Rethinking the Higher Education Workplace in an Era of Transformation

Part of the NACUBO State of Higher Education series

The COVID-19 pandemic has had dramatic effects on the nation’s workforce — even on college and university campuses. Unemployment has fallen from its April 2020 height and labor force participation rates are stabilizing. Now, employers must navigate how to (or whether to) bring employees back to the office or other worksites, meet shifting expectations for workplace benefits, and foster a culture that promotes innovation and change.

On college and university campuses, chief business officers (CBOs) are at the forefront of navigating these workforce challenges. Although the higher education workforce has been recovering from its 2020 losses, issues remain. Findings from the most recent report on higher education staffing from CUPA-HR, the association for human resource professionals in higher education, revealed staff declines between 2019–20 and 2020–21 in service/maintenance (-4.1 percent), office/clerical (-3.3 percent), and skilled craft (-2 percent).

National trends around employee expectations for work arrangements, employment benefits, and work cultures also are playing out at colleges and universities. In a recent article, senior leaders at CUPA-HR posited that college and university leaders should not expect to return to “business as usual,” but rather must be able to adapt to changing workforce realities while continuing to fulfill their missions and serve students. Such a shift may be particularly challenging for colleges and universities, where leaders often view on-site work as integral to the institution’s culture — a potential mismatch with what workers value.

Business officers must understand how national trends are impacting their institution’s ability to attract and retain highly skilled faculty and staff as well as what strategies will allow them to thrive — not just survive. As business officers and other institutional leaders address higher education workforce issues, there are three actions they should prioritize: valuing people, investing in training, and welcoming cultural innovation.

Valuing People

As leaders at CUPA-HR explained, “The events of the past year have brought more than one pandemic to the forefront. While well-being has been a challenge in our country for quite some time, it quickly garnered the attention of campus leadership as students, faculty, and staff were confronted with multiple new challenges in this environment.”

Demonstrating value for faculty and staff will determine the success of efforts to recruit and retain employees now and in the future. There are two strategic steps college and university leaders, and particularly CBOs, can take to show the value they place in their teams.

1. To the greatest extent possible, leaders can consider creating more options for fully remote or hybrid work arrangements that provide more options for flexible work schedules. Evidence suggests a misalignment between what staff view as the ideal work arrangement and their current work arrangement. In higher education, for example, a survey conducted by CUPA-HR and EDUCAUSE, the association for higher education IT professionals, found that 36 percent of HR professionals and 42 percent of IT professionals prefer a mostly or completely remote work arrangement. However, only 14 percent of HR professionals and 21 percent of IT professionals surveyed indicated they were working mostly or completely remotely as of Fall 2021. Offering greater flexibility in positions where it’s feasible might close this gap and address the misalignment of employee and leadership expectations.

2. Leaders may consider how to provide additional support for employees’ physical and mental well-being, which CUPA-HR research has shown can lead to increases in productivity. This strategy is of particular importance as institutions focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. In a 2021 survey of U.S. adults on mental health in the workplace, 54 percent of respondents said that mental health is a DEI issue, up from 41 percent in 2019.

The pandemic had a large impact on the well-being of many women and persons of color in the workforce. For example, LGBTQ+, Black, and Latino employees were more likely to indicate experiencing mental health issues in the 2021 survey. CUPA-HR suggests that colleges and universities can respond by offering additional resources to staff, such as extended or more frequent breaks from work, institution-wide mental health days, time during the workday for therapy appointments, and greater opportunities for mental health training. It’s a win-win for employers and employees; workers who feel their companies support their mental health report higher job satisfaction.

With employee satisfaction and retention as fundamental goals, institutions are poised to tackle the challenges of implementing these changes. CBOs might consider new service and operational models that are designed for fully remote, hybrid, or other work arrangements.

Investing in Training

Since the outset of the pandemic, many employees increasingly value the opportunity to enhance their workplace skills. A recent Gallup study focused on empowering workers found that “upskilling” is valued by employees at every career stage. Nearly half of all workers surveyed said they would switch to a new job if it offered skills-training opportunities.

