Milestone Progress: Implementation Rollout of the Staff & Administrator Classification and Compensation Study

Dear WesternU Community,

I am writing to share a momentous update on our institutional commitment to supporting our faculty, staff, and administrators. Having fully concluded all study phases of our comprehensive Classification and Compensation Study, we have formally transitioned into the active implementation rollout for our Staff and Administrators, a pivotal step grounded in our University’s core values of humanism, scholarship, and integrity, and directly anchored in our Institutional Compensation Philosophy’s principles of internal equity, market competitiveness, transparency, and fiscal responsibility.

Establishing the Baseline: Market Benchmarking and Fiscal Responsibility

This current implementation rollout marks a fundamental shift in how we manage and structure compensation for faculty, staff and administrators across both our California and Oregon campuses. Having completed job description validations, internal salary analyses, external market benchmarking, and updated pay model for our Staff and Administrators, we are now executing the second phase of our multi-year implementation framework:

• Phase I (FY25 – Completed): Initial Faculty Implementation.
• Phase II (FY27 – In Progress): Staff & Administrator Implementation Rollout.
• Phase III (FY28 – Proposed): Second Faculty Implementation Phase.
• Phase IV (FY29 – Proposed Final Phase): Comprehensive final adjustment to fully bring all eligible Staff, Administrators, and Faculty to established market minimum benchmarks.

To ensure our compensation structure accurately reflects both our specialized mission and competitive market dynamics, our study involved an exhaustive external market analysis. Working alongside our external partners at Mercer, WesternU benchmarked roles against 63 peer institutions—including regional health science universities, specialized academic medical centers, and other peer institutions (such as UCLA, UC Irvine, OHSU, USC, and Loma Linda).

This robust data set provided the objective foundation needed to evaluate and establish competitive salary baselines tailored specifically to WesternU.

Our primary focus in the Phase II rollout is to establish a solid, equitable foundation by prioritizing adjustments for employees whose current compensation is furthest lagging behind established market minimums. Guided by strict fiscal responsibility, these initial adjustments ensure we address our most critical compensation gaps in a manner that remains sustainable within our university operating budget.

Key priorities of this Phase II implementation rollout include:

• Prioritizing Market Alignment: Directing immediate adjustments toward staff and administrative positions furthest below their respective market minimum benchmarks.
• Standardized Job Structures: Placing employees into standardized job families, job titling frameworks, and defined career pathways.
• Fiscal Stewardship: Ensuring all baseline adjustments align with institutional resources and are reviewed in close coordination with the Strategic Budget Oversight Committee (SBOC) to maintain long-term financial health.

A Path Toward Institutional Growth and Maturity

It is important to emphasize that this implementation is not an endpoint, rather it is the continuation of a long-term path toward organizational maturity and growth. As WesternU continues to evolve, our approach to total rewards and employee recognition must mature alongside it.

Building a robust, competitive compensation program is an ongoing process. Establishing this baseline structure paves the way for future continuous improvements, including the long-term design and future implementation of a stable, transparent framework to support both career and compensation advancement opportunities for staff and administrative employees as part of WesternU’s sustained investment in our people.

Job Architecture & Transparent Resources

To empower our employees and support long-term career growth, the Office of Human Resources is working towards publishing full details on WesternU’s foundational Job Architecture directly on the HR Classification and Compensation SharePoint Site. Developed in partnership with Mercer and informed by extensive feedback and collaborative discussions across shared governance on both our California and Oregon campuses, this centralized hub includes our complete Job Architecture framework as well as the full list of 63 Benchmark Peer Institutions. This resource provides all employees with clear, transparent visibility into career pathways and progression across the university.

This centralized resource provides comprehensive guidance on our updated career pathways, including details on:

• Job Families and Sub-families: Defining clear, functional groupings across institutional roles.
• Career Streams and Career Levels: Establishing clear pathways across operational, professional, managerial, and executive roles, serving as a practical roadmap that outlines transparent expectations for professional growth and advancement.

Collaborative Rollout Timeline & Next Steps

To ensure a seamless, transparent, and well-coordinated rollout, Human Resources is working in active collaboration with respective leadership across each College and Division.

In alignment with our College and Division leadership partners, we are finalizing rollout details and deploying administrative resources. To allow adequate time for thorough data review sessions with each College and Division leadership, as well as operational alignment between HR and Payroll, the implementation rollout is target-scheduled for execution by the end of September 2026.

Over the coming weeks, Human Resources will work directly with College and Division leaders to provide resources to ensure smooth coordination. Individualized communications regarding specific salary adjustments and position classifications will be distributed directly to impacted employees by the Office of Human Resources.

Looking ahead, as outlined in our overarching multi-phase roadmap, subsequent implementation phases for both Faculty and Staff will follow in future fiscal years, maintaining our phased, values-driven approach to equitable compensation across all university employee groups.

In Gratitude

This milestone reflects hundreds of hours of thoughtful collaboration. My sincere thanks go to the Office of Human Resources for their operational leadership, the Strategic Budget Oversight Committee, the Dean’s Council, our shared governance leaders, the newly charged Institutional Compensation Committee as they take on stewardship of this ongoing work, and our external partners at Mercer.

Thank you to each of you for your dedication, patience, and continued excellence as we build a more equitable, sustainable, and mature future for Western University of Health Sciences.

Robin Farias-Eisner, MD, PhD, MBA
President
Western University of Health Sciences