ReADULT STUDENTRetentionTHE COST & BEST PRACTICE GUIDE

teRetention starts long before your student recruitment efforts. Retention starts when you are identifying the audiences you intend to serve, when you are planning your programs, your services, and your pricing, and when you are identifying campus locations and which courses and programs to offer online in a classroom, or both.

Retention – truly effective retention – is proactive, not reactive. Yet so many institutions wait until a student is lost, in trouble, or gone before turning on their ‘retention magic.’ In fact, retention should permeate every department and office on your campus. It should be part of your institutional culture, because everyone plays a role in delivering that unique, valuable student experience that is retention.

Tips for Improving Retention1 A Pro-active Strategy must be built into the solution you offer your audience. Everything your institution considers offering has to be driven by “how does this provide our audience with a uniquely valuable experience?” When you look at all aspects of your institution, you must ask that question. If the answer is not compelling for the student, then re-think it or don’t do it at all. Some topics that you should address when considering a pro-active retention strategy include:

> Will your students benefit from having a course schedule that covers the next 2 or 3 years? Will your students benefit from synchronous content in online courses – or does that reduce the flexibility your

students benefit from with asynchronous content?

> Where should satellite campuses be located – near work or home or other?

> What hours of operation should you offer for tech support, enrollment, advising, other?The list of questions is virtually endless – and all too often, retention is negatively impacted because someone (everyone) forgot to ask “how does this provide our audience with a uniquely valuable experience?”

2 Develop New Student Processes with new students, start with a formal on-boarding process so they get through those first few days or weeks of ‘buyer’s remorse’ and self-doubt. Many times these emotions are combined with being overwhelmed with so many new things to learn, understand and do.

3 Engage new students as early as possible and get them involved. A critical piece to making sure new students have a great experience is to make those first encounters pleasant so that they can feel connected to the institution. Humanize the bond. Follow these suggestions and see how your new students respond:

4 Get past the transactional elements of applying, enrolling, going to class, passing tests…and get them involved with faculty, staff and other students so they see that the larger experience is uniquely valuable to them. Continue to sell them on the wisdom of their decision to pursue their education at your institution.

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nt5 Reach out & explain things to students several times and via multiple communication channels so the information is remembered and understood. For example, It’s wonderful if an institution is staffed with tutors for students struggling with math or writing – but if the students can’t find where the tutors are located or how to schedule appointments, the service falls short of providing a valuable experience.

6 Offer random acts of kindness to adult students that make their retention decision each and every term. Developing a process to engage them all the way through graduation can boost retention rates for specific programs and beyond graduation. This strategy is the beginning of an alumni engagement strategy, and key to alumni making decisions about donations, referrals and future educational needs. Some random acts of kindness include:

> Sending ‘congratulations’ notes recognizing their successes.

> Offering an incentive to remain enrolled – like early enrollment so they can get the classes they need when they want them,

> Developing a tuition freeze based on performance and/or completion time.

7 Train and reward facility when a student starts to exhibit the symptoms of someone edging closer to dropping out. You need an early warning system and intervention process to identify that student and take prompt action immediately.

Is each staff member trained in recognizing the signs of a student that is at-risk of leaving a course or program? Many institutions use these key indicators as early warning signs:

> Attendance

> Submitting work

> Grades

> Interviews

> Surveys

Often these indicators can only be observed by single faculty members in isolation. And while faculty are privy to this information, they are often evaluated based on student surveys and feedback. Question: Who owns retention? Answer: Everyone!

From the campus ambassadors, to the individuals that answer the phone (in all departments), to the highest level of administration. It is the job of each individual on campus to deliver the unique and valuable students expect. In order to develop an intervention process, you must know the answer to these questions:

> How is the appropriate data being gathered and stored?

> Can we draw any conclusions from the analysis of the date?

> Who owns the process?

Even your best efforts won’t prevent everyone from either taking time off (stop out) or leaving (drop out) – so when that happens you need to be able to understand if it’s possible to bring that person back in. And if it is, stay in contact with them and work to win them back over time.

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ionStudent Retention Self Diagnostic

PART 1 Targeting & acquiring new customers

1 Does the organization have a clear picture of what the key student segments are and how it can help meet student needs?

2 Does your organization bundle products and offers to meet the individual goals of these segments?

3 Have you identified sub-segments within the larger groups and defined value propositions for them?

4 Do you have formalized on-boarding programs for new students that include regular communication during the first year?

5 Are you able to price programs based on individual student relationships?

PART 2 Servicing & developing customer relationships

1 Does your institution develop common processes collaboratively across the organization to simplify the student and employee experience?

2 Does your problem resolution process support escalations and measurements?

YES 4 NO 4

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This student retention diagnostic is designed to help evaluate your strategies and processes. After you and your team take the diagnostic, Hobsons EMS recommends that you discuss the areas that are marked with NO 4 and prioritize them. These are the biggest areas of improvement for your institution, and opportunities you have to improve your results. Additionally, you should evaluate the areas marked with YES 4 and identify a repeatable processes that can be implemented across your areas of concern.

YES 4 NO 4

n...3 Do you have proactive retention programs to identify and approach students likely to attrite?

4 Does your President champion a student-centric sales and service culture across the institution?

5 Do you have a formalized enrollment/recruitment training and coaching program for improved employee performance?

6 Are your sales and service representatives trained to recognize retention threats?

7 Do you have any loyalty programs established for programs?

PART 3 Measuring results

1 Do you have a clear definition of attrition that is clearly communicated and understood by all across the organization?

2 Are you tracking and reporting on attrition on a regular basis?

3 Do you track attrition by program and student?

4 Does your President review retention results on a regular basis?

5 Can you identify controllable versus uncontrollable attrition?

6 Is your enrollment staff evaluated for retention as well as acquisition?

7 Do you have the ability to measure the profitability of individual students?

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YES 4 NO 4

YES 4 NO 4

For more information and insights about retention strategies, or to discuss your diagnostic results, contact Hobsons EMS at 844-862-3434.