A caring community, meaningful work and unlimited potential

Stop any Central Michigan University employee and ask them why they work at CMU, and they’ll likely tell you: “because I want to contribute to work that changes lives and communities.”

Student success, the creation and sharing of knowledge, and community impact have long been motivating factors for pursuing careers in higher education – but those reasons alone are unlikely to keep someone in a career for decades. So, what makes them stay?

“CMU has faculty and staff employees who could work anywhere, at any employer or any university in the country,” said Lori Hella, associate vice president for CMU Human Resources. “Their knowledge, skills and talents make them incredibly qualified for their roles. We want to understand why they chose to come to, and then remain employed with, Central Michigan University.”

As it happens, the reasons can be summed up with three phrases: A Caring Community. Meaningful Work. Unlimited Potential.

These three core pillars make up the university’s new Employee Value Proposition. Faculty and staff members are invited to check CMU Today for a list of in-person and virtual discussion sessions to learn more about the new EVP. 

“Why would someone want to work here?”

The question at the heart of an Employee Value Proposition is simple: what are the benefits and rewards of working with this employer? 

“Those can include everything from the very tangible benefits of salary and insurance offerings to the less tangible — but very important — rewards of doing mission-driven work,” Hella said. “The EVP is, in a sense, the story of the employer’s unique workplace experience.”

To begin the process of developing CMU’s EVP, a 19-member steering committee partnered with the Marsh McLellan Agency to examine six key aspects of the employee experience:

• Compensation: compensation policies and transparency, and the stability and predictability of work schedules
• Benefits: benefit programs, paid time off, education and retirement programs
• Well-being: resources to support physical, mental, social, and financial health and well-being
• Career: opportunities to learn and grow, career development coaching, and mentoring
• Environment: safe working conditions, flexibility, work-life balance and amenities
• Culture: meaningful mission, vision, values and behaviors; recognition, collaboration and connection building

Leading the process

The 19 individuals involved in developing the EVP represented a wide range of positions and perspectives, Hella said. 

“Some members were part of the Strategic Plan Priority 3.1a working group that had been meeting and working on culture for several years,” Hella said. “Others were new to the group but had an interest in strengthening CMU’s workplace culture.”

Members included faculty members, union leaders, and representatives from every division.

Beginning in summer 2025, the group worked with Marsh McLennan Agency, whose workplace wellbeing team assists employers with this type of work. They began with a review of CMU’s existing policies, programs and data on employee experience. Following that initial assessment, a survey was distributed to all university employees in the fall of 2025 to gather additional information.

“Union and employee group leaders were instrumental in helping us distribute the survey, and we received 918 responses,” Hella said.

Marsh McLellan Agency also hosted several focus groups, soliciting more direct, qualitative input from 55 employees representing a variety of roles and units across campus. Having Marsh McLellan lead the focus groups was a strategic decision, Hella said, meant to help participants feel more comfortable providing honest feedback.

“We took several months to review, analyze and categorize the data we collected,” Hella said. “It was fascinating to note how much similarity there was in the themes coming from staff and from faculty – there was substantial overlap in their responses.”

The good and the “needs work”

Hella said having an EVP provides a common language for describing the experience of working at CMU based on the authentic experience of the people who are here doing the work each day,

“An EVP describes the unique experience of working at an organization, focused on the positive aspects,” Hella said. "However, conducting the research for the EVP also illuminated areas where employees would most value improvement. When we asked employees for their input, we also asked about what could change for the better.” 

Both faculty and staff respondents used key words such as caring, rewarding, meaningful, supportive, positive and welcoming when discussing CMU’s top positive attributes.

“The consistency of the responses reinforced our confidence that these characteristics were reflective of an authentic employee experience,” Hella said. “We also saw consistency in the aspects of employment that employees said they valued most, such as mission-driven work, access to learning opportunities, and collaboration and teamwork.”

These characteristics became the core of the EVP, which is based on the strengths of the employment experience, as identified by employees, she said.  

But not everything the committee heard was positive.

“There were themes that surfaced consistently as areas of opportunity for improvement, and those are important, too,” Hella said. “For example, we heard a need for a more comprehensive orientation and onboarding process, a need to explore support for child and family care, greater clarity on pay practices, and opportunities for recognition and professional development.”

Hella said these opportunity areas have been presented to university leaders so that future strategic planning goals and initiatives can be developed accordingly. Hella noted that some of the opportunity areas that surfaced during the input period were already reflected in CMU’s Strategic Plan.

“As an example, we already had a group focused on the onboarding and socialization process for new employees,” she said. “Some of the other recommendations also align with goals already within the strategic plan priorities.”

Next steps

Now that the EVP has been developed, it will be used in the recruitment of new employees and to guide efforts to retain current employees, Hella said.

“Supervisors can use it to shape team culture and onboarding, and hiring departments can use it to tell the story of working at CMU to candidates,” she said.

In addition, Hella said the EVP process will help inform future discussions about strategic priorities and the use of resources to continue improving the employee experience.

“Every positive step forward helps to move the needle,” she said. “Recognition tools like the CMU Shout Outs, the Staff Excellence and Faculty Excellence in Teaching Awards, and professional development and belonging activities help us make CMU a better place to work."