Episode #14: Ricky Meinke

February 14, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Podcast, Student Affairs

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention "Higher Ed Geek", you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

Our guest this episode is Ricky Meinke, proud geek and dedicated diversity professional in higher ed.

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

Preparing the Perfect On-Boarding for Student Affairs

February 13, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Higher Education, Informative, Student Affairs

First impressions are everything, as they say.

Starting a new job is no different. The early days are highly impactful in how they shape your relationship with a new organization, its culture, expectations, and where you fit in.

I'm sure all of us have had less than ideal onboarding processes throughout our careers. I know I have. I was just thrust into a job with literally no training or any sort of warm welcome. I felt isolated and confused about how to navigate the organization and my role in it. Needless to say, I was figuring my way out pretty early on and didn't engage deeply with the work or the institution. They had someone in the role doing the work, but my productivity could have been so much more if I was better supported at the start.

6e1bb7f6b0e2601d6953f22f3caf4358--employee-engagement-best-practice.jpg

I'll include more resources at the end of this post, but I'll boil down the essence of them all here and you can see what the wisdom of the crowd is.

Plan Ahead

This may seem straightforward, but from my experience and those of others I know, it warrants being said. Give this important time in a new team member's life cycle the attention and thought it deserves. Figure out what you might want to change from previous onboardings (hopefully you have feedback from previous new hires). How are they going to spend their first day? First week? First month? The more you figure out ahead of time will greatly benefit you. Chat with your new hire to figure out what they're going to need too. Which leads me to my next point...

Get Everything Set Up and Prepared

Once you know your plan, put it into action. Set up meetings with important people, get their tech situated, and figure out any other details they might need like parking, office supplies, new furniture in their space. It doesn't give the new hire a good impression to walk in and not have what they need to do their job, make them have to figure things out on their own, or force them to run around getting things set up. It makes it seem like you don't care.

Introduce Them and Show Them Around

Meeting new people can be awkward. Especially when you work with them and don't know how you'll be interacting with them moving forward. Being a sort of "wing-person" to your new hire will help a lot with this. They'll meet with the most important people relevant to their role and get a little context for the relationship. You can also schedule quality time versus time that might feel rushed and need to be focused on other demands.

What Do They Need To Know

Sometimes we go a little overboard with unloading information on a new hire. We think we're benefitting them by giving them every morsel of the institution they could ever possibly need to know. You would be better off trimming off some of the fat and keeping the initial content lean. There is going to be so much to transition to in a new role that if you give too much info, then you'll overwhelm your new team member and stress them out. Dole out info as it is needed and when it is relevant so it exists in context versus just static text or video trainings.

This is just the simple, distilled guidance on this topic. There is so much more to explore and things that would be unique to your institution or the role you're hiring for. Hopefully this at least gets you thinking differently about how you onboard new hires. It's a really important time to make a positive impression and a smooth transition.

Resources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamvanderbloemen/2017/03/16/how-to-build-an-effective-employee-onboarding-system/#632a31273a6f

https://www.higheredjobs.com/articles/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=1022

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/new-employee-onboarding-guide.aspx

https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/building-an-onboarding-plan.html

https://www.peopleadmin.com/2017/08/onboarding-processes-driving-away-higher-educations-employees/

https://www.humanity.com/blog/employee-onboarding-guide.html

Episode #13: Selena Rodriguez, aka "Selenityy"

February 07, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Podcast, Student Affairs

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention "Higher Ed Geek", you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

Our guest this episode is Selena Rodriguez (aka Selenityy), gamer, community builder, and full time Twitch streamer!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

Episode #12: Amma Marfo

January 31, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Podcast, Student Affairs

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention "Higher Ed Geek", you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

Our guest this episode is Amma Marfo, speaker, writer, and higher ed free agent!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

Amma's Past Podcast Episodes (#1 and #2)
Amma's Best Laughs of 2017
Amma's Best Reads of 2017
Invisible Man
Black Mirror
You're the Worst
Mudbound
The Disaster Artist
Catastrophe
Detroiters

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

What You Need to Know About Working in (and with) Ed Tech

January 29, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Higher Education, Student Affairs

I feel like I've been given a unique gift.

I've worked in the higher ed technology space (what I'll refer to as simply "edtech") for a while now and it has given me an insight that was completely foreign to me before. While my experience may be different and m company unlike others in the space, I feel there are some important considerations that I've garnered. This goes both ways; traditional higher ed folks need to be open to our insights and we in edtech should be welcoming the insights from campus based professionals. There is at worst this stigma against non campus based professionals and at best just a shroud of mystery. I hope I can shine a light on what the work looks like and how we can all best work together.

