By Lisa Nichols, Carpantato Myles, Marianne Achenbach, and Jill Mortali
With an employment landscape that continues to evolve with no apparent abatement as we enter the third year of a global pandemic, the field of research administration has not escaped the labor shortages prevalent in other markets. A December 2021 editorial in the Wall Street Journal noted that while COVID has accelerated changes already underway, such as remote work, it has also brought about other potentially lasting changes (Galston, 2021). The article notes that the pandemic sharply reversed steady increases of older Americans in the workforce and prompted an increase in younger workers opting to stay at home, whether due to concern for unvaccinated children or better quality of family life. The result is 2.4 million fewer Americans in the labor force than before the pandemic; employers engaged in bidding wars for staff; and rapidly rising salaries, which are forecast to accelerate in 2022. Following upward trends, quitting rates reached record highs in November 2021 when more than 4.5 million people in the U.S. left their jobs voluntarily, in part due to opportunities for better pay and benefits (Goldberg, 2022). In the current environment, recruiting qualified staff and retaining staff with institutional knowledge is challenging but critical. Universities have long competed for researchers and research dollars. In the current environment, competition for human capital essential to support research has, anecdotally, also increased. The pools of qualified candidates for skilled administrative positions are dwindling, salaries are increasing, and counteroffers (“bidding wars”) are prevalent. In addition, the ability to work remotely at some institutions is breaking down barriers to job change, and flexibilities and remote work opportunities can trump traditional salary and benefits packages. These trends, coupled with continued growth in demand and funding for research, are leading to an erosion of support for research at our nation’s universities (Gibbons, 2021).