The Staff Experience and Institutional Success

Administrative staff play a critical role in the success of a modern postsecondary institution. Today’s students have incredibly high expectations around efficiency, service and quality, all of which are impacted greatly by front-line and back-end staff. However, the work of delivering a great experience to these staff-who have such a direct impact on student satisfaction-tends to get overlooked when exploring how best to serve students’ needs.

This Feature dives into what it takes to deliver a great staff experience, and explores the impact of the staff experience on student satisfaction and success.

Happy Staff, Happy Life: How a Great Staff Experience Leads to Better Customer Service

Christine Blakney | Managing Director of Student Business Services, Texas Tech University

College and university staff are uniquely positioned to have a massive impact on their customers, not just in a single moment in time but across their whole lives. It’s critical for that experience to be positive, and it’s the responsibility of institutional leaders to create an environment that drives these positive experiences.

Two Birds with One Stone: Staff Satisfaction and the Student Experience

Cathy Sandeen | Chancellor, University of Wisconsin Colleges and Extension

Senior institutional leaders have a major role to play in supporting the delivery of a great staff experience, and a responsibility as well. After all, the quality of an institution’s staff experience directly impacts the student experience being delivered.

What Can Educators Learn From Industry About “Engaging” People?

James Heskett | UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics, Emeritus in the Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University

While there’s a lot that differentiates for-profit business organizations from higher education institutions, postsecondary leaders could draw some key lessons from that sector when it comes to employee engagement and its impact on the student experience.

Helping University Staff Contribute to Student Success

Patrick Guilfoile | Provost, University of Wisconsin-Stout and Kristi Krimpelbein | Chief Human Resources Officer and Senior Special Assistant, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Student satisfaction and success stems directly from their engagement with institutional staff. Senior institutional leaders have a significant role to play in ensuring their staff across the organization have the tools and information needed to enhance the student experience.

Communication and Respect: Establishing an Environment for Innovation to Flourish

Gregory Fowler | Vice President of Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer for COCE, Southern New Hampshire University

Willingness to evolve, a commitment to communication and safe spaces to learn and fail are some of the key elements of the award-winning staff experience SNHU has forged for its employees.

Behavioral Alchemy: The Higher Education Workplace Culture and Resulting Student Experiences

Cheryl Hayek | Special Advisor to the President and Provost Emerita, Grantham University

Focusing on workplace culture and shifting the institutional ethos requires conscious focus and measurement of interventions and impacts, but the benefit is driving institutional effectiveness and improving the student experience.

Leveraging Business Processes to Transform the Staff Experience and Differentiate the Institution

Bill Dracos | Chief Business Practice Improvement Officer, Emory University

An institution produces graduates and knowledge, which means the role of institutional staff is critical in helping support and serve students. The institution has a responsibility to ensure staff are able to serve students in the best way possible.

Automations and Business Process Improvements Critical to Student Satisfaction

Jackie Anderson | Manager of Process Improvement, Illinois Institute of Technology

Far from being unnecessary complications, business process changes transform the staff experience and allow them to spend more time, effort and energy on high-value work and engagements with students that contribute to a truly transformative experience.

Staff Satisfaction Central to Student Engagement

Amy Levine | Senior Assistant Dean at the School of Continuing Studies, Georgetown

A great staff experience can make all the difference between a positive or a negative student experience, but it’s up to senior staff to ensure all the pieces are in place to support their staff and facilitate the kind of environment where they can be focused on learner success.

Driving Student Satisfaction and Institutional Revenue by Investing in the Staff Experience

Kevin Currie | Chief Executive Officer, Continuing & Professional Education Consulting Group

Investing in and delivering a great staff experience is central to any college or university’s capacity to be truly student-centric.

Can Technology Really Lead to End User Job Satisfaction?

Russell Battista Jr. | System Office Chief Information Officer, University System of New Hampshire

When your starting point is ensuring that staff are able to provide the best level of service to their customers as possible, IT can play a key role in keeping everyone in the institution moving in the same direction while improving employee satisfaction and the student experience.

The Positive (and Negative!) Potential Impact IT Can Have on the Staff Experience

Vi Bergquist | Chief Information Officer, St. Cloud Technical and Community College

IT investments that improve efficiency and back-end effectiveness should also have a significant positive impact on the staff experience, spelling an array of benefits for the institution. But IT leaders have a significant role to play in ensuring the effect of a new implementation is positive.