There's a harsh fiscal reality behind Cornell's need to reduce its payroll through the Staff Retirement Incentive (SRI) program. But Vice President for Human Resources Mary Opperman does not want the business of retirement to overshadow the contributions of staff members who are retiring, and the value of those who remain.

By June 30 more than 400 staff members will be retiring from Cornell after having elected to take the SRI. "We don't want those 432 people to leave this campus without the tribute that they deserve," Opperman said. "Together they have served the university for over 11,000 years, and we'll miss them. They take with them a lot of history, talent and skills, and we owe them thanks."

The SRI should significantly reduce, but will not fully eliminate, the need for some layoffs in the future, and a large majority of the retirees' positions will remain unfilled, Opperman said. "We need to reduce our overall workforce size, even though these might not have been the people or positions we would have chosen. We offered the SRI to minimize layoffs."

The SRI is part of the university's strategy to return the university operating budget to equilibrium. The program will save the university more than $25 million annually in payroll, estimates Opperman, assuming that most positions remained unfilled. Personnel costs represent 60 percent of the university's annual operating budget.

Thirteen hundred staff members were eligible for the program, and about 33 percent of them opted for the program, more than the 10 to 20 percent that the administration had anticipated, Opperman said. The reasons? "Some people are very pleased with the idea of getting a little extra financial help and imagining their lives beyond their job at Cornell. Others took this option because they feared that they might lose their jobs." In some cases, she said, people chose retirement in the hopes of protecting co-workers' jobs.

What the plan involved
The Staff Retirement Incentive program was a one-time-only offer available for Cornell staff age 55 or older with at least 10 years of service to the university. The incentives include a lump-sum payment, based on an employee's base pay, and an enhanced contribution by the university to the employee's Cornell University Retirement Plan account. The deadline for application was March 31. Additional information is available online.

Preparing for retirement
Cornell's Employee Assistance Program is offering a series of 45-minute workshops and webinars during April and May on coping with change and stress. The workshops are listed at Cornell's Caring Community. The Web site also lists other resources on these topics and on topics of interest to retirees.

To smooth the transition for remaining staff, managers and directors have been prioritizing what elements of work must continue, she said. The administration is urging them to think creatively about how to fill their staff needs, whether by changing the way work is done, stopping some work, or reorganizing or reassigning work, Opperman said. "We can't just ask the people who remain to pick up all of this work and work harder," she said. "It's not easy to stop doing things, because we take all of our work seriously. So, staff and their supervisors need to work together, and across traditional unit boundaries, to find new ways of getting that work done, through partnerships or collaborations, or deciding to do work less frequently."

Meanwhile, a small number of staff members have applied and been accepted for the second leg of the administration's retirement planning, the Staff Phased Retirement Program, Opperman said. The plan, which is ongoing and will continue, allows staff who are currently working at least 30 hours a week to work for 20 hours a week, for up to three years before retiring.

Both for remaining staff and those leaving the university community, the 432 retirements are bittersweet, Opperman said. A June retirement celebration is in the works, in addition to other tribute events that individual units choose to hold. "It's hard to see those people go. I just want to make sure they know that the university appreciates them," said Opperman.