Theme 2: Build and Sustain the Next-Generation Land-Grant Workforce at K-State
We must establish a foundation that enables us to grow our next-generation land-grant workforce, inclusive of a common culture, systems and structures that value, incentivize, recognize and empower faculty and staff.
K-State is filled with dedicated faculty and staff who are passionate about the institution and committed to the success of the students and communities they serve. We will amplify and channel this passion by ensuring K-State is a fulfilling, rewarding and equitable place to work for all faculty and staff.
This means thinking differently about how we have traditionally supported our workforce in areas such as evaluations and career paths, where we must streamline and standardize our approaches to ensure all employees have merit-based pathways to rewards and advancement. We must modernize how we approach rewards and recognition, from working with colleges and departments to expand how faculty contributions are acknowledged through promotion and tenure to establishing more flexible benefits and rewards that are customized to meet the unique needs of our employees.
This mindset of thinking differently when it comes to our workforce also applies to how, when and where we work. It also means shaping our workforce in different ways to support the changing and growing learner population we will serve in the coming years across all types of learners and delivery formats, to drive the research and discovery we will develop and to amplify our economic and community impact through engagement. We are also committed to establishing workspaces where our workforce can be most effective, from standardizing and expanding our approach to hybrid and remote work to investing in the facilities and physical structures our faculty and staff need to do their jobs effectively.
Progress toward these goals is real and recognized. K-State has been named the No. 3 Best Employer in Kansas by Forbes, reflecting a genuine improvement in workplace culture and continued investment in people. A comprehensive compensation study has been completed, establishing market-rate benchmarks for all faculty, staff and graduate students. Implementation will occur over three fiscal years to establish market-competitive salary structures, ensure appropriate pay placement within ranges, address wage compression and define compensation practices. A multi-phase budget transformation effort is underway to obtain resources to invest into competitive compensation, ensuring that K-State has the financial infrastructure to attract and keep the talent it needs. Faculty development training for campus fundraisers, coordinated through the Office of the Provost, is strengthening the professional capacity of frontline staff. These investments signal that K-State is serious about becoming an employer of choice — not just in name, but in practice.
Bring all employees to 100% of their appropriate market-aligned pay ranges and build supporting structures focused on competitiveness and performance
Expand university guidance to colleges and departments for promotion and tenure criteria to fully value and recognize the breadth of faculty contributions to the university and those it serves
Implement a consistent approach and common framework for faculty and staff evaluations
Grow faculty, staff and graduate students to meet our research and enrollment targets
Establish a culture of career growth, pathways and opportunity for all employees
Become a leader among land-grant institutions in workforce compensation, benefits and opportunity
Explore additional, flexible benefits customized to support all employees
Establish a baseline funding package and more consistent work expectations for graduate students
Implement the completed compensation study across three fiscal years — bringing all faculty, staff and graduate students to market-rate salaries, addressing wage compression, and establishing clearly defined compensation structures that are transparent, equitable and competitive with peer institutions
Execute the multi-phase budget transformation effort which prioritizes aligning resources to support K-State’s long-term competitiveness and its ability to recruit and retain top talent
Attract and retain high-performing, talented and engaged faculty and staff
Hire and retain faculty and staff with varying expertise and experiences
Realize meaningful, positive change in K-State's overall workforce climate
Build relationships with target doctoral programs to recruit graduates to work at K-State
Establish and grow endowed faculty positions with defined recognition levels — attracting philanthropic investment into faculty support and providing a durable, donor-funded mechanism to recruit and retain distinguished scholars in priority areas
Invest in enhanced development training for campus faculty, coordinated through the KSU Foundation and the Office of the Provost, to improve their knowledge and secure more engagement directly by the university in earning philanthropy at K-State.
Expand Cornerstone and Keystone Scholar opportunities to create immediately accessible, donor-funded support for faculty across colleges, strengthening K-State’s ability to recruit and retain leading scholars through philanthropic partnership
Elevate employee well-being at all levels of the university
Establish a university well-being philosophy
Develop structures, processes, resources and a culture that promote workforce reward and recognition for faculty and staff at all levels
Build on K-State’s recognition by Forbes Mazagine as the No. 3 Best Employer in Kansas by sustaining the cultural investments, workplace improvements, and recognition practices that earned that distinction
Imperative 1 Grow enrollment to 36,200 learners
Imperative 4 Grow research expenditures to $350 million annually and sponsored programs and awards to $300 million annually
Imperative 7 Be a positive force for the Kansas economy
Imperative 8 Focus on operational excellence and being One K-State in all we do
Imperative 9 Become an employer of choice in Kansas and higher education
Building a Biomanufacturing Workforce
K-State's Biomanufacturing Training and Education Initiative is bringing experts to K-State to study biosciences and train the next industry workforce.