Institutions of higher learning are held to the utmost standards of quality, but must do so with uncertain budgets and cost-cutting. And as the student base has become more diverse, higher education employers must attract and reward a diverse, multi-cultural workforce representing a spectrum of benefits needs. This benchmarking report — an addendum to the national Benefits Strategy & Benefits Survey — showcases how employers are fashioning benefits for better outcomes in higher education.
Survey Overview

Gallagher’s 2018 Benefits Strategy & Benchmarking Survey asked U.S. employers close to 300 questions across the spectrum of total rewards. This addendum highlights key findings and implications based on responses from 84 higher education employers participating in this year’s research. Almost all participants are nonprofits, with a mix of both public and private institutions.

Higher education employers are held to the utmost standards of institutional performance, but meeting those standards has become increasingly difficult in recent years. Recruiting and retaining key talent are resource-intensive endeavors. Constrained public support, coupled with reliance by many on tuition revenue and a shrinking population of traditional students, puts institutions in a bind. Forced to do more with less, educators and staff are often tasked with additional duties beyond their role and title.

In the face of these financial and management challenges, rising medical and pharmacy costs are a major issue in the higher education sector. Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all cost shifting won’t fully address the problem.

Higher education institutions face a dramatic need to attract and reward a diverse, multi-cultural and multi-generational workforce — representing a wide spectrum of compensation and benefits needs — to better support the emerging student population.

This benchmarking report showcases how multi-source, datadriven planning can help address these challenges and identify areas of opportunity for compensation and benefit programs, resulting in better outcomes for both employees and employers.

Download the Higher Education Addendum.