It is my pleasure to write again to the readers of Howl You Know at the dawn of a new year. NC State is an amazing place and is accomplishing its mission to solve the world’s most critical challenges. In early 2023, I wrote about the challenges of recruiting and retaining talent. Those challenges remain with us and will for the foreseeable future. I want to revisit those challenges and consider this: the generational demographic shift in our workforce and how that shift is driving evolution at NC State.
Recruitment
In November 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated the unemployment rate in North Carolina was 3.4%, which labor market experts regard as full employment. In 2023, CNBC ranked North Carolina as the top state for business in the United States for the second consecutive year. These factors, plus companies like VinFast, Toyota and Wolfspeed establishing or expanding operations in the state, have created great competition among employers for talent.
Much has been done since spring 2022 to address our recruiting challenges, and more will be done. An example is the university’s creation of an employee value proposition. The EVP connects what is distinctive and great about NC State and what matters to a prospective employee. The EVP enables prospective employees to see what a career at NC State could mean to them. I invite you to explore the EVP and share it with anyone you know who may be considering employment at NC State.
Retention
With employees having many choices for employment in the Triangle region, retention is a challenge. Institutionwide, the university retained 91.97% of its employees during fiscal year 2022-23, the most recent year full data is available. That retention rate is slightly higher than the mostly pre-pandemic fiscal year of 2019-20, when the retention rate was 91.55%.
Those are strong retention figures, but the competition to recruit talent continues to be great, so the university must continue to evolve its retention efforts. A good example is the implementation of the Wolfpack Performance Program, our online performance management system. WPP replaced our paper-based performance program, and now staff can receive comprehensive performance evaluations and record their career goals and aspirations in an electronic system. Supervisors use WPP to evaluate how well our EHRA nonfaculty and SHRA staff perform their duties. In the future, the university hopes to help staff identify potential career paths. This type of career assistance is a common expectation of staff, especially those in generations Y and Z.
Employee Generational Demographics
Speaking of generations Y and Z, between 2020 and 2023, our employee headcount for generations Y and Z increased by 1,038. Generation Z, our fastest-growing generation, increased by 650 during the same period. The Baby Boomer generation decreased in headcount by 617 over those three years. The expectations of most employees in Generation Z are different from most Baby Boomers, including their service expectations. Meeting employee service expectations is an important aspect of retaining employees. That’s one of the reasons why human resources has implemented an electronic service platform called HRNow. To date, HR staff has successfully resolved nearly 11,000 HRNow cases. I’m proud to report our clients have consistently rated their experience with the tool as positive. HRNow meets the service expectations of employees, especially our fastest-growing generations. Throughout 2024, human resources will continue to introduce employees to HRNow as a great resource to meet their human resources needs.
Conclusion
As is evidenced by the EVP and our ranking on the U.S. News & World Report Best College list, NC State is a great university that lives up to its Think and Do motto. Challenges exist, but we will continue to evolve and change as needed to meet them.
Tim Danielson
Associate Vice Chancellor, Human Resources
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