Project Information

Bid Title

Employee Compensation & Pay Classification Study - RFP

Issuing Agency

City of Conway

Location

South Carolina

Published Date

Jan 30, 2026

Closing Date

Mar 4, 2026

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Original Source

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Bid Documents

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Project Description

Employee Compensation & Pay Classification Study – RFP

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CITY OF CONWAY

CITY OF CONWAY

P.O. DRAWER 1075

CONWAY, SOUTH CAROLINA 29528

Phone (843) 397-2539

Fax (843) 397-2883

EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION & PAY CLASSIFICATION STUDY

Request for sealed Proposals for Employee Compensation and Pay

Classification Study. The City reserves the right to delete any section

from the bid as it deems appropriate.

DUE DATE/TIME: Wednesday, March 4, 2026 @ 2:00 PM

POINT OF RECEIPT:

City of Conway

c/o Amanda Hooper

PO Drawer 1075

Conway, South Carolina 29528

Physical Address:

City of Conway - City Shop

2940 Jerry Barnhill Blvd.

Conway, South Carolina 29527

Requests for information regarding this Request for Proposals should be directed in

writing by either letter or e-mail to the Amanda Hooper (procurement@conwaysc.gov).

1

CITY OF CONWAY

The City of Conway is accepting sealed proposals from qualified firms to provide the City with

Employee Compensation and Pay Classification Study.

Background

The City has a seven-member City Council operating under the Council form of government.

City departments include Administration, Planning & Development, Human Resources,

Information Technology, Finance, Police, Municipal Court, Fire, Construction Services, Public

Works Streets & Stormwater, Fleet Maintenance, Parks & Recreation, Public Utilities,

Hospitality & Beautification, and Solid Waste. The City currently employs approximately 352

full and 31 part-time municipal employees under approximately three hundred and eighty-nine

(389) job titles classified into thirty-one (31) compensation grades.

The City’s most recent classification and compensation study by an outside contractor was

conducted in June 2018 and presented January 22, 2019. Many of the positions evaluated at that

time have been reviewed and updated when necessary. New positions have been created and

have been incorporated into the plan. Other positions have been eliminated. Since the plan was

adopted, inequities and compression have developed, and the criteria and weighing of various

factors of the system need to be updated.

Objective

The purpose of the Classification and Compensation Study is to address changes in City

operations and staffing over the past decades which may have affected the type, scope, and level

of work being performed.

The City’s objectives are to:

• Attract and retain qualified employees.

• Ensure positions performing similar work with essentially the same level of

complexity, responsibility, knowledge, skills, and abilities are classified together.

• Provide salaries commensurate with assigned duties.

• Clearly outline promotional opportunities and provide recognizable compensation

growth.

• Provide justifiable pay differential between individual classes.

• Maintain a competitive position with other comparable government entities and

private employers within the same geographic area.

2

Scope of Work

The City desires a qualified consultant or consultant firm to complete a comprehensive

Employee Compensation Study, Pay Classification Study, and Workforce Assessment. The

selected proposer will work closely with the Human Resources Director and meet with City

representatives as necessary to prepare the survey process and present results and

recommendations derived from the study. The City will provide pay ranges, job descriptions, and

any other available in-house information requested by the selected proposer which may be

required to complete the study. The proposer is required to present to City Council upon

completion of the project.

The selected proposer will be required to provide the following:

Classification Plan

- Conduct interviews and/or job audits of every job within the City. May be conducted

with individual employees or in groups based upon classification.

- Provide for a comprehensive evaluation of every job within the City to determine relative

worth within the organization for internal equity.

- Analyze current workforce within the context of the City’s established priorities and

workload to determine if the current number of staff (full-time employees) meets

organizational needs. Based on the analysis, provide recommendations for the addition or

elimination of full-time employees.

- Provide recommendations on staff alignments, reporting relationships and organizational

structure.

- Provide a straightforward, easily understood, maintenance system that the City will use to

keep the classification system current and equitable. The classification system should be

provided in an electronic medium in Word and PDF format. Maintenance should include

annual activities, as well as the process to be used in the review of the classification of

individual jobs, as needed.

- The system must easily accommodate organization change and growth or conversion.

- The system should be based upon sound compensation principles in which both internal

and external equity are considered within the pay structure as well as the concepts of

equal pay for equal work, equal pay for similar work, and equal pay for comparable

work.

