Josephine Cassar Director, Financial Assistance and Services St. Clair County Community College Michelle Luck Assistant Director, Client Services Wayne.

Developing a Year-Round Training Program

Josephine CassarDirector , Financial Assistance and Services

St. Clair County Community College

Michelle LuckAssistant Director, Client Services

Wayne State University

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramWhen deciding to develop a training program there are

several questions you need to answer before moving forward:

What is the goal of the training?What do the employees need to learn?What type of training will be offered?What method of instruction will be provided?What audio-visual aids will you use?What physical facilities will you need?What about the timing of training (length and frequency)?Who should be selected to attend training?What checks or controls (if any) will you use to determine if the

training was purposeful?

Developing a Year-Round Training Program

Other things to consider:

Academic calendarSystem release datesWorkload of the staffPopular Vacation times

4th of July Labor Day Thanksgiving Christmas

Developing a Year-Round Training Program

Your staff or team is your greatest asset.

Staff are given the knowledge, tools, skill set to perform their duties properly.

Staff feel empowered to perform their jobs effectively

Helps you do more with less.

Compliance issues diminish greatly.

Staff overall have been given opportunities for professional development and growth.

Staff can be held accountable for their duties and job responsibilities.

Provide a path to student satisfaction.

Pros for developing a Year-Round Training Program:

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramCons for not developing a training program:

Compliance issues

Audit findings

Staff morale issues

High turn-over of staff

Customer service suffers

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramNew Hire Training should be separate from your

staff year-round training

Year-round training can encompass the following:Refresher training on current processes/proceduresNew system release updatesNew regulation updates Customer service trainings (new and refresher)Cross-training for staff (if appropriate)Consist of webinars, classroom, computer lab, and

depending on the size of your staff one-on-one

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramSt. Clair County Community College (smaller staff size)

Prior to developing the year-round training program, training opportunities were difficult. Lack of office coverage, tried getting other offices to cover for

FA Staff illnesses, vacations, etc.

Implementing a year-round training program Collaboration with Enrollment Services Two cross-functional teams

8 Financial Aid Staff (3 full-time, 5 part-time) 8 Enrollment Services staff (6 full-time, 2 part-time)

Deliberately scheduled trainings on a day everyone works Team A meets for an hour, Team B in the office and vice versa

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramSt. Clair County Community College (continued)

Meetings initially were informational, now they are focused on training Information shared electronically via email

Assess Team Determine where the gaps are

Financial Aid? Customer Service? Technology? Institutional Policies?

Training Meetings scheduled on calendar Planning meeting scheduled for 1 hour on Wednesday, every other

week Training meeting scheduled on Wednesday morning, every other

week

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramIssues Experienced with Training

Pro’s Professional staff were on board immediately with

the training Professional staff are sometimes involved with the

planning topics for the trainingCon’s

Some support staff members continue to complain, aren’t willing to volunteer for role playing, answering questions, etc.

Need to force yourself to carve out the time to prepare for the trainings

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramWayne State University (large staff)

We considered the academic calendar as it drives our daily operations, and merged it our system releases and federal regulation updates into an annual year-round training program.

We offered various types of trainings and materials:Webinars (free and some with a cost)Classroom style lecturesJob aids & emails (for reminders)Computer lab training (simulations)Staff meetings Manuals

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramWe received positive feedback from the

financial aid officers They welcomed the opportunity to learn and be

given more timely trainings

We received mixed feedback from the support staffIf the subject matter did not directly impact

their job duties they did not want to attend (e.g. Year-Round Pell)

Developing a Year-Round Training Program

Draft of our Year Round Training ScheduleJanuary

R2T4 Refresher Training – in preparation for the start-up of the winter semester, prior to the end of the 100% drop/add period, provide staff with a refresher training about the R2T4 process.

  It is suggested that the Operations Unit send out an e-mail

reminder to all staff to look for withdrawal information before processing aid revisions. In addition, it is suggested that we develop a one-page document that explains the “nuts & bolts” of R2T4 (e.g. the breakdown between student’s liability and institutional liability), so that FAOs have something to refer to when they need to explain R2T4 to students

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramDraft of our Year Round Training Schedule

February2010-2011 Verification – in preparation for the new academic year,

all FAOs should be provided with verification training. All FAOs will be responsible for reading the updated Application and Verification Guide from the FSA Handbook. Training will cover any federal changes in the verification process, as well any updates on the Banner verification screens.

