Vacancies — Risky Business at Universities Globally
Similarities and Differences of Operating with Vacancies
Staffing in higher education continues to be a challenge at all levels. Dissatisfaction, burnout, and an institution’s unwillingness or inability to change have created ongoing vacancies.
The challenge is global, but it is not often spoken about in this context. You hear or read about the issue of staffing in Western education in places like North America or Europe. However, I would like to share a broad perspective and consider other locations.
Three Challenges:
The issue of filling openings can be numerous based on an individual institution, but here are three of the most common challenges most universities experience.
- Many institutions leave vital positions open for extended periods due to budget issues or the inability to attract candidates.
- In countries where political influence or the Ministry of Education has a crucial stake in who is appointed, openings can also remain unfilled, especially at the senior leadership levels.
- Another scenario may also result from a university board’s lack of consensus on senior positions or an ineffective search process for other-level positions.
The challenges associated with vacancies create risk. Thus, leaving any of these positions unfilled poses increased challenges for universities.
Six Risks:
Similar risk factors exist for vacancies at universities worldwide. However, the nuance and impact of the risk can be different based on the level of autonomy an institution may have to fill those open positions. Here are six of the most common risks universities may face.
Operations Disruption: Positions such as finance, information technology, or facilities play critical roles in the university’s daily operations. Leaving these positions vacant can disrupt workflow, create bottlenecks in decision-making processes, and lead to inefficiencies across departments or units.
Services Impacted: Key positions may be responsible for overseeing essential services such as advising, academic support, or administrative functions. The absence of qualified personnel in these roles can reduce student access to resources and support, leading to dissatisfaction and potential impacts on retention and graduation rates.
Institutional Knowledge Lost: Key personnel often possess valuable institutional knowledge, expertise, and relationships built over years of service. When these positions are not replaced quickly, the university risks losing knowledge due to a lack of transition or handover. Such insurance can lead to long-term implications for strategic planning, continuity, and institutional memory.
Reputation Diminishes: The institution’s stakeholders, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and external partners could view the university negatively in light of the vacancies. The longer these key positions remain unfilled, the level of trust in the institution and its operations can erode.
Additionally, it creates an additional strain and burdens the remaining leadership, raises concerns about organizational stability, and damages the university’s reputation within the broader community.
Workload and Stress Increases: The remaining leadership and staff members will most likely be required to take on additional responsibilities. The duty coverage of the vacant position could shift to one or multiple people, but this can lead to frustration from the covering person and impact the overall level of service delivery to students. It can lead to increased workload, stress, and burnout among employees, negatively impacting morale and productivity.
Employee Recruitment and Retention: A short turnover or prolonged vacancy in a key position may signal instability. The inability to fill the position could be an internal indicator of a lack of investment in employees, from recruitment funds to salary funding. In either case, it makes it challenging to attract qualified candidates.
Additionally, you create another risk that existing staff members may become dissatisfied and seek employment opportunities elsewhere. These two issues will intensify turnover and increase retention issues.
Three Stalled Risk Reduction Impact:
Universities need to reduce these risks overall, but the following three reasons are critical — compliance, innovation, and finances.
Compliance: When a university has a significant number of vacancies at any level of the organization, it can raise flags in areas such as compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and accreditation standards. In some international higher education realms, the ministry overseeing these regulatory requirements could also hamper filling the vacancies.
In such cases, the nuance lies in the level of ownership the ministry or university board will undertake in the diminished capacity of the institution. As one will note, the continued failure to quickly fill these positions can also expose the university to non-educational liabilities and cause it to lose credibility with its industry or funding partners.
Opportunities and Innovation: Hiring brings an institution new insight, ideas, and practices. Depending on the position, it is responsible for driving innovation and spearheading initiatives; the vacancy would stall opportunities for growth and development.
Leaving these positions unfilled can result in missed opportunities for improvement, external funding, strategic advancement, and competitive positioning within the higher education landscape.
When these opportunities are missed, students are impacted in the employment market, and the degree or credential issued is seen as less valuable. Your industry partners will no longer grant your prime research, collaboration, or investment opportunities.
Financial Impact: Let’s be candid for a moment. We know that in some cases, leaving a key position open and assigning duties to other staff members can result in budgeting and financial reduction.
A prolonged replacement process might appear to be an appropriate strategy, but the will risks outweigh any short-term budget gain. Burnout, additional vacancies, slower operations, day-to-day challenges, and a damaged reputation should not be the direction of an institution.
Another critical financial impact could arise from funding partners for research and scholarships. When vacancies impact research areas, project delays could produce a loss of resources or any unexpected costs being shifted from the project to the university.
In the realm of scholarships, funding could be decreased or remain stagnant. Thus, this could impact enrollment and retention, as students and their families may face financial challenges to the cost of their education.
Temporary to Permanent Solutions
In conjunction with internal and external stakeholders like university boards, ministry heads, and the institution’s human resources, the university’s existing leadership has created strategic roadmaps to avert these long-term vacancies. Consider temporary staffing opportunities, such as interim hires or temporary staff, can make a difference.
Creating permanent staffing opportunities, such as promotions, training, and compensation for those filling the gap, can also impact existing staff. For example, if you have a part-time staff member, you could hire them full-time.
Can you, as an institution, invest in a current employee via title, promotion, and salary to undertake the vacant duties permanently? At an entry-level position, can you offer a paid internship or apprenticeship that fills the position and provides students or recent alum work experience while reducing the stress of current staff?
While seeking candidates to fill key leadership positions, institutions should focus on providing interim or gap leadership to ensure continuity and stability until a permanent replacement is hired. This interim could be an expert consultant, a retiree, or seconding a faculty member with administrative and leadership experience to fill the role.
In conclusion, the university needs to prioritize timely recruitment and succession planning. Investing in employee development and retention strategies has a more substantial long-term benefit for the overall satisfaction of employees and students. The university should also ensure effective communication and transparency throughout the hiring process and to maintain its credibility with all stakeholders.
While we cannot prevent vacancies, creating robust strategies and plans that do not allow them to remain open for a prolonged period will improve a university’s ability to serve its students and ensure longevity in the educational sector.
If your student affairs and service unit has vacancies and you wish to explore using a consultant to fill the gap or in an interim role, here is an article to help you with the vetting and hiring process.
Learn more about me, my areas of expertise, and my consulting services. I can partner with your organization to support training, staff development, or interim. Please feel free to contact me. Follow me on LinkedIn or Instagram.
