Update on Workforce Planning and Incentive Separation Plan

Middlebury has offered voluntary incentive separation packages to 80 staff members as part of its comprehensive workforce planning process that began in 2018. The offers, which were made on Friday, Feb. 8, are the final step in the institution’s plan to reduce staff compensation costs by about $8 million a year. Middlebury expects about 50 full and part-time staff members to take advantage of the program. Over the last year, through attrition and tight controls on hiring, the institution has eliminated another hundred positions. Those will not be refilled.

These savings, combined with a phased net reduction of 14 faculty positions in certain programs at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a commitment by nearly two dozen tenured faculty members at Middlebury College last month to accept a voluntary incentive retirement plan, will make it possible for Middlebury to budget a small operating surplus for its next fiscal year starting July 1.

Significantly, the changes position Middlebury to meet emerging needs for new skills and services. The workforce planning process, which entailed a detailed look at the institutions’ current and future strategic needs, identified about 60 new staff positions that Middlebury will create in the coming years to meet its goals. Thirty one of those positions were posted on an internal portal on Friday, with priority given to employees who have received the incentive separation plan. Other new positions will roll out, as needed in the coming years, in alignment with the annual budgeting process.

Additional information:

Read President Laurie Patton’s statement on workforce planning.

Read more details on the Incentive Separation Plan from Vice President for Human Resources Karen Miller and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration David Provost.