Interview by Ben Mundy
Jim, what prompted your focused effort to improve the student hire experience and what steps have we taken?
Four years ago, there was an "Administrative Officers of The Future" group that initiated a project to analyze the student hire process. Leading up, there had been some concerns, and the goal was to analyze the process in detail, to uncover any areas we could improve upon. Student surveys showed the experience was favorable 86% of the time. When the experience wasn't favorable the drivers were most frequently related to gaps in communication, timeliness, and process clarity. So we focused on that 14% and asked, "what can we do to close that gap?" We wanted a favorable response 100% of the time.
What did you do once you had the data?
We brought together stakeholders across multiple departments to focus on The Student Employment Experience. This group focused on addressing the gaps in the student hiring process and looked at ways on how to improve the overall student employment experience. After working through our processes, communication and technologies, we were able to take a process that took 46 days on average and reduce it to 14 days. Even more exciting, we can now start students the same week they are identified for the job, based on their ability to come in for their onboarding appointments, which are available 5 days a week. This helps meet two critical needs: our campus runs on student jobs and helps get money into student’s pockets sooner.
Cory, student hiring is your passion. Talk about some of your challenges and wins.
Student Affairs is like a small city. We provide all types of services for students - housing, food, health care, transportation, and we can't function without the 3500 students we've hired to help us. Student employment is extremely critical for us to do what we need to do to support students on campus. In 2022 when we were just coming out of the pandemic and the students were coming back on campus, at that time many students decided to not take on a job right away because they wanted to see how everything went on campus before they applied. This resulted in significant student staffing shortages, which caused the campus to be almost at a standstill. Bus lines had to be reduced, we had to reduce hours at the CoHo, and had to rethink how we do things.
What did you do to fix it?
We did a lot of outreach and education. We sent out emails, posted jobs on Handshake, and built stronger partnerships with the Shared Services Organization. During fall 2022, we were in a unique situation because two classes of students had never been on campus before. We had a 30-40% shortage of student employees, which impacted our services across the board. For many new students, working was not a priority. Most students were arriving on campus for the first time and learning the campus and what they needed to do, to do well in their classes. It was difficult. Constantly making improvements to the hiring and onboarding process is critical: once we hire a student, we don't want a delay of four to five weeks before they can start working. We need them to start working as soon as possible after the offer letter has been extended. There are documentation and steps in the process that students need to understand before they can start working. Because this may be the first job for many students, we are partnering with the SSO on expanding our resources to educate students about the hiring process, understanding their paycheck, and expectations in the workplace, which is why I really cherish the relationship Student Affairs has with the SSO. Of course, sometimes there are challenges, but I truly appreciate the partnership as we are all trying our best to support the students.
Not everyone knows that over half the jobs on campus are filled by students, totaling between six and eight thousand.
Jim, what were some of the other infrastructure successes that helped reduce this down to four days?
We looked at some other technologies to organize workflow, which were ultimately not scalable. But this opened our thinking and made us look at processes that created delays so we could implement real-time processes and entry. The guiding principle was, how do we accelerate? Sounds simple, right? We automated the calendaring process to allow for students to choose their onboarding times and did as much as we could all in one appointment. We staffed in a way so that there was an appointment available every 15 minutes, and processed data immediately after. We cross-trained our HR Coordinator and Payroll teams in different systems to create greater collaboration. And we're still refining it, focusing on a more efficient process in Aggie Service for multiple student hires.
Cory, is there a marketing strategy in place and what do you do to incent students to get involved?
The Internship and Career Center (ICC) does a very good job with advertising and posting positions for the individual units that need students, and helping students who are looking for employment. Students are not aware that if they take a job at Dining Services, when they are done with their shift they are provided a meal. We need to do a better job letting students know about these perks. Within Student Affairs we have the Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center and the ASUCD Pantry that provide canned and fresh foods for students. Despite perceptions, a lot of our students don't come from wealthy families, and this is why student employment is so important. There are students who work up to three jobs just to put themselves through college.
Many students on campus have basic needs challenges, battle food and housing insecurity, and often don't have enough money for food.
Can you speak to the other benefits of student employment?
When students start working and become part of a team, they learn a lot of skills that will help them in the future. We want as many students as possible to have that experience. This is something they can put on their resume, soft and hard skills. Studies have shown that students who work up to 20 hours per week organize their time better, and do better academically. Whether it's making pizza at the CoHo, working at the Dining Commons or driving a UniTrans bus, students learn skills such as communication, teamwork, time management, critical thinking, and others that will undoubtedly help them in their future career.
Jim, what will be new in 2024 for the student hiring experience?
We're going to be more tuned-in to our workforce planning, i.e., better knowing when the demand is so we can help our department staff key positions. We really need to get them hired in June and July for September. Maybe that group of student employees comes back early, or never leaves, to be in place when the rest of the student population arrives. It's having a better understanding of the department's needs and understanding our staffing needs so we can be effective and efficient. We are continuing to ask ourselves how we can make this student hire experience an exceptional experience, something they would highlight on a resume.
Cory, has modern technology and social media created a shift in what students expect from a job?
I think students really want to work, and do so because they need to. Many are hungry for the experience, want to get skills for future jobs, and pay for their rent and food. They work really hard and we depend on them greatly. Recently one of our non-students, a member of the ARC, fell unconscious and the student employees on hand immediately took action by calling 911, administering CPR, and executing perfectly. An ambulance was there in minutes and got the member to the hospital in time. Students drive our UniTrans buses, some valued over $1,000,000, and they do so safely and flawlessly. These are big responsibilities. Our students are professional, and they do exceptional work. They exhibit great leadership qualities and are incredibly intelligent. We recently had a career fair on campus with 150 employers from throughout the state and nation. These employers came to UC Davis because of our talented student body, and wanted to tap into that resource.