UI Faculty Senate discusses expanding staff benefits
Benefits and gestures of appreciation can go a long way — especially when trying to retain staff members, said James Foster, member of the University of Idaho Faculty Senate.
“People with smiles on their faces often don’t start looking for higher salaries elsewhere because they’re happy here,” Foster said, speaking at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday. “So, the trick is to not insult and piss people off so they go looking. Because if they go looking, they’ll find higher pay.”
Faculty Senate brainstormed and discussed possible enhanced benefits for UI staff members in response to what they see as a problem — low salaries for university staff members. Along with raising staff salaries, Foster said the enhanced benefits are meant to increase the level of staff satisfaction and decrease staff attrition.
Senators gathered ideas for possible enhanced staff benefits internally in their respective departments. The input resulted in a dozen categorizes that outlined possible benefits for staff members.
Discounted services and leave and schedule flexibility garnered the most support from faculty at the meeting. Discounted services included reduced rates for the UI Childcare Center, cheaper parking passes and free access to the Student Recreation Center, among other benefits. Benefits with leave and schedule flexibility included annual leave for holidays, increased annual leave and increased paid vacation days for professional development, among other benefits.
Some of the other ideas included tuition benefits, bonuses, travel benefits, retirement benefits, staff advancement and partner and spousal accommodations.
Despite the talk of extra benefits, Sen. Kattlyn Wolf said many staff would like to see salary increases.
“The overwhelming response that I got from everybody was ‘It’s a great idea, but at the end of the day you still need to talk about salaries, and if this comes at the expense of making salaries competitive, you shouldn’t even discuss it,'” Wolf said.
Marty Ytreberg, chair of Faculty Senate, agreed and said low staff salaries was the main concern and something he said Faculty Senate is working to address. Although raising staff salaries is the most important action, Ytreberg said it should not stop the conversation of exploring other options, too.
“Salaries are the most important thing, but, here are some other things that we also think are worth looking into,” he said.
Sen. Liz Brandt said there are cost values associated with many of the discounted services.
She said giving out benefits with monetary value would shift costs onto specific university departments, something that could diminish the value of said department.
For example, she said providing staff members with free access to Student Recreation Center without any reimbursement could affect the quality of the center.
“I want to be careful that we’ve thought about hidden cost pass-alongs that might be associated with some of these discounts,” Brandt said.
Wolf said enhanced benefits associated with childcare would be well received with many staff members.
Staff Affairs Chair Ali Bretthauer, who was in attendance Tuesday, said there was large support for enhanced benefits to help with childcare costs.
“Every single time someone responded, it included that. So it seems like it’s a really important issue to a number of people,” she said.
Senators also showed support for providing enhanced benefits related to schedule flexibility and annual leave days, which count as paid days off for staff members.
Brandt said she supports offering staff more flexibility with schedules and annual leave days.
Katherine Aiken, interim provost and executive vice president, said one extra day of annual leave would cost UI $386,000. If the university were to give three extra annual leave days, the total amount would equal approximately the same amount as a 1 percent salary increase, she said.
“And that’s real money,” Aiken said. “So, one day, 386,000 bucks.”
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]