- The system should provide for new positions to be incorporated into the compensation

plan as well as appropriate adjustments to maintain the compensation plan’s

effectiveness.

- Update job descriptions to uniformly reflect the distinguishing characteristics, essential

job functions, minimum qualifications (education and experience; knowledge, skills and

abilities), working conditions (physical demands, work environment, etc.), and

certification, license, and/or registration requirements for classification as needed. Create

new job descriptions as needed. Job descriptions must be accurate and consistent with

FLSA, EEO, and ADA considerations.

3

Compensation Plan

- Review current compensation plan (salary grade levels, steps and available benefits) and

understand current challenges in recruiting and retaining employees.

- Review current classification grade methodology and propose recommended strategies

for the City.

- Conduct a comprehensive base salary and benefits survey and an analysis of positions in

comparable South Carolina municipalities. Historically, the City of Conway has used the

following cities as its benchmark cities:

o Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, North Agusta, West Columbia, Horry

County, Horry County Solid Waste Authority and Grand Strand Water & Sewer.

Include any other nearby agencies that are in direct competition with us or of

similar size in population and/or budget within the state of South Carolina.

- Recommend a classification and compensation salary range for each position based on

the compensation survey results and establish a plan for progressions within the ranges.

- Identify potential or existing pay compression issues and provide solutions.

- Identify any extreme current individual or group compensation inequities and provide a

recommended corrective action plan and process to remedy deviations.

- Analyze and recommend changes to the present compensation structure to meet market

analysis. This should include recommendations for individual positions, and cost impacts.

- Recommend implementation strategies for compensation practices, based on market

demands, including pay for performance, skill pay, certification/education compensation,

special assignment compensation, bilingual pay, promotional pay, and acting assignment

pay.

- Develop guidelines to assist City staff with determining the starting pay for new

employees based on knowledge and experience above the minimum requirements of the

position, how difficult the position is to fill, and market competitiveness

- Recommend effective recruitment strategies for hard to fill, high turnover positions.

Recommendations should include criteria for designating positions as hard-to-fill/critical

(e.g. unable to fill after repeated advertising, competent talent not applying, gaps in talent

as compared to position needs, internal talent not available). Additionally, recommending

potential opportunities for pay for performance or bonus structure.

- Provide recommendations for additions, changes, and deletions of our current Personnel

Policy. When necessary, create language that is appropriate and applicable.

- Recommend implementation strategies and prepare analysis of the financial impact for

implementation of the new classification and compensation plan.

- Provide a brief review of payroll processes and identify potential best practices.

References

- Proposer should have at least five (5) years of demonstrated human resources

compensation analysis experience. Provide client references (name, address, email and

phone number) for a minimum of three (3) projects completed in the last five (5) years of

similar size and nature.

- Identify any additional or unique resources, options, capabilities, or assets which the

Proposer would bring to this project.

4

The Proposer will be responsible in following all applicable City ordinances, federal, state, and

county laws and regulation. The Proposer and surety shall indemnify, defend, and save harmless

the city, all of its officers, representatives, agents and employees against any claim or liability

arising from or based on the violation of any such laws, regulations, ordinances, order or decree

whether by itself or its employees.

The Proposer will be responsible in following all applicable City Ordinances and all work

performed will be according to the applicable codes.

All bidders must hold Proper License for this work at the time of the bid. Must have a City

Business License after award, but prior to beginning any work. All work must be

completed and turned into the City in a reasonable time frame from award of contract.

The project Employee Compensation and Pay Classification Study will be received in the

Procurement Office which is located at 2940 Jerry Barnhill Blvd., until Wednesday, March 4,

2026 @ 2:00 PM , at which time only the names of the Offerors and bids amounts will be

announced. Any proposal received later than the specified time /date will not be accepted

/considered. Before the final selection is made, all evaluation factors will be taken into

consideration before awarding a contract for services. City reserves the right to accept or reject

any or all bids.

All proposals shall be sealed and list the title of the current bid.

EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION AND PAY CLASSIFICATION STUDY

To mail, please send the bid to:

City of Conway

c/o Amanda Hooper

PO Drawer 1075

Conway, SC 29528-1075

Physical Address:

City of Conway

c/o Amanda Hooper

2940 Jerry Barnhill Blvd.

Conway SC 29527

Please submit Three (3) original response. Any negotiated contract is subject requirements

provided for in any applicable City of Conway Codes and Ordinances.

5

Commodity Codes

• NAICS 541618Other Management Consulting Services

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