How to Create a Successful

Training Program for your

Frontline Staff

AACRAO Annual Meeting

New Orleans 2010

Presenter:

Heather L. Peterson

University of Minnesota

Agenda

• Business context

• New hire training program

• Refresher training program

• Evaluation and measurements

Introduction to

the University of Minnesota

and One Stop Student Services

University of Minnesota

Five campus system

with over 67,000

students

Twin Cities campus

• Located in the heart of the Minneapolis - St. Paul

metropolitan area of Minnesota

• Largest of the five campuses

• Made up of 17 colleges and professional schools

Student Enrollment

• Undergraduate 29,978

• Graduate 14,148

• Professional 3,647

• Non-degree 3,943

Faculty and Staff 18,899

Organizational structure

President

Senior VP Academic Affairs & Provost

Vice Provost Undergraduate Education

Academic Support Resources (ASR)

(220 Staff)

One Stop Student Services

(40 Staff)

Office of Student Finance

(80 Staff)

Office of the Registrar

(40 Staff)

Office of Classroom Management

(40 Staff)

One Stop Counselor responsibilities

Public Contact (65%)

•Counsel, advise, investigate, problem-solve, and resolve questions and issues from past, present and future students, parents, faculty, staff, collegiate units, and the public.

•Counseling topics include but not limited to: student records, financial aid, billing and payment.

Appeals, Waivers & Petitions (20%)

•Evaluate and complete:

•Late Registration Appeals, Late Payment Appeals and Student Service Fee Waiver Requests.

•Late Enrollment Appeals.

•Tuition Refund Appeals.

•One-Time Exceptions to Full-Time Status.

•Serve on appeal review committees including: Special Circumstances, Independent Status and Satisfactory Academic Progress.

Community Outreach & Other Duties as Assigned (15%)

•Provide One Stop presentations to perspective and current students, parents, and other University staff; provide financial aid presentations to the University community, high schools, junior colleges, minority groups, and other requested external presentations such as Financial Aid Nights, Campus Previews, College Goal Sunday, Upward Bound, and any other presentations/orientations.

•Serve on committees as needed.

•Act as outreach liaison for colleges and departments.

Modes of service delivery

Training program purpose

• To give new staff a strong knowledge base

primarily in the areas of financial aid, student

records, student accounts, and professional

judgment.

• To improve current staff’s knowledge and

professional development skills.

• To ensure consistent, efficient, and quality

customer service.

Prepare staff for the unexpected

• Anticipate every possible scenario

• Train for the ordinary tasks

• Prepare for unusual situations

• Create talking-points

• Customer service with difficult students

Training team

• Determine appropriate training needs

• Orientate trainees to training program

• Assist in updating/developing training materials

Training Coordinator(s)

• Update/develop materials

• Deliver trainingTrainers

• Questions

• Support

• Informal trainerMentors

• Trust

• Support

• SuggestManagement

Activity

Who will be on your training team?

– Who is currently on your training team?

– Who or what expertise is missing?

– What is your campus and/or office

structure?

Questions?

New hire

training program

Training program process

• Formal training on student life-cycle

• Testing knowledge after each stage of life-cycle

– Role playing

– Real student scenarios

– Asking other staff questions

• Mentorship and shadowing

• Completion party!

• Training program length ≥ 8 weeks

Student life-cycle: new staff training

Customer Service

Pre-enrollment

• Admission and applications

• Personal information inputs

• Third party access to student records

• Service indicators

• Financial aid application

Pre-semester

• Class planning tools

• Registration

• Financial aid packaging

• Non-degree registration

• Course time conflicts

Semester

• Refund Drop/Add deadlines

• Swapping classes

• Retroactive withdrawals

• Billing and payments

Semester end

• Grades

• Graduation

• Grade point average calculation

• Degree applications

• Collections

• Financial aid exit interviews

Scheduling WEEK 9

MONDAY

Feb 2

TUESDAY

Feb 3

WEDNESDAY

Feb 4

THURSDAY

Feb 5

FRIDAY

Feb 6

8:00 AM Desk Time

Desk Time Desk TimePutt at Staff meeting and

Brit desk timeDesk Time

Brittany - counter w/

Putt -phones w/ 9:00 AM

Semester End Records

Michelle & Lindsey

(9-11) 290 Fraser

Semester End FA

Michelle & Lindsey

(9-11) 290 Fraser

Brittany at Staff meeting

and Putt desk timeBrittany - counter w/

Putt -phones w/

Scholarships

Lindsey & Nate?

