board next Wednesday; Nutter said the change requires an amendment to the county personnel code because that code currently prescribes 11 steps. Nutter and Sainsbury said the performance management process is an operational matter, with planned town‑hall sessions and additional training for managers in early 2026.

Next steps: the wage grid will appear for first reading at the full board; Nutter said a second reading is expected in September and budget adoption is anticipated in November. No formal county board vote on the wage grid occurred during this Health and Human Services meeting.

Sources: Jenna Nutter, HR Director; Sarah Sainsbury, Talent Development Manager; presentation materials provided to the Health and Human Services Board.