For as long as I’ve been alive, colleges have been seen as good employers and campuses as stable, safe places to work. They reward longevity, tend to have good health and retirement benefits, and seldom go out of business. Sure, they pay less than the corporate world, but the work itself — educating students — offers a sense of contributing to a greater good.
Is that still true after two years of upheaval?
In a strange way, colleges and universities — long described as bastions of liberalism and progressive thought — are some of our society’s most conservative (in the old sense of the word) organizations. Where else in the modern world do you find regalia and maces borrowed from the Middle Ages still used in ceremonies? Tradition is everywhere in academe. Even our social progressivism is a fulfillment of a traditional role we feel we should play. As one marketing consultant put it: “I feel like the world around us has grown, while higher education has stayed put.”
A protective, traditional, somewhat countercultural environment is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is very hard to maintain in the face of seismic economic and cultural changes. External factors — many of which predate Covid but were intensified by the pandemic — are tearing at the fabric of campus culture:
- Demand for a college degree on a campus has been eroded by demographic changes, online options, and alternative career paths through technology. Increased student mobility, the rise of “national” institutions, and even the expansion of high-school, dual-enrollment opportunities put institutions in a position where they can no longer count on their local markets to support their enrollment needs.
- For years, colleges were able to keep mostly out of the stream of change by hiring people to perform the “sales” functions they needed. Admissions morphed into enrollment management, alumni relations into advancement and development. These moves allowed institutions to largely ignore market forces and maintain their culture as if nothing had happened. But when we started to hear, “Enrollment is everyone’s business,” and “Retention is everyone’s business,” it was the signal that the revenue-producing areas could no longer be kept separate from the core mission of learning.
- At the same time, the regulatory and reporting burden feels like it has exploded. Fifty years ago, institutions were much more their own islands that could establish their own norms. Now, a huge amount of time is taken up by reporting — IPEDS, the National Student Clearinghouse, the NCAA, state and local reporting, accreditation, program reviews, assessment plans, strategic plans, compliance.
It often feels like we are working twice as hard to get half as far. And these are definitely not the parts of the job that employees love.
External changes have had a big impact on how college employees perceive their jobs. Where there used to be a sense of security, there is often now a sense of scarcity. Limited resources lead to leaner staffing, which means everyone does more. In some cases, “mission-based gaslighting” has also occurred — that is, colleges and universities have been able to pay employees lower salaries because of the attractiveness of working in a field that serves students. But changes in the job market mean that good employees have more career options and will be less willing to stay in higher education and accept depressed salaries.
Our dependence on technology requires flexibility and adaptability. Risk-averse employees feel the pressure to change — to let go of the familiar and safe. If they aren’t willing to do so, they face resentment from coworkers who have to pick up the slack.
On many campuses, the work environment is also evolving because of a generational transfer of leadership. The baby boomers, many of whom have resisted retirement, have been handing over the reins to Generation X. Right on the heels of the Gen Xers, a relatively small generation, have come the millennials. And each generation has different values:
- The boomers tend to value loyalty and time-on-task and want to be rewarded in status. They would expect a strategic meeting to end with the most senior person, or the person with the most power, making the final decision.
- Many Xers value efficiency and effectiveness and want to be rewarded with freedom and choice. They expect the idea with the most merit to win. Xers want more transparency and fewer power struggles, and they will walk away from the institution if the power dynamics get too far out of whack.
- The millennials tend to value authenticity and community and want to be rewarded with steady positive feedback and a chance to make a difference. They want everyone to be heard, regardless of status or experience, and are hoping for meetings that are an experience with interactivity.
The mixture of these styles and values is breaking down many campus norms and protocols, creating friction over the “right way” to get things done.
As we look ahead, how can we make our institutions better places to work, despite the uncertainties of the higher-education landscape and the changing values of our employees? Here are seven suggestions for campus leaders:
Keep asking your people how it’s going. Getting instant feedback is so much easier than in the past, and people want to be heard. Send frequent Google forms or surveys to your employees and students and ask them questions — even if you are not sure you want the answers. Ask what they like best about their jobs or the campus, and what they like least. Ask what they think about their bosses and what would make their lives better.
