Benefits Explained
Benefits Explained
Higher education is an interesting field to work in. It has it perks despite not being the most glamorous or popular industry. Those perks include both main and fringe benefits. Those benefits come from serving as an administrator, faculty member, or student affairs professional.
This article will review the different benefits afforded to student affairs professionals working in higher education. While salaries may not always be competitive against similar work in other industries; higher education positions can often make up for this salary disparity with the type and amount of support provided to employees though benefits programs.
This article will review the following (non-comprehensive list) of employee benefits for student affairs professionals: start date; professional development; relocation expenses; insurance (health, dental, and vision); child care; retirement plans; tuition remission; commuting plans; life insurance; legal advice; housing; board; wireless / cell phone plans; holidays; vacations; sick days; performance bonuses; cost of living increases; and flexible work arrangements.
Employment benefits are an additional advantage that employees receive from the institution in exchange for their service and employment. These are included as part of a student affairs professional’s salary. They fall under different categories and have subjective value based on individual employees needs and desires. Benefits are generally offered to professionals as a way to entice them to both apply for open positions as well as to retain employees.
The start date is generally one of the first benefits that can be negotiated for in the salary negotiation process at the end of the job search. The start date is something that is agreed upon by both the job seeker and the institution at the close of the hiring process. The start date can sometimes be moved according to the wishes of the job seeker for numerous reasons (i.e. pre-planned vacation) or by the employer (i.e. to take over for a departing incumbent).
Student affairs job seekers should prioritize the start date as one of the first items worth negotiating for. This is something that should align with their personal preferences, desires, and schedules. Different institutions will take different stances when discussing the start date for a position. As a student affairs job seeker, you should consider the expectations and needs of the role when considering how and when to negotiate for a final start date.
Professional development is a common benefit offered to student affairs job seekers. These usually include travel and registration for national, regional, and local conferences in order to network and learn from others in the field. However, professional development can also include student affairs professionals memberships to professionals organizations; certificate programs; books; courses; webinars; or other resources.
It’s recommended that student affairs professionals discuss professional development funding as part of their salary negotiation process as a way to bolster and further support their ongoing career development. Relying on institutional support for this is a significant benefit. Making sure that this is both outlined and supported with specifics in a hiring agreement is a major factor to consider.
Relocating and moving to a new job is a common experience for student affairs professionals. Some of us may need to stick with a specific geographic area. Whereas some of us may be okay with moving.
Negotiating your benefits package to ensure that you receive compensation for a move is a benefit that student affairs job seekers often forget to inquire about. Relocation support could include coverage for expenses such as renting a moving truck; hiring help; purchasing boxes; temporary housing; lease-breaking; and home selling assistance. These can go a long way towards making sure that your move to start a new position is supported.
Insurance Programs Including Health, Dental, and Vision
Making sure that you benefit from insurance coverage as a full time employee is definitely a saving grace for many student affairs professionals. Knowing that you’ll have the support that you need should the unthinkable happen provides great piece of mind.
Most health insurance programs details are not negotiable for many colleges and universities. However, you may be able to negotiate for other related items such as eligibility date (i.e. when you would start coverage) and any tiers of plans that you may qualify for (based on your final compensation package). In addition, it’s also wise to review what other benefits are afforded to you for both dental and vision insurance. These details are especially important for student affairs professionals that have dependents (i.e. spouses and children) that would also require coverage.
Student affairs professionals that have young children could also benefit from institutional provided or sponsored day care in the vicinity of the university. This is a significant benefit from families and households where both caregivers work and cannot dedicate enough time towards child care. If child care is important to you, then make sure that you discuss options for benefits covering the amount of support provided as well as when such a benefit would start.
While it may be a long way off, planning and preparing for your retirement should be a concern for all professionals. Making sure that your benefits package includes some form of 403(b), 401(k), pension or other kinds of retirement plans is a significant.
