Faculty workloads, especially service, can be a source of inequities impacting faculty job satisfaction and retnetion. During Spring 2024, the ADVANCE Center convened a small working group to explore and prepare a draft policy and implementation strategy designed to ensure faculty workload equity is monitored and corrected if needed.
The model above describes that when employees perceive workload balance, job satisfaction is fostered. This aligns with other research which shows worklod equity promotes retention. Taken together with the learnings and priorities from our Aspire IChange process, faculty survey feedback, and the ACE workshops on the same topic, a small team proposed draft policy language useful for both individual departments as well as the university as a whole to consider. The draft includes important definitions to build shared undertanding, including about invisible labor as well as framework for creating (or restoring) the conditions which sustain faculty workload equity. The proposal also includes concrete strategies matched to unit-level workload issues which might be revealed to help bring about more of the equity-creating conditions. The premise being, after a faculty workload audit and transparent group conversations to co-create norms and understanding, each academic unit should put forward its own internal workload equity plan, prioritize issues to address, implement fit-for purpose solutions, and keep itself accountable. We expect 2024-2025 to include deeper conversations and "how to' support as any formal guidances or policies move forward. 