People’s priorities change with changing times. The best way for the institution to keep up is to keep asking.
Change your approach to professional development. As I noted in a previous column, professional development is “anything that enhances or updates your ability to do your job. It’s building all sorts of leadership, financial, management, teaching, technical, diversity, equity, communication, or other skills.” And it’s one of the most powerful tools for creating a great campus work culture — but only if it actually makes sense to the person being developed.
We have gotten lazy in our definition and are outsourcing professional development too often to conferences and associations. Sending people to a conference every year is the easy way out. Instead, have employees create their own professional-development plans. What are their goals? How do they want to grow? Sure, they might want to attend a conference or get a certification, but they might also want someone in your organization to teach them about budgeting or how to use specific software. Treat people like individuals and engage them in individual visions of success.
Tailor benefits. Speaking of individualizing the employee experience, it is a mistake to assume that all benefits are equally meaningful. New generations of workers are going to value having choices. Why can’t we make more choice a key element of their benefits? For example, some people will value flexible schedules, others more vacation time, still others the ability to work from home.
I realize that benefits can be complex but, where possible, offer people a choice of equivalent options, and allow them to readjust their choices every six months. Empower people to live their values.
Keep your eye on management. The saying “People join organizations but leave bosses” could not be more true.
Do what you can to help managers be successful. Connect them with other managers to talk through common issues. Encourage supervisors to undergo regular 360-degree reviews, in which they get feedback from colleagues above, below, and beside them. Give managers formal training on budgeting, staff evaluation, and using emotional intelligence. Encourage managers to use surveys to collect anonymous feedback as well.
Adjust your attitude toward turnover. Turnover is not always bad. Sometimes it can be healthy, as it brings new ideas and new professional experiences into the institution. Yes, turnover can be costly but mostly when you are not prepared for it. Among the ways to be better prepared:
- Simplify and cut down on the number of steps in the hiring process.
- Make your job-request and -posting process electronic and automated so that ads for replacements can be posted immediately.
- Lower the stakes on whether the job is a fit.
- Take six-month reviews for new hires more seriously and accept that you may have to part ways if it turns out not to be a good match.
Don’t invite turnover but don’t be afraid of it, either.
Create a culture of documentation. One of the best things you can do to make turnover less painful — and to help your employees feel like their world is less chaotic — is to create a culture that values writing things down. Record your department’s or program’s policies and procedures and keep them where they can be easily found and shared. That way, when people leave your team, the new hires can pick up where their predecessors left off. Having processes written down also reduces the number of exceptions that need to be managed and the number of mistakes that are made because people are misinformed about how things work.
This is one of the hardest areas to get people to be disciplined about. Set a good example by setting aside an afternoon each month as a “documentation day” for you and your team to update policies and procedures. If everyone helps create and record internal processes, they will be much better understood and followed. And people will feel more confident in their ability to do what needs to be done.
Start some new traditions. Don’t be too attached to old ones that aren’t working anymore. Some traditions and activities that have become part of your campus culture may no longer be helping morale, or no longer relevant to many employees. Think about how you can replace traditions that are looking a little worn for new ones that will appeal to multiple generations of workers.
One way to make traditions more meaningful is to make them more “local.” Poll employees to ask what sorts of activities would mean the most to them at a departmental or school level. There is a currency for every group, and figuring out that currency goes a long way to increasing esprit de corps. At one office where I worked, staff members valued casual Fridays where they could wear school colors and apparel. For another office I led, the thing was potluck lunches, where everyone tried to outdo themselves to contribute exciting food. One group I worked with loved office Kahoot matches. Whatever the currency is, find it and support it. This makes traditions feel natural and valuable rather than forced.
Plenty of outsiders still see a career in higher education as highly desirable, and so do plenty of insiders, however disengaged and disenchanted they may feel at the moment. Many administrators and faculty and staff members still value their careers even though they see things about academe, and how we operate, that could be better. We will never go back to the era when colleges could isolate themselves, build their own cultures, and hold no one accountable. Those days are gone.
But we can still be places that believe in the greater good, that hire great people and treat them well, and that are committed to always learning and always improving.