(10-11:30) 290 Fraser

10:00 AM

Comprehensive

Review

Michelle & Lindsey

(10-12) 290 Fraser

Customer Service

Carrie (10-12)

Fraser 16911:00 AM Customer Service Project

meeting Carrie, Michelle,

Lindsey, Putt, and Brittany

(169)

Brittany - phones w/

Putt -counter w/

Brittany - phones w/

Putt -counter w/

12:00 PM

Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch

1:00 PM

Desk TimeBrittany - counter w/

Putt -phones w/ Title IV

Jody, Michelle & Lindsey

(1-2:30) 290 Fraser

Comprehensive

Review

Michelle & Lindsey

(1-3) 290 Fraser

Desk Time

2:00 PM

Semester End-SAR

Michelle & Lindsey

(2-3:30) 290 FraserSemester End Records

Michelle & Lindsey

(2-4) 290 Fraser

Mentors (2-4) Molly

and Fred will meet in

Putt and Brittany's

offices

Brittany meet w/ Janet and

Putt meet w/ Vicki

3:00 PMBrittany - counter w/

Putt -phones w/

Brittany - phones w/

Putt -counter w/

Desk Time

4:00 PM Desk Time Desk Time

New hire training materials

Training Manual

• Continuous updates• Screenshots

• Examples

• Inclusion of customer service standards

Training test sites

• PeopleSoft training instance

• Billing system staff view

• Student view of in-house web applications

• Intranet

Forms/external materials

• Forms

• External websites

• Federal regulations

• University policies and procedures

• Media

Creating a training manual

• Use the experts and existing materials or cheat sheets

• Nice to know vs. need to know

• Create a formatting standards document

• Screenshots

• Bullets

• Table of contents and index

• Keep an update shared folder

Questions?

Refresher training program

for existing employees

Training program process &

role of refresher training coordinator

• Determine

– which topics need a refresher

– training agenda

– when to schedule training

• “student life cycle”

• “busy” calendar

– who will facilitate the training and who will be trained

– how will the information be distributed (see “Modes and

Methods of Training”)

• Evaluate each training session to improve on the process

Student life cycle – refresher training

Fall semester

Events:

September

October

November

Training:

June

July

August

Spring semester

Events:

December

January

February

Training:

September

October

November

Academic year end

Events:

March

April

May

Training:

December

January

February

Summer term

Events:

June

July

August

Training:

March

April

May

Customer Service

Refresher training schedule

• Training topic

• Month training will be delivered

• Training distribution

• Time commitment

• Facilitator/knowledge expert

• Reminders

• Material

• Completed

Schedule – Busy Calendar

• Graduation

• Registration

• Exit interviewsApril/May

• Financial aid awarding

• Orientation

• Veteran student certificationJune/July

• No training starting the second week of August through September due to high call volume

August/

September

Refresher trainers

• Experts in the department or from other

university departments

– Human Resources

• New counselor trainers

• Office managers

• Outside companies

• Refresher training coordinator

Modes & methods of training delivery

• Staff meetings

• Scheduled 30 minute to 1 hour training

session(s)

• Handouts

• PowerPoint

• E-mails

• Staff retreats

• Conferences

• Intranet or shared folder

Intranet resource

Tips for a successful refresher

training program

• Keep a “pulse” on staff to assess what unscheduled refresher

training is needed.

• Get “by-in” from staff on which topics need annual refresher training

even when no policy changes occurred.

• Be mindful of staff’s knowledge after a recent high turn over period.

• Refer to existing “new hire” manual for quick reminders.

• Include customer service standards in each refresher.

Activity

• Put together

– A list of training topics

– Your busy calendar

• Determine what month each training topic

should be given

• Who will you need to approach to assist you

in providing the training (by-in)?

Questions?

Evaluations & Measurements

Evaluation

• Formal evaluation of training knowledge

• Evaluation of training program

• Informal training evaluation from trainers,

mentors and other staff members

• Phone monitoring evaluation

• E-mail spot checks

New Counselor Survey

Refresher training evaluation questions• Content:

Was the subject covered in depth?

• Knowledge:

Did the trainer possess adequate knowledge of the subject?

• Instruction:

Was the trainer prepared and professional?

• Presentation:

Was the session presented well?

• Applicability:

Will the information help you with your job?

• Timeliness:

Was the training given at the appropriate time of the year?

Was there enough time to cover the content? *

Additional refresher training questions

• How long have you worked at the University?

• Did you receive helpful written materials?

• Was the amount of information presented appropriate?

• Did you need this training?

• Comments: Please provide comments on any aspect of this training that will

enable us to improve our future training program.

Measures of success

• Point of service comment cards

– Paper comment card

– Online comment card

– Quantity/quality of comments

• Survey’s

– Annual student survey

– Annual student veteran survey

– Bi-annual internal customer survey

• Web usability testing

Summation

• Develop a training team

• New hire training material

• Refresher training topics

– Training and busy schedule

• Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate

Questions?

Heather L. Peterson, ManagerOne Stop Student Services

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

130 West Bank Skyway

219 19th Ave SE

Minneapolis, MN 55411

peter909@umn.edu

612-626-9115