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Office of the President

Human Resources Enhancements and Updates

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March 27, 2023

Dear Members of the Villanova Community,

I am writing today to provide an update on several recruitment and retention initiatives that the Office of Human Resources is currently working on to recognize, reward and retain our most important University asset—our faculty and staff. These programs will also assist in attracting new talent to the University as we move forward.

Tuition Enhancements

National Tuition Exchange, the reciprocal scholarship program for dependents of eligible faculty and staff at Tuition Exchange member institutions, has recently changed its scholarship process. These changes provide flexibility and allow us to enhance our tuition programming. Education is at the core of what we do, strongly connected to the mission of Villanova and one of our key recruitment and retention differentiators for our faculty and staff. For these reasons, I have decided to enhance our tuition benefit programming as noted below:

  • Beginning with the 2023-24 academic year, the tuition remission benefit for eligible dependents of full-time faculty and staff will increase from 85% to 100%. Eligibility will still be effective after three years of service.
  • Tuition Exchange (TE) scholarship submissions in Fall 2023 for the 2024-25 academic year, will be enhanced to allow full-time faculty and staff to apply for a TE scholarship after three years of service for all eligible dependents. The sliding service requirement based on multiples of five years of completed service will no longer apply.
  • Years of service at other institutions of higher education, immediately prior to employment with Villanova without a break in service, will also count towards the three-year eligibility requirement. The Office of Human Resources will manage the certification of prior employment.

I am pleased to offer these enhancements to our current full-time faculty and staff as well as future Villanovans.

Performance Management and Merit Increase Cycle

The annual performance management cycle closes on Wednesday, Mar. 29. I encourage all managers to meet with your staff to deliver reviews and ratings in accordance with this timeline. Completing this task will ensure that merit updates can be made when Salary Planner is opened in mid-April. Additional details will be shared by the Office of Human Resources at that time.

Merit Pool

The University Board of Trustees has approved a 3.5% budget increase for the faculty and staff merit pool for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2024 (FY 2024). The merit pool is used to recognize successful performance and provide special recognition for employees demonstrating significant achievements during the most recent review cycle. Disbursement of the overall merit pool will take into consideration an employee’s annual performance and follow general University guidelines to determine the percentage that should apply for each individual’s accomplishments this past year.

Note: Actual merit increases can be higher or lower than 3.5% based upon an employee’s annual performance review, and each department/area is responsible for balancing the available departmental merit pool of 3.5%.

Compensation Studies

In addition to the merit increase process, the Office of Human Resources is currently working with an outside consultant and departmental leaders to perform a staff compensation study, which includes a market compensation analysis and development of a job architecture outlining opportunities for career growth. I anticipate that this work will be completed by Fall 2023.

The findings from the study could be implemented as early as Fall 2023, for those jobs identified to have market equity issues. The FY24 budget includes funds earmarked towards this initiative and to address market competitive compensation related to continuing non-tenure track faculty positions. Last year, a significant investment was made to tenure-track faculty positions, and all these compensation reviews demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that all jobs at the University are paid fairly, equitably and competitively with the market.

Student Wages

Last year, I shared that all student employment wages would increase to $10 per hour effective January 3, 2022. Since that time, the Office of Human Resources has completed benchmarking and developed a student wage scale that will be implemented in April 2023. This new student wage scale will begin at $10 per hour, but will create structured wage levels so that student jobs can be slotted and compensated equitably. More information will be provided by the Office of Human Resources when the implementation occurs.

As always, I am extremely grateful for all that you do on behalf of Villanova. Our faculty and staff continue to be our greatest asset as a University community, and we will continue to make significant investments in this area.

Sincerely,

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Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA
President