Dear colleagues,

We are excited to provide you with a brief update on our Total Compensation and Benefits Review Project as well as provide you with information on how you can be involved.  As President Crawford shared in his email to faculty and staff on August 24, the project objectives are to: 

  • Ensure Puget Sound’s total compensation and benefits offerings support our ability to attract, hire, retain, and motivate capable and committed employees,
  • Establish a comprehensive total compensation and benefits philosophy that will support the University’s mission now and in the future, and
  • Position us as an employer of choice in higher education and the region.

Project Update
Over the past few weeks our project team has completed the following activities:

  • Held a project kick-off meeting with the Internal Advisory Committee and Faculty and Staff Working Groups, where the groups were charged by President Crawford  
  • Collaborated with these teams to finalize the project charter and ensure the scope of this project reflects the needs of the university
  • Written and issued a request for proposals (RFP) to engage a consulting firm that can augment our internal capacity for project work, improve our access to market data or research (including proprietary data), and provide objective analyses as we work through the deliverables and activities for the project

Project Website
Information about the project, including progress updates, will be posted periodically on the project website. You can visit that site for a list of project team members and to view the project charter.

How to be Involved
While project team members were selected to represent a broad range of faculty and staff employment categories, experiences, and perspectives, the project's success depends on the broader campus community involvement. 

  • Sign up for a one-on-one session with an HR representative to discuss the project and any other feedback about Puget Sound’s compensation and benefits you may have. These sessions will be offered on October 18, November 14, and December 7. Reminders for these opportunities will be sent via Faculty and Staff Communication emails. 
  • Faculty may attend Faculty Senate meetings and hear from Provost Drew Kerkhoff about current and upcoming activities related to this work.
  • Staff may attend Staff Senate meetings and hear from our HR leaders and Executive Sponsors about current and upcoming activities related to this work. 
  • Talk to your faculty and staff peers who are participating as Advisory Committee and working group members. 

This project is vitally important to the university’s ability to attract, recruit, and retain the exceptional faculty and staff our mission requires, and our shared community deserves. We thank you for your continued support of this project and the work of these committees and appreciate all you do to strengthen our university community.

Drew Kerkhoff, Provost
Kim Kvaal, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer