printable versionVantage Point: University offers competitive benefits and salaries
BY DIANE PECK
Diane Peck
You will soon be receiving information from the Benefits Department about our 2007 health-care plans. This is the time of year, referred to as open enrollment, when employees are asked to review their health-care needs and determine if they want to make changes for the upcoming year. While the information you will be receiving relates to our health plans, there are many other benefit plans that make up our total package.
Stanford's benefits package is one of the best offered by any Bay Area employer—a claim that was confirmed by a third-party survey conducted earlier this year by Towers Perrin. That review, commissioned by the Benefits Department, compared our benefits to those offered by 20 large Bay Area employers, including Cisco, eBay, Apple, Yahoo, Oracle and Genentech. It found that Stanford ranked in the top quartile, even before taking into account unique programs such as the Tuition Grant Program, which helps employees offset their children's secondary education costs.
Healthcare is one of the benefits we are most proud of. This year we are delighted to be further improving our offerings with the implementation of a new Medical Contribution Assistance Program. This benefit will provide an even larger subsidy for employee-plus-dependent coverage under the least expensive medical plan. The subsidy is up to 100 percent for employees working three-fourths time or more with verified household incomes of $45,000 or less. The subsidy follows a sliding scale for employees with household incomes of up to $60,000. More information on this new benefit can be found in your open enrollment materials.
Employees enjoy a wide range of choices in healthcare that will include three HMO plans, two PPO plans, two dental plans and a vision plan. Stanford pays 100 percent of the cost of coverage for those who choose the lowest-cost option, which has been Kaiser Permanente for the past few years. In addition, the university has paid an amount equal to 82 percent of the lowest-cost option toward the cost of healthcare for employees with dependents. Employees who do not select the lowest-cost plan receive the equivalent contribution toward whatever plan they choose and then pay the difference themselves.
To help employees prepare for life after Stanford, the university offers the Stanford University Contributory Retirement Plan (SCRP), a defined contribution plan in which employees and Stanford make contributions that grow tax-free and are invested as directed by the employee. Only one company in the Towers Perrin survey had a better plan than ours.
Stanford also provides an array of non-traditional benefits. The Tuition Grant Program, open to benefits-eligible employees after five years of service, pays up to half the amount of Stanford's tuition for their children to attend any accredited college or trade school. For 2006-07, the maximum amount will be $16,497. The Adoption Assistance Program reimburses employees up to $10,000 per adoption, with a maximum lifetime benefit of $20,000 per family—one of the highest amounts in the country.
In addition, tuition reimbursement and training assistance programs help employees with their own education, and the Child Care Grant Program helps eligible employees with daycare expenses.
These excellent benefits are just one component of our total compensation package. The other is our salary program.
Stanford staff members started the academic year with a compensation structure that includes increases in all pay ranges. These adjustments, effective Sept. 1, are based on the university's compensation philosophy of providing wages that are competitive with those of other employers.
A thorough market analysis is a key tool for putting that philosophy into practice. Year after year, our salaries, on average, are found to be "at market" level. That determination was reconfirmed this year based on a Compensation Department analysis of 235 Stanford jobs representing over 90 percent of the Stanford staff. Market data was gathered from 10 surveys published by professional survey organizations specializing in comparable labor markets.
While salary ranges are adjusted based on market research, Stanford is a pay-for-performance employer. Base-pay increases are based on each employee's contribution toward achieving the goals of the work group. Deadlines for performance reviews and timing of pay decisions vary from department to department.
Our competitive salaries and wages, along with our comprehensive benefits, help us build on our reputation as an extremely desirable place to work, as evidenced by the 50,000-plus job applications we receive each year.
While our total compensation package is excellent, employees tell us there is an even more important reason they come to Stanford and stay at Stanford. They tell us that Stanford's excellent work environment, culture of commitment and caring, and sense of community is what, year after year, make this a place they want to work. It is this powerful combination that makes Stanford an employer of choice.
Diane Peck is executive director of human resources.