UNL ranked among top 5 employers in the state

UNL ranked within the top 5 best employers in the state.

Forbes and Statista developed best–in–state employers based on a survey of more than 80,000 U.S. employees of large scale employers in U.S. operations.

According to the study, the list puts the university, a public institution, in the same category as some of the most prestigious and well–established private companies here in the state.

“When I heard that news this morning, I though that it just reaffirms that the decision I’ve made personally to stay here for the university for the long time, coming from out of state, to pursue both graduate school and then employment, it was the right decision,” UNL Arts and Sciences Assistant Director, Tony Lazarowicz said. 

This survey provides a representative sample of the U.S. Workforce.

“I worked for 30 years in the news media in Nebraska before I came here 6 years ago and I really felt I came full circle because I had been a student here, and so I felt like it was a chance to give back,” Public Affairs for UNL Communication, Leslie Reed said.

Joan Barnes has been working with UNL for 18 years and says that her environment is always changing and she is consistently learning.

“It gives us, again, opportunity to try something different or to reinvent ourselves and that’s what’s fun on the job, that is not really in the job description,” UNL Community Engagement Librarian, Joan Barnes said. 

“I’ve always kind of talked about the job in a sense that i want to create the framework of a house where we’ve got certain things we absolutely have to do or it needs to be a certain way, but how you decorate that house or how you really make it and personalize it needs to be up to that individual or employee, or in my case, advisers,” Lazarowicz said.

Aside from the environment, the benefits are apparently another reason why employees stay.

“When all of that is satisfied, when those basic needs are satisfied, the next thing that you want to satisfy is the challenge and the higher level needs that you have, and that is to connect with people and to have a life purpose. And so, i feel like I’m fulfilling, in part, my life purpose here,” Barnes said. 

Forbes ranked the university 115th nationally among large employers.