Some institutions provide this benefit immediately with matching support. For example if an employee were to contribute 5% of their pre-tax income; the institution would in turn match that 5% contribution with their own funds. That’s essentially free money. But the university won’t match it unless you contribute some yourself. Other institutions may not begin matching employee contributions until a specific time has passed (i.e. 1 year). In this case you can sometimes make a case to have employer matching begin earlier.
Are you interested in earning a master’s degree? Perhaps a doctorate? Then inquiring about tuition remission is a worth your time and effort. Most colleges and universities will offer some sort of support for both their professional staff and their dependents for 100% or partially discounted tuition benefits through the institution. Otherwise, the college could be part of a network of other institutions who all work with one another to provide benefits to each others’ staff members cooperatively.
If you or your family members are looking to earn a degree, diploma, or certificate, then it’s worth asking your human resources professional if there are tuition remission benefits. Make sure that you ask about when those benefits start; qualified programs and institutions; as well as the amount and type of support offered.
Some student affairs professionals could be working in large cities; bustling metropolitan areas; and densely packed urban centers. In that case you’ll most likely have to commute to your job. Commuting can take up a large portion of your monthly expenses. In order to mitigate the impact that this could have on your cost of living, consider inquiring about commuting plans that support purchasing a bus pass; train tickets; or even bike or electric scooter purchases or rentals.
Some intuitional programs require you to contribute your pre-tax earnings to fund these benefits. Some provide transportation benefits directly. In either case; make sure that you ask your human resources professional about the type; amount; and start date of such commuting plan benefits as they relate to your new position.
Many intuitions also offer life insurance policies to its employees and staff. This may be more important for older job seekers or for those with families. Despite this, it’s still an important benefit to consider. If you aren’t sure what life insurance is, then just know that it’s a contract provided by an insurance company. Like any other form of insurance you pay a premium to insure you against a future risk. In this case, life insurance provides a lump-sum payment to your beneficiaries (known as a death benefit) upon the insured member’s death.
Some institutions now provide you with legal advice. These services enable the employee to connect to a network of attorneys. These benefits could also cover you and family members on such legal issues like adoption, estate planning, financial matters etc… This legal benefit helps employees navigate some more pressing personal and professional issues that may not be able to address or navigate on their own.
Perhaps one of the most appreciated benefits of working in higher education is the provision of housing and coverage of the associated costs related to housing. These are most likely granted to those working in residential life, housing, or residential education. The type of benefit can differ and include apartments, suites, condos, row houses or even single family units.
You should carefully consider and weigh this benefit on your need and use of it. Areas of expensive housing such as cities and large metropolitan areas would make this an enviable benefit. Whereas university provided housing in other locations with lower costs of living may not offer a significant benefit to the job seeker. Other ancillary benefits you could get from negotiating housing could be the location of the unit to campus; furnishing; utilities; cable; and internet access.
Likewise, most housing and residential life professionals also benefit by having both a housing and a meal plan. Sometimes this benefit includes only campus sponsored dining locations. Other times it could include local or area businesses. If this is the case, then a meal plans could mitigate the costs of dining in the area as well as your budget for groceries and other essential items.
Those student affairs professionals who are usually serve on an on-call function or emergency notification network will usually need to stand by and utilize their phones on a regular basis. Sometimes those phones are provided to them by the college or university. Other times, professionals could be asked to use their own devices.
In either case, it’s worth it to ask your human resources representative if any benefit or support is provided to professionals to reimburse all or part of their cell phone expenses. Otherwise it’s wise to ask for an institutional device for business related activity.
Some colleges and universities have health and fitness centers for their student populations. It’s not uncommon for staff and faculty members to use and take advantage of these facilities themselves. In that case it’s worthwhile to discuss with your human resources representative what kind of benefit administrators have for using these facilities. These campus facilities are often very robust and include gyms, sports courts, spas, and other services.
