Creating (and Retaining) the Enrollment Team of the Future

By Aaron Basko, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services, University of Lynchburg

Nothing is more valuable for an enrollment team than finding and retaining the right people. But enrollment managers will tell you that it is also one of their biggest challenges—a challenge that has intensified in the last few years. It takes some finesse to assemble the right team and create the right atmosphere to keep great people, but it can be done, even in a tricky market like the one we are experiencing.

Staffing of the Past

In the past, enrollment staffing has had an unusual pattern. Even though most institutions are reliant on enrollment to drive their revenue, admissions offices have typically entrusted their results to recent graduates and young professionals with very little experience. Although the pay was not high, these staffers were often alumni with a sense of loyalty to their alma maters and gratitude for a first professional opportunity. After three or four years, most of these young professionals would take the lessons they had learned and leverage them to get into another field, making room for enthusiastic new graduates. A handful of staff members would stay on in the profession. These would often become “lifers.”

This pattern has shifted, however, especially over the last decade, and enrollment offices are learning to shift with it, changing the reward structure and job duties to better attract experienced talent. They are also adjusting their ideas of what employee loyalty should look like. As each successive generation of workers—from Gen X, to Millennials, to Gen Z—stays in the average job for shorter periods of time, colleges have to think differently about how to reward and retain their best employees.

Key Challenges

The low pay many institutions offer is one of the obvious hurdles. Admissions counselors have historically been one of the lowest-paid categories of staff, even though they can have a significant influence over whether much-needed revenue comes into the university. Many enrollment offices are working hard to have the long hours and dedication of their staff members better reflected in their compensation, while at the same time, searching for other benefits that might help keep top performers challenged and motivated to stay.

At the other end of the spectrum, we also occasionally see employees who have probably stayed too long. Enrollment is a fast-paced, ever-changing environment. We need employees who are committed to continuous improvement and learning, and who can sustain the energy to keep going the extra mile for prospective students. Sometimes, good people just burn out, and sometimes, as in every industry, we just make the wrong hiring decision and have people who don’t thrive in this kind of environment. Colleges are increasingly embracing performance metrics and holding employees more accountable to their goals.

Some of these dynamics represent a true shift from the enrollment office of the past. The teams that will be best equipped to confront these challenges are those that do not try to hold onto our past patterns of staffing, but are willing to embrace new forms and create a new type of culture. To get the most from an enrollment team and to hold onto those staff members who make the motor run, we need to understand the currency of our good performers and be on the lookout for those employees who are not thriving. With some planning, we can create the enrollment team of the future.

Compensation

We can probably all agree that the pay for most members of the enrollment team does not reflect their importance to the institution. After managing many staff members in this area, however, what stands out to me is that it is the relative pay of these employees that hurts their morale the most. They look around campus and see other employees who leave exactly at 5:00 p.m., never have to work weekends, and are not accountable for bottom-line results, and they wonder why they are held to a higher standard.

Managers supervising an enrollment team can demonstrate that they understand this concern in three ways.

First, they can use good data and revenue projections to demonstrate that their team members are worth more investment. This is part of why closely tracking both individual and team numerical targets is so important. Enrollment leaders need to be able to demonstrate that a small investment in motivated team members can result in much bigger revenue returns.

Second, managers can find ways to treat enrollment employees differently than other areas because of their accountability for results. Give them more flexibility in their schedules in exchange for their willingness to work odd schedules. Use small perks, like eating at the dining hall as a team, providing staff with swag, or professional development opportunities to send the message that, “We recognize that you give more than others, and there should be a benefit to that.”

Third, enrollment leaders can push for a stronger customer service culture across campus, not just in the admissions office. When other offices join in the accountability, admissions staff are able to trust that the students they have recruited are going to be treated well and will be more likely to retain. This makes them feel understood and supported.

The Question of Fit

What about those employees who have burned out in their roles, or perhaps were never a match to begin with? First, consider whether this person is just sitting in the wrong seat on the bus. Sometimes, our team members have talents that just do not match with their job descriptions. Helping the employee get a better sense of strengths and weaknesses sometimes reveals an opportunity for the institution to get more value and for the employee to find more satisfaction.

Occasionally, the issue is not one of skillset, but one where the employee just refuses to join in with the culture you are trying to create—or actively works against it. In this case, you may need to have a really honest conversation about your goals and hopes for the office and for the people on the team. Give the employee a chance to understand the vision for the team and some time to decide whether they want to be on board.

A Change of Definitions

One thing that may have to change in order for us to embrace the enrollment office of the future is a change of definitions, particularly of employee loyalty. In the past, institutions expected that employees would stay for a certain amount of time and fulfil the stated duties of the job without additional need for incentives. In return, employees expected that they would be secure in their jobs unless their job performance was grossly negligent. These definitions just don’t hold in the modern landscape of work. We have to realize that employees are likely to move around more than in the past, and not necessarily on the traditional summer-to-summer schedules that used to be the norm. Employees will choose to stay with us because of the environments we create and the opportunities they have to thrive.

The good news for enrollment managers is that they have more influence on staff retention than they might think. As the saying goes, “People leave managers, not companies,” but the reverse is also true. Employees may not be totally satisfied with their pay, their hours, or some of the institution’s policies, but they will be much more likely to stay if they feel heard and empowered by a good leader. Your staff members with other work experience know that it is rare to have an environment with both a supportive manager and an enjoyable team culture. If you can offer your people this, you could be the biggest factor in them choosing to stay.

Enrollment is a dynamic and exciting field, and like much of the market, it has seen dramatic shifts in staffing and the priorities of its employees. Enrollment leaders will need to let go of the patterns of the past and embrace the enrollment team of the future to keep their institutions moving forward.