Bending the Administrative Labor Cost Curve

Key Insights

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Facing increasingly tighter budgets, colleges and universities are exploring any and all principled methods to control costs. Clearly, labor comprises the vast majority of costs at all institutions, often 60% to 70% of operating budgets. So, while there are other meaningful cost savings opportunities, few institutions will be able to significantly impact costs without addressing labor.

Rather than enacting painful and ineffective cuts, institutions should pursue principled and sustainable savings by slowing labor cost growth or “bending the cost curve.” In this approach, leaders make important structural and operational changes now to slow growth going forward.

To help business executives slow administrative labor growth, this report provides 12 executive best practices to implement the necessary cross-silo tools and incentives to achieve meaningful savings.