In addition, this is the time to review verification “philosophy.” Every year questions arise as to how to process files if zero income is reported by the family – what additional forms do we request, what is a reasonable income threshold, etc. A goal of the training is to achieve consistency among the FAOs in making decisions in regards to these “gray areas.”

Developing a Year-Round Training Program

Draft of our Year Round Training ScheduleMarch  Special Circumstances – as soon as students begin to file the FAFSA,

OSFA starts to answer questions for students regarding filing special circumstances appeals. All FAOs need to be knowledgeable about the special circumstances process in order to advise students appropriately about when to file an appeal and what documentation should be included.

 It is suggested that we finalize the WSU Professional Judgment Guide and utilize this guide as one of the main training materials for the special circumstances training.

Developing a Year-Round Training Program

Draft of our Year Round Training ScheduleMarchTransfer Monitoring for Spring/Summer (Late March) –

in preparation for starting the Spring/Summer loan processing, meet with the FAOs and the Loan Unit to discuss the transfer monitoring process for the Spring/Summer semester. Even though specific FAOs are assigned to work on transfer monitoring as a program responsibility, it is beneficial for all FAOs to be knowledgeable about the process. We have a lot of students who dually attend WSU and community colleges, so anyone who works the front counter and counsels students should understand the purpose and function of transfer monitoring.

Developing a Year-Round Training Program Were we able to stick to every item?

No

What problems did you experience? Day-to-day operationsStart-Up of ClassesNew System Release

What did we do? We adjusted the training schedule to ensure the topics would be

covered within the year.We keep a progress log so we can track the items we haven’t

covered and move them to a later time in the calendar.

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramConsider going off-site for trainings that

require computer simulationsReturn of Title IVProfessional Judgment AppealsSAPImaging (New and Refresher)

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramPurpose of having a training program is to ensure

you:Maintain compliance regarding how to properly

administer Title IV funding Demonstrate administrative capabilityProvide continuous professional development

opportunitiesEmpower staff Improve staff moraleImproved customer serviceMay provide ideas for process improvementForces management to make the time for training

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramTraining Assessments:

It’s important that management provide timely feedback to staff once a training has occurred.

This will provide two things: Accountability to both management and the

employee that this training was purposeful and to be adhered to

Increases administrative capability that processes and procedures are being followed.

Training is only as good as the follow-up after training

Developing a Year-Round Training Program2nd Level Review:

Do you offer 2nd level review AFTER training staff on new processes and procedures? This will help the staff understand why various

steps must be followed. It will allow management to assess if the staff

member understood the training and if not provide follow-up training for that individual

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramTrain the Trainer

Empower your seasoned staff to serve as mentors to newer staff.

This is helpful during customer service trainings (front desk and/or phone trainings)

This also assists in team building.All training and development opportunities do

not have to come directly from management.

Possible Financial Aid Training Topics• Overview of Aid Programs• Scholarships / Grants• FAFSA / PINs• Lenders / MPNs• Initial Contact• Financial Aid Advising• Loan Entrance / Exit Counseling• Loan Default Remediation• Making A Payment• Holds• Disbursements / Refunds• Tuition• Return of Title IV• Packaging / Cost of Attendance• Verification• Affordability• Unique Population Needs (e.g., HS, Military, International, etc.)• Year-Round Pell• Late Change Requests

Possible Customer Service Training Topics•Super Service•Phone Etiquette•Escalation Paths•Building Trust / Rapport•Call Monitoring / Quality•Consultative Interactions•Dealing With Irate / Difficult People•Listening Skills•Problem Solving•Managing Phone Interactions•Documenting Contacts

Possible Technology Training Topics•Phone Usage•Taking Inbound Calls•Making Outbound Calls•PC / Network Logon’s•Knowledge Base•System Training (i.e. Datatel, Powerfaids, etc.)•Email•Web usage (FAFSA)

What questions do you have?

Developing a Year-Round Training ProgramContact InformationJo Cassar

[email protected]

810.989.5539

Michelle Luck

[email protected]

313.577.8664