Student Workers:A Guaranteed Winning

InvestmentMarc Fleischner

fleischner@rowan.eduRowan University

Glassboro, NJ

About Rowan University

• Formed in 1923 as a Normal school to train teachers in South Jersey.

• In 1958 became Glassboro State College to reflect the schools changing mission.

• In July 1992, Henry and Betty Rowan donated $100 Million to the school. Later that year, the school changed its name to Rowan College of New Jersey.

About Rowan (Continued)

• Gained University status in 1997

• Is divided into a Graduate School and Six Academic colleges: Business, Communications, Education, Engineering, Fine and Performing Arts, and Liberal Arts and Sciences.

About Rowan (Continued)

• Rowan employs approximately 1100 faculty and staff.

• Has approximately 9,500 students.• The campus has installed approximately

10,500 network ports, of which, 5,500 are in the Residence Halls.

• Residence Hall Ports have increased by approximately 2000 in the last two years

Network and Systems Services

• The Network and Systems Services Group (NSS) has 18 Full Time Staff members.

• NSS is made up of the Systems Group (8 employees), Technicians Group (6 employees) and Support Desk (4 employees).

Network and System Services

• The Support Desk, in addition to running the call center, also runs the University Switchboard and Telephone Services (i.e. voicemail, billing) and Copier services.

• The Technicians group handles all “Work Orders” outside of the office, including phone repairs, add, moves and changes.

Network and System Services

• The Network and System Services Group touches EVERY MEMBER of the Rowan Community on a daily basis.

• We rely on our Student Workers to help us bridge the resource gap.

The Student Work Program

• We have developed a student worker program that will give our students “Real Life” training.

• The program requires an investment of both TIME and MONEY from us.

• By investing more TIME, we spend less MONEY.

Goals of the Program

• Help the Full Time Staff to meet there deadlines.

• Provide real life experience and training for Student Workers so they can succeed in the “Real World”

Role of the Program Supervisor

• Coach• Mentor• Teacher• Boss• You must always remember the Student in

Student Worker!!!!!

Hiring Process

• Require resumes.

• Host a job Fair.

• Make your Intverviews Professional!!

• By having professional interviews, you are setting a tone for future employment.

• Don’t limit yourself to students of specific majors or backgrounds!

Hiring Process Continued• Hire into a specific position!

Student Switch Board Operator 1: These students are primarily responsible for answering the University Switch board and processing student telephone payments, as well as other projects as assigned.

Student Support Desk Technician 1: This is an entry-level position for students to work on the Support Desk. Their primary responsibilities are basic telephone support and walk in assistance.

Student Field Tech 1: These students are responsible for completing work orders in the Residence Halls and in the NSS Workshop

Senior Student Technician: These are student workers who have completed their training and certifications. These student workers work at our Support Desk, in the workshop and in the field. Additionally, Senior Techs are assigned a new student worker to assist them with their training.

Student ManagersStudent managers are students that have earned a leadership position within the organization. We have three student manager positions:

The Support Desk Student Manager works closely with our Support Desk Manager on projects related directly to the Support Desk. One of the main projects is working on the Rowan Knowledge base. Workshop Manager: This student is responsible for the operation of the Rowan Computer Repair Workshop.

Student Manager: This is the “Student in Charge” and works closely with the Student Program Coordinator overseeing all areas of the program. One of the Student Managers main responsibilities is to make sure all new student workers complete their training.

A Final Note on HiringIt is very important to have specific positions for the students to be hired into. This set pay structure and defines the student’s responsibilities. Most importantly, it set goals for students to achieve, with the reward of more responsibility and better pay.

However, you must ALWAYS enforce rule number 1!

Rule #1

• Classes Come First!!!!!!!!!

Student Training

• Use the tools that you have readily available to you.

• Rowan uses WebCT for courseware. We have developed a training for our Student Workers in WebCT!

The WebCT Training Class

The WebCT Training Class

The WebCT Training Class

Phase 2 Training

• A Plus Certification

• This is our chief financial investment!

• Make a deal with a local testing center.

• Once certified, your students can handle a great number of problems, freeing up your full time personnel.

The Workshop

• Handles primarily student related problems.

• Before the workshop, we only went to students rooms in the Residence Halls. We often had over 100 open work orders and took 4 to 6 weeks to complete.

Rowan University

NSS Workshop

during the start of the

Fall, 2004 Semester

The Workshop

• Opening the workshop changed the Repair Paradigm:

“Bring your Problem to Us!!”

The Workshop

• Student Run– Develops leadership.– Develops real life business skills.– Gives the Student Workers pride. – Enables you to get more work done in less

time!

Rewards & Perks

• Helps in retention and creating a fun place to work

• “Workers Only” Lab

• “Happy Fun Fridays!!”

• Year End Awards

• Student Worker BBQ

The Payoff!Num ber of Work Orders per Quarter

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Quarters

# of

Wor

k O

rder

s

Field Techs

Student Techs

Field Techs 614 586 926 769 763 647 762 722 825 601 843 688 640 583 763

Student Techs 56 32 88 215 150 108 131 195 186 91 201 323 241 210 506

1Q01 2Q01 3Q01 4Q01 1Q02 2Q02 3Q02 4Q02 1Q03 2Q03 3Q03 4Q03 1Q04 2Q04 3Q04

The Payoff

• This fall, our student workers reformatted over 500 virus infected student machines.

• Because of our Student Workers, the amount of time it takes to close work orders by our Full Time Technicians has decreased desipte a lot of extra added responsibilities.

The Ultimate Payoff

. Last summer, one of my former student workers stopped by campus to see me and thank me. She told me that should would not have the position she has today if wasn’t for the training she had while working in our department. To me that is the greatest reward.