For young employees (ages 18–24) in particular, the potential for upskilling is one of the most important benefits they cited when considering a new job opportunity, after health insurance and disability benefits. Nearly three-quarters of individuals in the highest earning bracket ($120,000 or more) also described the potential for upskilling as significantly important to them.

Because college and university employers are uniquely well-positioned to offer continuing education and other upskilling and training courses, providing ample benefits in this space is one way that institutions can leverage existing resources to remain competitive with private-industry employers in attracting and retaining new talent.

Providing continuing education and upskilling opportunities has a noticeable impact on job satisfaction and, by extension, employee retention. Seven out of 10 individuals surveyed who recently completed upskilling agreed it had a positive impact on job satisfaction, with even higher levels of satisfaction for those who received employer-provided training opportunities during work hours.

Ongoing constructive dialogue is necessary for these benefits to be of maximum advantage to both employers and employees, as there often can be disconnects between the two on the value provided, particularly with higher levels of remote work. A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that employers were more than twice as likely as employees to say that they were “coaching employees to succeed,” with 44 percent of employers describing their professional coaching as “better than pre-COVID-19.” Only 20 percent of employees reported the same sentiment.

Ensuring that professional development opportunities are distributed equitably is an important consideration when assessing institutional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Gallup’s study indicated that upskilling tended to be concentrated most heavily on those in professional occupations like mathematical, business, and financial operations positions, while those in administrative roles or in trade skill positions were 20 to 35 percentage points less likely to have benefited from these opportunities. This discrepancy is particularly notable for higher education employers that are currently reckoning with an aging skilled craft workforce and a shortage of younger employees to take their place.

Ensuring equal access to varied forms of professional development across the workforce not only will enable college and university employers to attract and retain the best talent but also may help to stem the growing tide of unfilled positions and can damage an institution’s sense of security, efficiency, and ability to meet student needs.

Welcoming Cultural Innovation

Vibrant campus communities long have been an important part of the college experience for students, faculty, and staff alike. And for a long time, many institutional leaders have been able to rely, in part, on elements of their culture to support efforts to attract and retain employees. But can this continue? The answer may not be the same for every institution.

McKinsey & Company posited that the pandemic’s disruption accelerated existing shifts in consumer habits and workforce expectations. As corporate employers adapt — and likely create more employee-centered approaches to business operations — some colleges and universities may not be able to rely on mission and collegial campus cultures to attract and retain employees as they have in the past.

In the higher education sector, educators and journalists already have pondered whether the pandemic was a catalyst for change. College and university business officers reflected on whether serving students and running the campus might change forever. One conclusion: Institutions should change, and a substantial piece of that change should involve the workforce.

Chief business officers play a key role in helping institutions consider, and potentially change, their workforce culture. As they reflect on the pandemic, many business officers have evaluated the workplace, noting lessons learned about managing remote employees, processes that improved with automation or digitization, and functions that proved more challenging in remote environments.

A recent CUPA-HR study revealed that higher education is currently suffering from negative perceptions by employees. Data showed that most employees ages 25 and younger have poor perceptions of the higher education culture and compensation, and 70 percent of Black Americans and 60 percent of LGBTQ+ Americans surveyed don’t feel that colleges and universities are comfortable places to work. Institutional leaders might use this opportunity for change to focus on workforce DEI efforts.

Amid the “Great Resignation” in the U.S. in 2022, the loss of talent to organizations that allow greater flexibility and provide other benefits is an alarm being sounded by many. Business officers will need to support their institutions in weighing options and making decisions about workforce policies and culture. Discussions and decisions should be informed by data — from both the national and institutional level — and also need to demonstrate a value for faculty, staff, and students; consider employee needs for professional development; and welcome cultural innovation.

Colleges and universities must embrace and strategically implement the workplace flexibility that attracts and retains the best workforce so they don’t risk diminishing their long-held prominence as employee-centric workplaces and losing their footing in an increasingly competitive hiring landscape.

NACUBO members can access an accompanying PowerPoint slide deck that includes user notes and customizable slides to help put the national data and insights into local context.

NACUBO is the leading source for campus business and finance professionals, providing voice, collaboration, and resources to tackle higher education’s evolving challenges. Learn more at www.nacubo.org.