KCU named “Great College to Work for” two years in a row
For the second consecutive year, Kansas City University (KCU) has been recognized by the Great Colleges to Work For program.
The results—recently released in a special supplement to the Chronicle of Higher Education—are based on a survey of 236 colleges and universities of the more than 4,000 colleges and universities in the country. Only 85 institutions, including KCU, achieved Great College to Work For recognition. KCU was included in the category of enrollment under 3,000.
A survey of KCU faculty and staff, from two campuses located in Kansas City and Joplin, Mo., reflected employee satisfaction with the university as a consistently superior workplace for two years in row in two categories: Compensation and Benefits and Facilities, Workspaces and Security.
“KCU’s mission is to improve the well-being of the communities we serve and two of those communities are our employees and our student body,” said Marc B. Hahn, DO, president and CEO of KCU.
“Being recognized on a national level is a testament to our commitment to attracting and retaining the highest caliber faculty and staff, as well as being one of the finest student-focused health sciences universities in the nations.”
KCU strives to take a highly thoughtful approach to compensation and benefits, thereby creating a structure that stands above most others in the academic sector. Faculty and staff cited benefits as a key strength in the University’s employment package and it has proven to be effective in recruitment and retention.
Lisa Cambridge, executive director for University Relations, was a longtime employee who retired from the University and recently returned. “My employment was impacted by a serious family health issue and the relief offered by KCU’s generous FMLA and PTO benefits eased an enormous burden, as much emotional as financial,” Cambridge said. “KCU is the only employer I would consider coming out of retirement for because it is truly a great college to work for.”
The University’s unique wellness program is rooted in three pillars: physical, restorative and financial health. Every wellness offering focuses on one or more of these pillars with the goal of making a meaningful impact on employees’ well-being by encouraging healthful behaviors and promoting a culture of wellness within the entire KCU community.
KCU’s employees also cited facilities, workspaces and security as areas that make the University a great place to work. For more than a century, KCU has been instrumental in transforming two distinctly different neighborhoods in Missouri—the urban northeast side of downtown Kansas City and as of 2017, Joplin, a city struck by a devastating tornado in 2011.
With campuses in two distinctly different parts of the state, KCU’s progressive spirit is evidenced by an ongoing campus master plan that enhances the neighborhoods and addresses the needs of the nearby communities through expansion of facilities and programs. In Kansas City, KCU continues construction on a 56,000-square-foot Center for Medical Education Innovation, while in Joplin, the University plans for a 2020 groundbreaking of its College of Dental Medicine.
Kansas City University’s commitment to faculty, staff and student well-being has been highlighted by the in-depth survey conducted by the Great Colleges to Work For Program, assessing two components about the workplace. A questionnaire about institutional characteristics and a faculty/staff questionnaire about individuals’ evaluations of their institution. The primary factor in deciding whether an institution received recognition was the employee feedback.
Kansas City University, founded in 1916, is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit private health sciences university with a College of Osteopathic Medicine and a College of Biosciences. The College of Osteopathic Medicine is the eighth largest medical school in the nation and the leading producer of physicians for the State of Missouri.
KCU opened a second medical school campus in Joplin, Mo. in 2017 to help address the growing need for physicians in the region’s rural communities. The University also added a doctoral program in clinical psychology in 2017 to meet the growing demand for behavioral health providers in the region.