Otherwise some institutions have also provided subsidies or gifts of activity trackers (i.e. FitBit) to employees to help individuals manage their own health and well being. Sometimes these are offered with auxiliary benefit of other wellness initiatives such as yoga, meditation, exercise classes, and personal training for those that opt into activity tracker programs.
Federal holidays are often recognized by most colleges and universities as time off for students, employees, faculty, and staff. Because of that, additional holidays cannot often be negotiated for. However, if you have time set aside for religious holidays of obligation, then you should disclose and discuss that with your human resources representative or hiring manager in order to secure that time off.
Perhaps one of the best benefits of working in higher education is being able to take advantage of school closings and other academic calendar related dates the institution follows. These are usually in addition to vacation days that the college already provides to you.
However, what other student affairs job seekers rarely discuss or negotiate in the job search is pre-arranged or upcoming travel, vacation days, or other commitments. You may already have some scheduled commitments away from work. In that case, it’s wise to share those commitments with your hiring manager and negotiate how those times away from the office will be accommodated.
Often, these can be excused times away from the office that won’t be deducted from your allotment of vacation days. Otherwise you can negotiate for a later start date for your position that allows you to keep your pre-arranged commitments.
Sometimes sick days and absences are allotted based on the state where your institution is located. Other times those allotments of sick days are augmented by what the university always provides. It’s wise to discuss these terms with your hiring manager prior to starting to best understand your position.
Sometimes this bank of sick days are accumulated on a rolling basis from month to month. Other times, employees are given a bank of sick days when they start a new position. In some other cases, personal days and sick days may be combined.
In some cases professionals may be provided with a college or institutional sponsored vehicle. This is often due to travel demands of the position. Most likely these are professionals working in admissions, enrollment management, and athletics who may need to be on the road frequently. In that case, you can inquire and negotiate for access to an intuitional sponsored vehicle to address your travel needs. Otherwise, you can ask about mileage or vehicle use reimbursement for college sponsored travel away from the institution.
Performance bonuses are found mostly in private sector and corporate roles. This is especially the case when the position depends on specific performance metrics of the individual (i.e. sales and customer retention). However, you can also inquire with your hiring manager or human resources professional if there are any incentive bonuses for employees in your functional area. More often than not, this may not be the case. However, recent updates or changes in institutional policy may make it so that this is an additional benefit the institution could consider.
Inflation makes it so that being paid the same salary year over year ends up with you being able to buy less with your earned wage. That’s why asking about cost of living increases is an important factor to consider in your salary negotiation. Bring this question up with your human resources representative to determine if and when these cost of living increases have been offered in the past.
A history of little to no cost of living increases could be red flag for your entire compensation package. However, knowing how and when these increases are implemented and offered provides a window into both how employee compensation works as well as the financial health of the institution.
The Covid-19 pandemic made the transition of student affairs professionals’ work to a remote nature more acceptable. That means that it’s now entirely possible to ask for more flexible work arrangements. These arrangements allow you to work from home all or part of your time on your job. Please note that this is more applicable for some functional areas (i.e. academic advising) versus others (i.e. residential life). So, it’s wise to discuss the possibility, expectations, and implementation of flexible work arrangements directly with your hiring manager.
Takeaways
This article reviewed the following (non-comprehensive list) of employee benefits for student affairs professionals: start date; professional development; relocation expenses; insurance (health, dental, and vision); child care; retirement plans; tuition remission; commuting plans; life insurance; legal advice; housing; board; wireless / cell phone plans; holidays; vacations; sick days; performance bonuses; cost of living increases; and flexible work arrangements. Remember to discuss the feasibility, implementation, and application of these benefits with your hiring manager during your student affairs salary negotiation.
I hope that you found this article useful! If you need some additional help on your student affairs job search, then check out the eBook The Student Affairs Job Search: A Comprehensive Guide available here.
Happy searching,
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Cite this Article
Eng, D. (2020, July 14). Benefits Explained. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2020/7/14/benefits-explained
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