Prioritizing staff retention to build an inclusive institutional culture in higher ed

Institutions can unpack demographic data and identify industry standards like compensation benefits by analyzing information from peer institutions, other companies in the region, and similar schools across the country. Additionally, understanding national and local turnover rates and labor shortages will pinpoint whether issues are institution-specific or part of a wider labor issue.

Places to collect external data:

1. The Bureau of Labor Statistics can help you understand how your institution’s salaries compare to national averages.
2. The U.S. Census can help you compare your institution’s demographics against your state’s, and provides several data equity tools to improve your evidence-based DEIJ efforts including the ability to identify underserved areas in your community.
3. The National Center for Education Statistics provides demographic data and trends throughout the U.S. including faculty pay by gender and racial/ethnic breakdowns of both staff and faculty.
4. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System is a helpful way to compare your school’s data against other institutions.

Track demographic data to understand who is in your applicant pool and how the pool changes throughout the interview process. Who is ultimately being offered positions and who chooses to accept or deny an offer? This information also helps pinpoint gaps like areas that are struggling to attract a diverse pipeline of candidates or places where talent continues to depart after one to two years.

You can also use this information to analyze progress towards institution-wide DEIJ recruitment and retention goals. Update this data to track trends as employees accept promotions, earn raises, or eventually leave. See examples from two partner institutions below.

• Interactive dashboards at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Office of Institutional Research allow internal and external stakeholders to view racial and gender breakdowns for employees, including data by college, tenure, and new hires. The dashboards also provide simple line graphs to illustrate the data’s historical trends.
• The University of Washington began publishing an annual staff demographic report in 2020 to aid their Diversity Blueprint goal of attracting and retaining a diverse workforce. In addition to looking at all staff and new hires, they also provide information on the year’s terminations and applicants. Their report moves beyond gender and race/ethnicity to address veterans and staff with disabilities as well. Rather than simply report numbers and percentages, the university goes one step further to provide analysis and observations.

Beyond campus-wide climate surveys, many opportunities to collect feedback throughout the year already exist on campus. Pulse check surveys, town halls, and performance reviews are helpful ways to gather real-time data on current issues and questions from employees. Platforms like Blackboard, Qualtrics, Microsoft, and Google Forms all provide ways to create and send surveys with straightforward results. Gathering more continuous feedback helps gauge progress on current university initiatives.

University of Alberta created a landing page to share various ways employees can provide ongoing feedback. The page includes a link to a digital feedback form, dates for community town halls, open university meetings, and results from monthly pulse check surveys.

Engaging employees on their way out is your final opportunity to collect honest, constructive feedback that can be used to target areas for improvement. Institutions can connect employee feedback with demographic data such as gender, length of employment, and pay to understand whether shared trends exist amongst departing employees.

The University of California, Berkeley engages departing employees in both exit interviews and surveys to track the school’s attrition rates, better understand their “competitive positioning in the marketplace,” and to collect recommendations for improving retention. The university uses real-time dashboards to track exit data that can be segmented by demographics and time.

Use other school’s exit surveys to help guide the development or improvement of your own:

• California State University Northridge (CSUN)
• Williams College
• University of Louisville
• Florida State University

To retain a diverse workforce, institutions can’t revert to “business as usual” and pre-pandemic norms. Many higher-education staff members are considering leaving their positions as they are being called back into the office and in person. As a result, more institutions are creating flexible work policies including fully remote positions, hybrid schedules, and flexible work hours.

Flexible work options can increase applicant pool numbers and diversify applicant experience-level and background. These options also improve the work experience for existing employees, such as those with disabilities and those with children. Allowing flexible work policies can boost employee morale and reduce stress levels, which enhances retention and strengthens the leadership pipeline.

Explore EAB’s Remote Work and Hybrid Workplace Resource Center to learn more in-depth about the many benefits of flexible workplace options for employees, such as better work-life balance.

Employees who feel a sense of ownership in the decision-making process are more engaged and invested in their work, making them less likely to leave.  When involved in the creation of institutional policies, employees feel heard and have a better understanding of the complexities of such processes. Perhaps even more importantly, including a wide variety of people adds a diverse set of perspectives and knowledge.

To involve faculty and staff, ask a variety of employees what kinds of trainings are required by the professional organizations with which they are involved. Then, create tailored campus trainings that fulfill these membership requirements, thus increasing voluntary faculty and staff participation.

An integral component of active retention is a commitment to the personal and professional growth of the institution’s employees. Involve staff in creating opportunities for upskilling and career pathways for promotion to build transparency and cooperation. With such intentional and inclusive efforts, even those who eventually leave will be more likely to feel grateful for their experience and speak highly of it to future colleagues and acquaintances.

Professional development at the department level includes clear career pathways, specified trainings, and opportunities to experience varied responsibilities. Most often, these opportunities begin at the department or unit level before they are scaled. The most successful programs will incorporate the practices mentioned above, including goal setting, metric tracking, and feedback implementation.

Texas A&M University

The Division of Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness at Texas A&M University created a series of career pathways for units across campus, including advising, human resources, and IT.

Ohio State University

Ohio State University created a career roadmap for staff with a career framework and job catalogue. The career framework lays out a pathway of promotion for individual jobs, along with a job profile including information on job functions, career bands, and career levels.

University of Wisconsin-Madison

The University of Wisconsin-Madison created a job rotation experience for early-career employees in which participants rotate through four assignments over the course of two years. The program provides mentorship support and trainings for each cohort participant through a customized learning path. The institution created metrics to measure the program’s success in supporting varied employees, including goals of 50 percent female representation and 25 percent of underrepresented populations.

In 2015, Johns Hopkins University began HopkinsLocal—an initiative to buy, hire, and build local—to increase economic growth throughout Baltimore. To set realistic and achievable goals, they began by reviewing data on current university expenditures and Baltimore’s demographics and workforce needs.

Their first hiring goal was to fill 40 percent of targeted positions from selected Baltimore zip codes by fiscal year 2018. After meeting that goal, they increased it to 50 percent. As of the last fiscal year, 52 percent of targeted positions were filled by area residents. Additionally, their current hiring goals aim to broaden employment opportunities to citizens with criminal records, increase employee use of tuition benefits, and improve onboarding and professional development.

Georgia Quick Start, administered by the state’s technical college system, provides free, individualized workforce training programs to qualified companies looking to upskill employees. By providing on-the-job training, the college system and its statewide network help companies meet their business goals, increases the number of trained employees, and promote economic development.

Northwestern University, in partnership with the city of Evanston, IL, established the Evanston Trades Program to hire and train historically underrepresented groups within the skilled trades. Each year, participants are trained through a skilled trade apprenticeship program in the Facilities Management Division. The institution benefits from the city’s talent pipeline while the city leverages Northwestern’s educational resources.

The Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, located in a low-income neighborhood, provides community members with digital skills training and access to computers and Wi-Fi to apply for jobs. The center also partnered with Goodwill Helm’s Academy to offer free GED-completion programming, no-cost community college credits, and career support and counseling. The center leverages its location, Drexel resources and knowledge in experiential learning, and local partnerships to create strong ties between the university and the community.

To learn more about hiring locally, review this step-by-step guide from Drexel University.