Empower Alaska Incentive Plan

Get ready to be empowered! After the first of the year, you will be able to nominate a peer, a team, yourself or any employee in good standing to be recognized for empowering Alaska through their work at UA - and receive monetary awards!

The Details: The Empower Alaska Incentive is a pilot program meant to provide a way to recognize the essential role our employees play in advancing UA. 

  • In May 2024, the Board of Regents approved funding for an employee incentive plan in support of the Roadmap to Empower Alaska. The program will launch in January as a pilot to evaluate its feasibility and effectiveness before a full-scale implementation.
  • During this pilot year, we’ll look to recognize and reward employees who make a significant contribution to advancing the University.

The Process: Regents set aside $500,000 for awards, distributed proportionally between the three Universities and System Office. Monetary awards will be provided for individual nominations, and a grand prize award will be made at the end of FY25.

  • After nominations are received, the supervisor of the nominated employee or team will determine the award amount. 
  • Awards are in increments of $100 up to $700, with approval from the Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services (for the universities) or Chief Human Resources Officer (for System office) required for awards of $800 - $1,000.
  • The Universities and System Office will create ad-hoc committees to review all of their submissions, and select their top 3 awards that they think best exemplify efforts to Empower Alaska, and will be eligible for a grand prize award in late spring 2025.

The Categories:

  • Scalable ideas that lead to business process saving - Innovative work or suggestions, well beyond standard job requirements, that significantly improve operational efficiencies, introduce a new or modified business practice, or improve work process, workflow, or customer service.
  • Exceptional student service regarding advancing recruitment, graduation, and retention - This includes things that Improve the student experience, like advancements in approaches to student recruitment, advising, and retention that streamline processes and improve the student experience.
  • Exceptional behavior that sets a model for others and is aligned with key elements of Empower Alaska - This includes extraordinary effort during times of critical department need or extraordinary performance that far exceeds expected or required performance. In other words, it is meant to recognize when an employee goes above and beyond what is asked.

What’s Next: More details will be available after we return from hard closure.

Published 12/20/2024