NIU is fortunate to have talented and dedicated faculty and staff to serve our students. Making smart decisions regarding employees is important to our mission, vision and values, as well as to the financial health of the university.
Wages account for more than 50% of the university’s annual expenses and, therefore, require constant evaluation and responsive planning to help control costs, anticipate future needs, reduce risks and ultimately ensure that NIU remains adaptable in a competitive and changing environment.
In April 2024, President Freeman held a monthly leadership meeting to provide all unit leaders with a financial update. There, she directed those leaders to focus their personnel strategy on four key areas that would help strengthen the university's financial position -- reducing or eliminating reliance on extra help; reducing or eliminating non-essential overtime; reducing or eliminating additional pay; and developing strategic personnel management within the units. These efforts remain ongoing throughout FY26.
While faculty positions have historically and currently followed an annual process for assessing which vacancies will result in searches, there were not similar mechanisms for staff positions. Without a strategic process in place, the university was spending upward of $3 million in off-cycle, base adjustments for staff because of mid-year department reorganizations or supervisor-requested job enhancements on certain positions. In response, leaders engaged working groups from across the university to develop a process for staff positions to help align our staffing needs with mission-critical objectives.
Developed in 2025, staff position control is the process used to manage and monitor all authorized employee positions to ensure that staffing decisions align with institutional priorities and budgetary resources. Each position is tracked independently of the employee who holds it, allowing the university to maintain transparency, fiscal discipline, and flexibility in workforce planning. When a position becomes vacant, supervisors must follow the established process for declaring a vacancy by submitting a “separation form” on the Human Resource Services’ (HRS) website and the position’s funding is held for sixty days. During that timeframe, HRS then engages the supervisor and division leader in discussions to determine whether to refill the position, reallocate duties, or leave it unfilled. HRS works with the Staff Position Control Review Group to evaluate requests and determine if an exception to the 60-day hold is warranted. This structured approach supports multi-year budgeting, enables thoughtful restructuring, and helps divisions align limited resources with NIU’s mission and evolving needs.