Undergraduate Admissions Office On-Boarding New Student Workers Trevecca University uses student workers heavily in its undergraduate admissions office to carry the load of hosting visiting families daily. Each year, admissions offices experience high student worker turnover. Student workers graduate, move to other part time jobs, transfer to other schools, etc. leaving vacancies that need to be filled each year. Admissions offices need a quick method to develop new student workers with a standard skill set and the ability to host campus visits successfully.

Objective: Identify the appropriate skills and training methods needed to quickly and efficiently on-board new student workers. The purpose of this session is two fold: 1.) identify the appropriate skills needed for a student worker to be successful 2.) determine how to quickly and efficiently get new student workers trained, so that they assist Trevecca in achieving recruitment goals.

Question? Take out a sheet of paper and list all the skills you believe are needed for a student worker to be successful. Be as specific as possible. Let’s get some group participation going. All of you are current employees in the admissions office and observe student workers on a daily basis. Take out a piece of paper and list all of the skills and attributes you believe are necessary for a student worker to be successful and help us recruit students. Be as specific as possible and be prepared to share your list.

Why should we make this a priority? Research shows the campus visit is a major part of a student’s decision to attend a college. The student will feel connected (or not) to the university based on the campus visit experience. Visiting high school students will most relate to current college students verses older adults. Our student workers can “make or break us” depending on what they say and do in front of our guests. You may be asking….why should we make this a priority? The answers are obvious. Research shows the campus visit is a major part of a student’s decision to attend a college. The student will feel connected (or not) to the university based on the campus visit experience. Visiting students will most relate to current college students verses an older adult. Our student workers can “make or break us” depending on what they say and do in front of our guests.

Current Reality We do not have a sophisticated plan for onboarding new student workers. We leave things too much to hope. Most of our teaching is accomplished through shadowing other student workers. The training is only as good as the student worker they’re observing. Our current training does not focus on soft skills like eye contact, picking up on non-verbal ques, etc. Let’s talk about our current reality… We do not have a sophisticated plan for on-boarding new student workers. We have left things too much to hope. Hope is not a strategy. Most of our teaching is accomplished through shadowing other student workers. The training is as good as the student worker they’re observing. Our current training does not focus on soft skills like eye contact, picking up on non-verbal ques, etc.

2.) Why do you think this student worker is so successful?   3.) What training activities do you believe has made this person successful? 1.) Identify the student worker you believe is most successful today. Let’s do an activity together. Break up into groups of two and on that same piece of paper where you listed all the attributes desired in a student worker, work through these three questions with your partner. One of you will need to report your answers to the group in 15 minutes. Identify the student worker you think is most successful in our office. Record why you think this student worker is so successful. What training activities do you believe played into this person’s success?

The Campus Visit is about Personal Attention! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgWCg1b8e-8 I think we can all agree what makes a great campus visit is the personal connection a family feels with the university when they’re on campus. Let’s check out the first few minutes of this video. Watch as this college tour guide talks about his personal touch with families and connecting through encouraging visitors to ask questions about what interests them. Also, it’s a reminder of the magnitude of questions that come up every day during the campus visit.

Historical Campus Visits The brand of Trevecca Nazarene University is growing each year. With that growth, campus visits have increased substantially over the years. We have more campus visits now than ever before. The question before us is how to handle volume, but still deliver the best experience possible to the prospective student. Increased campus tours means employing more student workers than ever before. The challenge is how to get them ready and prepared to do their jobs with excellence.

Training Models Online Delivery - Information and Content Driven Shadowing - Delivering Content through Observation Role Play - Practice There are various high level training mechanisms that can be leveraged to deliver quality training to our new student workers and get them up and running quickly. Now go back to all the things you assumed your perfect student worker had experienced and list how each of those experiences should be delivered in a training model: Chose one of the following: Online – information and content based. This would assume online videos, quizzes, PowerPoint presentations, etc. Shadowing another person. In other words, direct observation. Role Play. Having the new student worker practice a skill or knowledge. As a group we will build a matrix of all the traininig needs and the model we believe best fits that need.

Final Question? Of all the training topics we’ve discussed today, which area do you feel is most important to our success? Finally, one last question for you today….Of all the training topics we’ve discussed today, which area do you feel is most important to our success?

Goal Achieved! Today we’ve identified the appropriate skills and training methods needed to quickly and efficiently on-board new student workers. Today we’ve identified the appropriate skills and training methods needed to quickly and efficiently on-board new student workers. Now let’s put in place the training team that can build it!