The Art of Managing Student Employees Virtually

With the current climate of the Coronavirus, there are a lot of complex components in a Career Development Office that have to be adapted and managed in a new, innovative way. One of the most intricate adaptions that have to be made when moving to a completely remote or hybrid model is the management of student employees who work for the Career Center. In order to give your student employees the best virtual experience in your office, here are my Top 5 Tips to help any career development supervisor manage their student employees virtually.

1. Train student employees on how to work remotely-- It is easy to assume that our student employees know how to work in a remote setting since they have been learning online since March. However, listening to a lecture in class is much different than completing projects or assessing data. To help our students be most successful working remotely, supervisors should train student employees on the art of working remotely and good practices when working remotely. During the second half of IUP Career and Professional Development Center’s Crash Course training, we provided our students with our 10 best practices of working remotely, described what their virtual daily routine may look like, and walked them through the different programs student employees would access in order to work online. We even provided a 15-20 minute question and answer session for student employees to ask questions about working remotely. This training provided a foundation for our student workers and helped them understand the reality of working remotely.

2. Centralize your information for students—In order to make your job and their easier to manage, centralize all information that student workers will be using. For our team, we have greatly utilized the Google Suite to keep all information for student employees in the same located. Each employee have their own note on Google Keep that list their ongoing assignments for the semester and there are general sticky notes with upcoming events and reminders. All projects are then located in the Google Drive under a student employee folder. Students can work on their assignments on the drive, save them in their personalized Google Folder, and log their hours on a Google Sheet. Whether they are organizing data, creating social media graphics, or logging their hours, everything is in that same centralized location for easy access and consistent routine.

3. Regularly check-in on your student virtually— In order to stay connected to your student employees, formally and informally check-in with each student during the week while working remotely. This semester, one of the best practices that my fellow supervisor and I implemented was the creation of bi-weekly meetings for all of student workers. Every other Wednesday, we check in with all of our student employees, share office announcements, projects, and events, and provide a professional tip for the week. We are able to meet with all of student employees at one time in order to keep them up to date about everything going on in the office. On the weeks we do not have bi-weekly meetings, I reach out personally to our student employees and check in on them through email or phone. That way I can still hear from them each work and see how they are doing both professionally and personally. Not only does this check in allow a supervisor to see how their student is doing, it allows you to continuously build a relationship with your student worker.

4. Open and honest communication—Not only can it be difficult to check in with students, it can be very hard to see how students are doing both mentally and emotionally through a computer screen. There are times when our students are completely

overwhelm by components in and outside of our office, yet they may act like everything is okay and respond to an email with what seems like excitement. It is vital that a supervisor establishes open and honest communication with their student employees. Supervisors need to express this to student employees and remind them that we are here for them to support and assist everyone. If a student is overwhelmed by the amount of work on their plate, confused about an assignment, or worried about their performance, we want them to be comfortable to talk to us about these emotions so that we can do our best to help. Creating an environment for open and honest communication will help with the retention and the success of your student employees.

5. Continue to provide educational opportunities—As much as a student employee’s role is to help promote the Career Center and assist in various projects, we also want our students to be growing professionally and personally. Throughout this academic year, we are encouraging and providing our student workers with various educational opportunities to grow in their personal career journey. Besides providing a professional tip of the week during by weekly events, we have our student employees attending at least one of our Career and Professional Development Virtual Event per month, reflecting on how their weekly assignments can help them in their future careers in their employee logs, and participate in a book club that is focused on their personal career journey. These various opportunities allow our students to not only learn about career development, but provide them a personalized opportunity to grow as a young personal and professional in the field.

With undergraduate students working from their dorm rooms instead of the office, it can be challenging to assign and manage projects, answer their questions, and build relationships with these student. I hope these tips will not only help you virtually manage your student employees, but also make this semester an educational and valuable experience for your students. Student employees are a vital component of any Career Development Office and could not do our job without them.