Institute/Session Summary:

Those of us responsible for recruitment and hiring in academic support services often find ourselves focusing narrowly on standard academic predictors such as grade point average and completed coursework. While these indicators are certainly fundamental to our success, once programs become established and accepted on a campus, many find themselves with more applicants than openings and are forced to consider other factors when hiring. This is complicated by the reality that our work involves a new generation of college student. Our clientele now alternately seek mentoring relationships from staff and, simultaneously, demand the independence and discretion associated with excellence in customer service. We find ourselves seeking to employ those able to handle an impersonal encounter with the client who has quick question in addition to consoling the overwhelmed student succumbing to test anxiety, paper deadlines, and homesickness. In these circumstances, our employees’ skills as communicators become more important than ever—in the short term to the tutor or Supplemental Instruction (SI) Leader’s efficacy in sessions and in the long term to our alumni’s success in the workforce. These are critical skills to consider during the recruitment and application process as well as during training.

This interactive session will first consider what communication skills are “core requirements” by (a) reviewing what current research and trends show employers truly want from new employees and (b) exploring if or how we currently cultivate these abilities. Session attendees will explore existing factors demanding the inclusion of diagnostic tools in recruiting and interviewing, then brainstorm simple techniques for effectively including such methods in our processes—both for those implementing new programs and for those in established programs. The presenter will also share practices helpful to the Student Learning Assistance Center at Texas State University-San Marcos, including one facet of its training that gives trainees information and provides tools for handling sticky situations while they interact with the different and sometimes challenging personalities likely encountered at work.

Learning Outcomes

1. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will better understand the current job market’s demand for skilled communicators and the recent development of factors requiring that we identify and train better communicators in our university environments.
2. By the workshop’s end, participants will have generated ideas for more effectively identifying those with or without basic communication skill sets during the hiring process.
3. After this discussion, participants will have created tools for developing these skills in their employees through training and progressive workshops.