NASCA Press Release: State of Colorado Announced as 2025 Innovation in State Government: Employee Engagement and Experience Award Recipient

For Immediate Release
October 27, 2025

Contact: Elizabeth Whitehouse, Executive Director, executivedirector@nasca.org

NASCA Press Release: State of Colorado Announced as 2025 Innovation in State Government: Employee Engagement and Experience Award Recipient

Denver, CO — The National Association of State Chief Administrators is proud to announce the State of Colorado as a recipient of the NASCA 2025 Innovation in State Government Award in the Employee Engagement and Experience category for its Steps to Success: Transforming State Employee Compensation initiative.

The Innovation in State Government Awards recognize state administration department programs, projects, and initiatives that exemplify leading practices in the industry. The Employee Engagement and Experience category honors initiatives that improve how employees connect to their work and workplace.

In 2024, Colorado implemented a step pay program that transformed how the State of Colorado approaches employee compensation for its more than 30,000 classified employees, providing much needed pay increases to long-term employees and making overall employee compensation more competitive. The program provides consistent, transparent pay progression based on years of service within an employee’s classification series.

Prior to implementation, 86% of employees were compensated below the midpoint of their salary range, and 66% identified compensation as the top reason they would consider resigning. The project team manually collected and verified decades of employment history across multiple systems to ensure accuracy, and the program was successfully implemented on July 1, 2024. More than 8,000 long-term State employees received pay increases as a result of these efforts, reducing the number of employees paid at the bottom of their pay ranges by 14%.

Upon nominating the project, the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration (DPA) emphasized the collaboration across departments that came together to make it a success.

“This project stands out not only due to its scale and innovation, but because of its partnership and collaboration. The Department of Personnel & Administration collaborated on the design of the program with the state certified employee organization, hired an entire implementation team, and worked with the Office of Information Technology, the DPA Central Payroll Unit, and agency human resources professionals across the State to implement the program.”

The DPA continued, “This huge accomplishment was only possible because of the partnership and collaboration of people across multiple departments who came together to do this work.”

Colorado’s Steps to Success initiative reflects the leadership, strategic collaboration, and dedication to service recognized by the NASCA Innovation in State Government: Employee Engagement and Experience Award. By modernizing compensation and improving transparency to align pay with experience, Colorado has strengthened employee engagement and trust across state government.

Founded in 1976, NASCA is the nation’s only nonpartisan, nonprofit organization serving chief administrative officers or CAOs. NASCA provides a forum for state chief administrative officers to exchange information and learn new ideas from each other and private sector partners. NASCA engages states in transforming government operations through shared knowledge, operational excellence, and thought leadership.

For more information on NASCA, please visit NASCA.org.