Improving the Communication Process for UM Office of Financial Aid

December 4, 2012

One Star　　Ni Yan

　　 Nicholas Malzahn　　Weiqin Xie

　　 Xi Bi

The UM Office of Financial Aid (OFA)

• Administer financial aid including grants, scholarships, loans and federal Work-Study to students and families needing help to pay for college.

• About 60 employees• Counseling, Processing, and Advising (CPA)• Support Services (SS)• Administration (and Publications)

Project Scope• Study the communication flow in the office of

the messages sent to students• How does a mass email to students get

passed down to the CPA staff?• How can the process be more efficient?• How can communication in general be

improved between the OFA and students?

How did we collect our data?• 5 2-hour interviews with employees of CPA,

SS, and Administration units• Observation of work process and space• Collection of documents

How did we analyze our data?

• Interpretation Sessions• Discussion and analysis• Affinity Notes• Work Models

• Consolidated Models and Affinity Diagram• Brainstorming and ranking design ideas

Affinity Notes

Consolidated Flow Model

Consolidated Sequence Model

Consolidated Cultural Model

Consolidated Artifact Model

Consolidated Physical Model

Affinity Wall

Finding 1 Students do not often read emails sent from th

e OFA and have trouble finding useful information using OFA’s online resources.

• “Nobody reads the important information”• The emails they sent out were “just lost in the volum

e of other emails” that students receive everyday.• Parents and students “know nothing about what the

y don’t know”, so they will ask too general questions

RecommendationsShort-term:• Make the title of the emails more attractive and label

emails that get sent out. Add “[OFA]” in the title.• Hold on-campus events in high-traffic areas, such as at

the Diag, Union or Pierpont Commons, offering information and help to students.

Office of Financial Aid

RecommendationsLong-term:• Take advantage of social media. • Build an instant messaging system on the OFA

public website.• Redesign the OFA public website, such as addi

ng an FAQ column. • Redesign Wolverine Access, such as adding an

inbox for notifications from the OFA.

Finding 2The OFA utilizes online tools such as the OFA Staff

Website but they don’t take full advantage of it to get information and be prepared for students’ questions.

• “I had a lot of work to do, and since these emails are not sent out everyday, it is not necessary for me to check it often”

• “ In order to find out the latest emails sent out to students, I need to log into the OFA Staff Website first, and then click on FA Library, and Student Communications. The information is not presented to me directly.”

RecommendationsShort-term:• Hire some students part-time or as interns to redesign the

website (using the pop-up messages).• Inform CPA staff about emails sent out to students in the CPA

weekly meeting.• Have a bell/announcer/Siri in the office to announce the

latest email to get sent out. • Take advantage of Google Calendar.

Long-term:• Hiring some full-time employees to redesign the website

Google Calendar

Finding 3The OFA’s Social Committee has a good reputation

among the employees. It keeps employees’ spirits up and improves communication within the office.

• The Social Committee held “a lot of travel and games during Welcome Week”, and also held an event in which “different units in the OFA were responsible for different parts of dinner for Thanksgiving”.

• “Social Committee is a morale booster, keeps spirits up.”

RecommendationsShort-term:• The Social Committee can come up with more proposals to

allow employees in different units to know each other better. They can design games and events, such as an OFA Olympics or a day employees switch their jobs.

Long-term:• Make the Social Committee more like a bridge that connects

people from different units together socially.• Social Committee can help shorten the cube wall, so that

employees can see each other.

ConclusionIn conclusion, our recommendations for the OFA can be put into three categories:• (1) Improve or take advantage of online tools to make the communication within the office and with students more efficient; •(2) Do not forget about lo-tech ways to solve some problems; •(3) Continue to stimulate the human well-being and connectivity of the OFA.

Thank you!

December 4, 2012

One Star　　Ni Yan

　　 Nicholas Malzahn　　Weiqin Xie

　　 Xi Bi