We Are Your Partners

Something we talk about a lot at my company is how the relationships we have with the universities we work with are true partnerships. We're each putting an investment on the table, and we share in the successes (and failures). It's more than just a transaction. We want to help campuses reach their full potential. When our partners and their students win, we win. There is no point in trying to leverage something where we are the only ones benefitting from the relationship. This is what a edtech partnership should be, if it isn't, you might want to reevaluate things.

We Have the Same Goals

Furthering my first point, we want to help institutions reach their full potential. We do that by equipping them with the best tools to augment the work they do best. We don't want to replace institutions. We don't think we're better than them. It is a true partnership in that sense. I feel as though there can be this adversarial point of view some people have in higher ed, but again, I think this is tarnished by bad partnerships in the past. We're at a point now that we know how important fostering shared goals are between edtech companies and campuses.

We Can Learn From Each Other

This is one of my biggest recent takeaways from this latest journey of mine. Not enough of us are aware of or seriously consider higher ed adjacent roles off campus. We can all greatly benefit like I have from this sort of experience but these organizations can benefit as well. We bring something valuable to the table that these companies at times don't know they're missing. They often see themselves as a business first and a higher ed organization second. We can bring in a student focus and developmental theories that can help improve the student experience. I've also learned a lot more about the academic side of the house as well as the business of higher ed (which is a component even if it isn't talked about a lot).

These were just some random thoughts I've been having the past several months that I thought I'd share. We're all on the same team and part of the same ecosystem of higher ed. We should try to work better together to help achieve great student outcomes. You never know, your next career opportunity might be something you didn't even know existed before.

Episode #11: Henah Parikh

January 24, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Podcast, Student Affairs

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention Higher Ed Geek, you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

Our guest this episode is Henah Parikh, Scarlet Knight, professional communicator, and social change agent!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

Episode #10: Ariel Tan

January 17, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Podcast, Student Affairs

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention Higher Ed Geek, you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

Our guest this episode is Ariel Tan, current graduate student, residence life professional, and anime fan!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

Ariel's Posts (Anime Mentors & League of Legends)
Ariel's SAC Podcast Episode
Director Satoshi Kon: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0464804/
Legend of Zhen Huan: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2374683/
Nirvana in Fire: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5141800/
Civilization V
Overwatch
Don't Starve Together
Chinese Paladin

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

How to Help Prepare Students for Post-Grad Life

January 15, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Higher Education, Student Affairs

Just as students are starting their higher ed journeys, many students are also finishing and graduating (this is happening every semester/term/quarter, not just in the Fall and Spring respectively). And often, we focus far more on orientation, First Year Experiences, admissions, and the early stages than those students who are preparing to move on to their life post college.

As students graduate and settle into their new role as an alum (which will be a far longer relationship), we often struggle to find methods to engage them in meaningful ways. Their first impressions of what it means to have a bond with their alma mater can be hard to undo, since they'll eventually have many more priorities and focuses for their time.

There is a strategy that I synthesized in my head to solve both of these problems; put on mentoring programs between students approaching graduation and alum of the last five years. It allows young alums to have a positive way to give back that doesn't require money, and also helps soon-to-be graduates feel better prepared for the life that awaits them by learning from peers nearer to their own experience versus older professionals. This tends to be a lot more helpful and in general, it's nice to have someone looking out for us to guide us along our educational journey.

While this isn't a radically new idea, it can have a huge positive impact if done in the right way. Forcing mentoring pairs can be hit or miss in my experience. Relationships need to form organically. As such, we need to put on regular networking events for these groups to come together. Invite alumni speakers to come back to campus. Have alumni panels focused on different industries. Have alumni be ambassadors involved in prospective student recruitment and engaging other alum.

We obviously want our students to feel prepared for success after college, but for the higher ed professional, this can also serve a very important purpose; nurturing the desire for financial support from alumni. It is going to be a hard sell to cold call an alum and essentially beg for money. However, if you have built up some good will with meaningful involvements for these people, they'll be far more likely to give back. This applies to the current alumni, but also these soon to be alumni who are feeling supported with these positive alumni mentors in their life.

Use this as fodder to figure out the best ways to implement this sort of effort at your institution. It's objectively important, so you need to tap into this resource to prepare yourself for the future of higher ed where we will need to be increasingly self sufficient and capitalize on the human capital at our disposal.

Thanks for stopping by!

Episode #9: Tony Kim

January 10, 2018 by Dustin Ramsdell in Podcast, Student Affairs

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention Higher Ed Geek, you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

Our guest this episode is Tony Kim; blogger, frequent comic con attendee, and founder of Hero Within!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

Episode #8: Ivy Noelle-Weir

December 20, 2017 by Dustin Ramsdell in Podcast, Student Affairs

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities. Check them out, and if you mention Higher Ed Geek, you'll get $500 off the speaking fee.

Our guest this episode is Ivy Noelle-Weir, former librarian, graphic novel author, and super awesome nerd!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

Music by pond5.com