HI Frank
Staffing is always a challenge. Perhaps the goal is to hire right (there's a challenge) and cross train, and keep training staff. Discovering talent takes work and is well worth it.
Best wishes
Susan
Hi John,
I thank you for putting something that often is difficult in such simple way. We had a meeting yesterdday and this issue was brought up and your advise came in very handy. Julio
In my experience, I have found that when people wear too many hats they get burned out very quickly. If you can find what a person is very good at and likes to do, you can build a job description around their strong points and other duties that may not be their strong points seem less of an issue to them. The key is finding out what really motivates them and what they are good at, so they can be successful at what they do and feel motivated to continue to do a great job.
Hi Jan
Great points about the importance of finding and keeping great staff and enabling them to contribute fully to your organization. Often small schools do require staff to wear too many hats. This is especially detrimental when the person responsible for admissions has to do too many other jobs. Your point about keeping staff happy and productive is great. Happy employees tend to provide better customer service. And happy customers (students) tend to stay, pay, and graduate.
Best wishes
Susan
I have had the opportunity to be involved as a Director in turning around two schools that were not producing at their full potential. Thou, I would agree it is very important faculty and staff have a working knowledge of the current organizational structure (make for better communication). I would suggest that as a manager you take it a step further and teach/train our staff/faculty how each of their roles/duties effect the over productive of the school. Ask for impute, gain buy-in, but most importantly help your staff/faculty become a “team†thinking, and acting like as one. I have found in both of the campus which was under performing staff/faculty were compartmentalized thinking and acting for themselves. Admission was Admission, Education was Education and so on everyone wanting to point the figure if something didn't workout.
Really well said, Joshua. It takes teamwork and everyone understanding the mission of the school - to ensure student success. Takes the right leadership to make this happen. Sounds like you have the secret!!
Best wishes, Susan
Our most pressing issue is integating our library into the certification courses that we teach.
I suppose I would have resources such as internet access and computers to create networks available to our computer engineering students to do projects given to them by their instuctor. Projects might include researching something on the internet or building a network of several computers based on specific requirements.
HI Guy
So your challenge is to create a library that is relevant to your computer students? You might start by including all the learning materials for the program. Then lots of online and books and workbooks re employment skills and interviewing. Then all sources for locating jobs. And then you might ask students and grads what materials they would find helpful. We also suggest asking employers. That's a start. Best wishes, Susan
I think the positive with small schools is that everyone seems to work together more as a team being that we have to sometimes do a bit of everything and share certain responsibilities, but as you mentioned it can also be detrimental when you have to do many other jobs and it takes away from your actual job.
HI Sarah
Good points. Regardless of size an organization needs to work together as a team. There are challenges with both small and large groups. It is also important for people to be cross trained. But people should not be so overloaded that they can't focus on their main job objective. Quite a challenge.
Best wishes, Susan
One of our more pressing issues is instructor morale. In an effort to be more efficient, class sizes are increasing and the demands placed on instructors (retention efforts, professional development, planning, grading, tutoring, etc) are overwhelming for them, especially when dealing with a needy student group. I try to praise and reward them as much as possible - any other ideas?
HI Dale
It is true that instructors have enormous responsibilty. Sometimes they are the only person the student sees. To some students the instructors are the school. So very important that the instructors know their subject matter, how to teach, and are very very customer service oriented. We highly recommend ongoing teacher training. Bring in people for specialized workshops. Make it fun. Hold retreats. And sign them up for MaxKnowledge courses. Be sure teachers are compensated for their training time. Bes wishes, Susan
I work at a small school where most staff wear multiple hats and not all have a job description/responsibilites that accompany the position. Not having a job description can lead to confusion or misunderstanding on what they are supposed to do and what they are doing. Writing job descriptions and asking individuals what they think their job encompasses would be helpful. Also clearing defining the organizational structure at our school (as outlined in this module)would be helpful so faculty/staff are aware of whom to go to when problems/questions arise.
Any good resources, in addition to MaxKnowledge, for specialized workshops for instructor training?
Thanks.
HI Crystal, MaxKnowledge has a great variety of instructor training. In addition to several teacher training courses there are also courses like retention that are good for instructors. You might want to check your local universities to see if they have Educational Leadership departments. Faculty there may be able to assist you to create custom training. Thanks, Susan
You have identified a major problem in all schools - even when there is sufficient staff. Here's an exercise that can be worked on in staff meetings. Ask everyone to draw an organization chart as they believe the school is structured. Then ask them to write in the names of everyone on staff along with job titles. They of course have to include themselves. It is amazing. If there are 10 people you'll discover there are 10 different organization charts. Well, it's kind of scary. But you can use this opportunity to develop a really great org chart so everyone knows who reports to whom and what their job descriptions are. Good luck, Susan
Perhaps they do not have top management support to implement the new ideas.
Good point. Support and a budget are certainly needed to implement any new idea. And a process for approval. Thanks, Susan
Organizational Structure is an issue here at my campus. I will often find at times that my team are not all on the same page when considering their responsibilities. I am constantly correcting misconceptions and I feel that if Job Descriptions are clear and precise that all staff will be on the same page. Of course there will be those who may not have the same view of the description and so discussion of expectations is important.
Don,
This is a very good point. We have given a blank organization chart to school staff and asked them to fill in the names and exact titles for each place on the chart. Not surprising is that there are rarely any org charts that are the same. That's not a good sign but it does show that yours is a common problem. How to solve? That is the challenge! One way is to work on the org chart in a group. You will probably discover there is duplication of work so you can get agreement on how to fix it. There are probably some tasks that are not worked on so that's the time to ask for a volunteer. You might see where people can be working together more effectively and trade off some tasks. The goal is to get everyone productive and innovative. As you are completing these exercises you'll find that it will become easier to write accurate job descriptions that can be followed and used to measure and evaluate. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
