Dear Staff and AAP Colleagues,
We are writing today to announce the merit pool for the upcoming year and provide an overview of significant improvements and updates to staff and AAP benefits and policies. These updates are designed to better reflect our commitment to cura personalis, “care of the whole person,” while also building a more competitive benefits package for recruiting and retaining a high-quality professional workforce.
3% Merit Pool
The university has approved a 3% merit pool for the fiscal year starting on July 1, 2022 for staff and AAP merit pay increases as part of the annual performance review process. More details about allocating this merit pool following the performance review process will be shared with campus leaders by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer in the coming days. We acknowledge that the economic conditions of this moment have caused uncertainty and rising costs that impact our community. We will continue to review and assess how our salary and benefits, within our operating resources, can best support our faculty, AAPs and staff.
Staff/AAP Leave Benefits Updates
Working with leaders across our campuses, the university has reviewed and approved a number of significant enhancements to our leave benefits. The following changes apply to full-time, administrative employees (staff and AAPs) effective July 1, 2022, including:
- Parental Leave: Eligible employees will now be offered up to 8 weeks of paid parental leave for the birth, adoption, fostering, or guardianship of a child. This is in addition to the 8-10 weeks of disability benefits that a birth parent can take to recover from the delivery of a child.
- Paid Time Off (PTO): All employees will now accrue 21 days of PTO during their first year of service, accruing one additional day for each year of service thereafter, up to a maximum of 26 days per year. This will not impact accrual rates for current AAP employees. Staff can view current PTO accruals and policy on the HR website; this policy will be updated to reflect the changes outlined here in the coming weeks.
- Sick Leave: In addition to PTO, employees will now receive 5 days of dedicated sick leave each year. Employees can accrue up to 30 days of sick leave if they carry over days not used in a given year.
- Disability Leave:Both staff and AAP employees will be covered under the university’s Short-Term Disability plan as of July 1, 2022. The unpaid waiting period for this plan will be reduced from 3 weeks to 1 week, and it will now replace up to 100% of employee salary for up to 9 weeks. Employees who are eligible to receive paid family and medical leave benefits through D.C. – or from the state in which they are approved to telework on a full-time basis – will continue to have their paid disability (or parental leave) benefit offset by the amount they are entitled to through those state programs.
These improvements bring staff and AAP leave benefits in line with one another to streamline our policies and better reflect the nature of employment at Georgetown today.
More specific details will be shared by the Department of Human Resources in May. We will also host a Staff/AAP Community Forum with a focus on these changes next month.
Tuition Assistance Program (TAP)
As recently announced, eligibility for Employee TAP benefits will shift from a two-year service requirement to a one-year requirement, effective for Fall 2022 semester courses.
Employees who have completed one year of continuous, eligible service as of August 19, 2022, will now qualify for Employee TAP benefits for the Fall 2022 semester.
Additional States Approved for Teleworkers
The university has also announced that Georgia, Arizona and Delaware have been added to the list of approved states for teleworkers, marking 21 states in which Georgetown is set up to hire. We continue to work to broaden the geographic areas that are eligible for recruiting and hiring talent, and we will post updates as new states are approved for teleworking on the Telework overview website.
Well-Being and Mental Health Resources
The university has renewed its partnerships with the Calm and OneMedical Mindset services. Mindset provides therapy and coaching sessions, offered via telehealth, at no charge to employees. Supporting staff well-being and mental health continues to be a top priority for Georgetown, and we encourage you to visit the Every Hoya Cares site to learn more about the many resources available to you.
We offer our gratitude to our entire staff and AAP community for your dedication, service and hard work over the course of these challenging few years. It is our hope that these improvements and updates to our employee benefits provide increased support to you and your family, and assist in recruiting additional talented colleagues to join us in advancing our university’s Catholic and Jesuit mission.
Gratefully,
David B. Green, Interim Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Robert M. Groves, Provost
Edward B. Healton, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences
William M. Treanor, Executive Vice President and Dean of the Law Center