Recruitment and Retention Incentives

At UC Davis we successfully recruit and retain world class talent through our commitment to inclusivity in the workplace, optimizing recruiting and investing to retain.

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Workplace Inclusivity— You Belong Here!

Inclusivity drives retention and recruitment, and UC Davis cares about its employees.

Optimizing Recruiting

Hiring Bonuses

Hiring bonuses can enable a department to make a market-competitive employment offer and assist in securing a candidate’s acceptance of the offer. The offering of a hiring bonus is at the sole discretion of the University. Hiring managers should inquire when initiating a recruitment, whether a hiring bonus is appropriate to include in a job posting or at the time of hire. 

Hiring Bonuses are Appropriate, When:

  • The position is critical to operations. The hiring bonus may be an incentive for a candidate to accept an offer.
  • The position is difficult to recruit to as evidenced by recent failed recruitments, large numbers of vacancies, chronic vacancies or small applicant pools. The hiring bonus may be an incentive for candidates to apply.
  • Competing organizations offer hiring bonuses for the same/similar position.  The hiring bonus may help in market competitiveness for applicants.

See Full Details on Hiring Bonus Requirements and Eligibility

Investing to Retain

Retention Payments

A one-time payment that may be offered to retain a key employee in support of critical business priorities, in exchange for a 12-month service agreement.  The offering of a Retention Lump Sum Payment is at the sole discretion of the University.

Retention Lump Sum Payments are Appropriate as an incentive to keep a key employee on the job when a department determines that the unique qualifications of the employee, or special need for the employee’s services, make it essential to retain the employee, and the employee would likely leave for a different position in the absence of a retention incentive.

See Full Details on Retention Bonus Requirements and Eligibility

UC Davis Equity Program 

In general, the purpose of the Equity Program is to provide consideration to salary administration problems resulting from external labor market pressures, internal salary compaction, increased duties that do not warrant a reclassification, or a significant salary lag to comparable internal positions

Learn More about the UC Davis Equity Program

More Tools to Recruit and Retain