[civsa] Admissions Student Worker Structure

Thu Jul 21 07:48:37 CDT 2016

Hi All,

I agree with Scott. In my experiences, you tend to have some amazing
ambassadors that are great at giving tours, interacting with students and
parents. However, those same tour guides would sometimes make the worst
office workers. They would be lazy and tend to leave the work expecting
others to do it. At the same time, I had some decent tour guides who were
just amazing office workers. They were diligent in their tasks and could
handle more than the average student.

I love the idea of cross training and having people available if needed.
However, I would still recommend splitting the group. If it's a budget
issue, I would lean towards paying your student assistants and making the
tour guide position volunteer. This is how we do it at UMR and how we did
it at USF when I was a student there ages ago.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Brett Hartnagel
Director of Admissions
University of Minnesota Rochester
111 South Broadway | Suite 300 | Rochester, MN 55904
Phone: 507-258-8087 | Email: bhartnag at r.umn.edu | Web: www.r.umn.edu

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On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 4:47 PM, Scott Kirkessner <Scott.Kirkessner at utah.edu
> wrote:

> Hello Kristen and CIVSALand
>
>
>
> Just to preface my response, YMMV (those of who you attended my
> presentation in SD will know what that means :) )
>
>
>
> I just completed a complete tear down of this structure, so I am planted
> in the con side of this model…
>
>
>
> When I first arrived here, our University Ambassadors were under this
> particular model, and it was immediately apparent that the level of
> knowledge among the Ambassadors was lacking in both areas.  Their
> encompassing job duties involved campus tours, staffing the front desk, and
> answering phones and emails.  What I saw was that the Ambassadors were
> generalists in these areas, but not experts.  They had just enough
> knowledge to provide an adequate and fully scripted campus tour, and to
> answer basic admissions-related questions, but often had to request help
> from other admissions staff to answer more in-depth questions.  In many
> cases, admissions staff were frustrated with our Ambassadors because many
> of the questions were repetitive.
>
>
>
> Beyond that, I found that some of the current Ambassadors were better
> office assistants than tour guides, and vice versa.  And furthermore, those
> who were great tour guides felt that they were mis-led in the application
> process, expecting an outreach/high-touch type of position, yet spending
> the majority of their 20 hours weekly on the phones doing office work.
>
>
>
> My opinion was that we are giving them too many facts and too many tasks
> that resulted in generalists, not experts.  I wanted tour guides who knew
> this campus very well, who did not need a script, and also wanted to
> encourage a tour that skewed more toward storytelling than facts.  I wanted
> students on the phones who know our admissions process inside and out and
> rarely needed to ask for help from our staff.
>
>
>
> The best possible way for me to accomplish this was to split the
> Ambassador team and spin off an entirely new team.  This was accomplished
> by creating a new team called the Admissions Assistants, and retaining the
> University Ambassadors.  However, the Admissions Assistants would be solely
> responsible for all the office work (incoming calls, incoming emails,
> letters, special requests, etc), and would get the lion’s share of the
> hours (20 hours a week if desired).  Admissions Assistants don’t really
> need to know how many seats the stadium holds or how many volumes of books
> are in the library, or why a certain building is named or shaped the way it
> is.  University Ambassadors would then be solely responsible for outreach;
> they would do campus tours, staff our recruitment programs, etc.
> University Ambassadors don’t really need to know the intricate details
> about the admissions process in relation to missing transcripts, deadlines
> for five different types of applicants, etc.
>
>
>
> This restructuring allowed for more enhanced training, instead of
> splitting their knowledge base between two different functions, it allowed
> for more training relevant to their positions.
>
>
>
> Of course the challenge was now what to do about the cutback in hours?  We
> offered some options: those who absolutely needed 20 hours a week were
> offered a chance to fully transfer to Admissions Assistants, to be a hybrid
> between the two positions if they chose (instead of it being mandatory for
> all), or to be a part of our front desk team and give tours.
>
>
>
> The large majority of Ambassadors were perfectly fine with the cutback in
> hours.  Three of them decided to move fully to the Admissions Assistants,
> and five of them joined our front desk team.  None chose to be a hybrid.
> We then pushed forward hard with this format and adjusted our hiring
> process – which now involved two wholly separate student positions.  If
> someone desired to be both an Ambassador and Admissions Assistant, they
> would be required to go through two different application processes.
>
>
>
> The training process changed – Ambassadors had more freedom to learn more
> about campus, and most importantly, learn how to become more experiential
> storytellers.  Admissions Assistants had more ability to learn about the
> intricate processes of admissions, both domestic and international, as well
> as more details regarding gaining residency.  Under this new model, we have
> received a lot of compliments from admissions staff regarding the level of
> knowledge our Admissions Assistants have.  I have felt the experiences our
> Ambassadors provide are more memorable, informative, and less facts with
> more stories.
>
>
>
> Please realize that this switchover sounds easier than it really was, but
> we have just finished our first year under this new model and things seem
> to be going incredibly well.  In fact, we are gearing up to deploy a new
> student position – the Telecounselors.  This will also be a separate
> position, with a separate application and training process.
>
>
>
> It is wholly possible for one student to be a University Ambassador,
> Admissions Assistant, and Telecounselor if they successfully pass all three
> application processes – however the onus is on them to manage all of the
> facts and knowledge thru each position, as well as their schedules to make
> sure their work schedules do not overlap or interfere, nor do they exceed
> 20 hours a week.
>
>
>
> As of this writing, there are no crossovers between the two positions, but
> we do expect there to be keen interest in Telecounseling from our
> University Ambassadors.
>
>
>
> Let me know if you have any questions :)
>
>
>
> Scott
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
> *From:* listserv [mailto:listserv-bounces at civsa.org] * On Behalf Of *
> Nielsen_Kristen
> *Sent:* Monday, July 18, 2016 1:43 PM
> *To:* 'listserv at civsa.org' <listserv at civsa.org>
> *Subject:* [civsa] Admissions Student Worker Structure
>
>
>
> Hello,
>
> Right now we have our students workers in the office in three separate
> silos (tour guides, callers, front office data entry/phones/mailing). We
> are considering combining forces and cross training so all student workers
> can do all tasks. Hs anyone done this successfully? Pros and cons?
>
>
>
> Blessings,
>
>
>
> *Kristen Nielsen*
>
> *Assistant Director of Admissions*
>
> 585.594.6481 | nielsen_kristen at roberts.edu
>
> [image: cid:image009.jpg at 01D14955.4C5EE3F0] <https://www.roberts.edu/>
>
>
>
> [image: roberts_virtual_tour-80]
> <https://www.youvisit.com/tour/robertswesleyan/104351>
>
>
>
>
>
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