By Britt Yenser
This article is about management and training. If you want to learn more about building a program and recruiting students, encouragement, and feedback, reflection, and documentation, check out prior articles and stay tuned for more!
Once you’ve built your student employment program and recruited your students, it’s time to manage everything. Managing and training people is not an easy task, especially when you add it to all of your other responsibilities. However, if you don’t become a strong manager with a strong training program, you’re always going to be spinning your wheels, trying to figure out how to keep this program you’ve built running smoothly. Let’s dive into some actionable management and training strategies!
Management Tips
I am always learning more about how to be an effective manager, and there are so many great books and coaches out there who can help you if you feel stuck. That said, here are some basic management tips I have learned and used with success.
Tip #1: Have a plan.
When I was a teacher, I had a Classroom Management Plan. I bet if you walk into any well-run K-12 classroom, you’ll see a poster on the wall that outlines rules and expectations– this is the teacher’s management plan. As an AV professional working with young adults, I don’t have a poster, but I do have a document. I cannot manage my student employees if I do not know exactly what “managing” entails. I’ve written out the key rules and expectations of the department, and I share them with the students during the onboarding process. To create a management plan, list out your rules and expectations, and then expand upon them. For example, if a rule is “Be on time,” then explain what “on time” means: what it looks like, the benefit, and what the consequence is for not being on time. As you write out and define your rules and expectations, make sure you’re being positive and actionable. For example, the rule “Don’t be late” is phrased as “Be on time.” As you work with your student employees, use your management plan as your guide. This will ensure you are being clear, transparent, and consistent.
Tip #2: Be ready to have tough conversations.
Somewhere along the way, your human student employee will be a human and make a mistake (imagine that!) As a manager, you need to guide student employees through what it looks like when they have broken a rule or have failed to meet an expectation. Having a management plan gives you a strong starting point for addressing an issue, but you might struggle to move from the starting point to the conversation itself. In this case, consider scripting things out ahead of time. Write down some important phrases and key ideas before entering your meeting with the student. Knowing exactly what you need to say and how you’d like to say it can offer you strong guideposts as you have your tough conversation. If you’re still feeling nervous, you can also practice. Sitting down with a trusted colleague and role-playing through the conversation will help you build tough conversation skills. When you’re prepared, your confidence and composure will result in a more productive talk. As you wrap up your tough conversation with your student employee, make sure to address how they can fail forward. A mistake is ultimately an opportunity to learn, so make sure you treat it that way.
Tip #3: Meet regularly.
Consider regularly scheduled team meetings and 1:1 meetings so that students, like any other employee, can be up to speed on department initiatives. No one wants to only be told, “Go get bricks. Then get cement. Then mix the cement…” when they could be told, “We are building a house.” Use meetings to show students the big picture and how they fit into it. Meetings are also a great way to build rapport, share directions, and learn what you need to do in order to help your students succeed. I’m going to put on my psychic hat and predict your current thought: “I don’t need more meetings.” To which I push back and say, “You don’t need more poorly structured meetings.” Know the meeting’s purpose, set an agenda, and ask good questions. Active and ongoing communication with your student employees is going to save you time in the long run, and strengthen the bonds within your team.
Tip #4: Offer evaluations.
This is another way to respect student employees as employees of your department. Create an evaluation document, and complete it as you see fit (quarterly, annually, etc.). Use 1:1 meetings as an opportunity to have an open dialogue about the evaluation. Through formal evaluations, you’re showing that you care about both the success of the department and the student. If students know exactly what you’re looking for and where they stand, they are more likely to continue to be invested in their work and their own growth.
Training Tips
Let’s say you’ve built up your student-employee program, you’ve got basic management down, and you’re ready to keep moving forward. The next step is teaching your student employees exactly how to do their job. In an AV/IT department, there is A LOT the students need to learn, and they might have no prior experience. How do you teach an English major how microphones work without feeling overwhelmed? The same way you build the millennial falcon: one lego at a time. Here are some insights into my step-by-step, sustainable training program.
Lego #1: Have a strong starting point.
What is the very first thing you do after you’ve hired a student? They’ve got the job–now what?
After a student has gone through the hiring process, the very first thing I do is have an onboarding meeting. I’ve created a document that takes the hiring manager step by step through this meeting so that nothing is missed. Consider creating your own document outlining all of the information a student needs in order to be a successful employee. This might include how to clock in and out, what to wear, how to sign up for shifts, what the rules and expectations are– any and everything that tells the student “this is how to be a part of this team.” Setting this strong foundation will give you more to build upon, and will hopefully save you time later. IE: You won’t need to stop a future training session before it can begin because the student showed up wearing flip-flops to set up a sound system.
Lego #2: They’re in college– make it a course.
I am not exaggerating when I say the absolute best thing I ever did was create a Canvas course for my student employment program. I won’t lie to you; this took hours upon hours of work to create. But now that it’s up and running, I’ve gotten that time back ten-fold. Obviously, technology changes rapidly and updates need to be made, but this is not nearly as time-consuming as the initial course build. Having this course puts students in the driver’s seat when it comes to training. The course consists of 3 modules: Foundational Knowledge, Troubleshooting, and Reference Pages. The reference pages take up the bulk of the course, as there is a page for everything we do. From over-under cable wrapping all the way to setting up a live stream, students go to Canvas and watch a video, see pictures, and read written explanations of How to Do the Thing. My students use Canvas in two ways: first, it is their introduction to the content. Their first step in training is to explore Canvas and learn from the pages. Second, they use the pages for troubleshooting. If they run into an issue or get stuck, they will first consult a page in Canvas before calling me for help. Consider what sort of online course or training manual you can create to take some of the work off of you in the long run. This is an investment with a long-term payoff.
Lego #3 Ease into it.
AV is always expanding and becoming more complex, so you need to teach things step-by-step. Ease students into learning how to accomplish their AV tasks and goals by following the “I do” “We do” “You do” model. By definition:
“I do” is when the manager completes the task as the student observes.
“We do” is when the student completes the task with someone else, either a manager or another, more experienced student. The “We do” portion of the training can last as long as you deem necessary.
“You do” is when the student can complete the task on their own. If this invoked an image of a baby bird leaving the nest– it should. That’s what it is. And this is where your 1:1 meetings now come into play. You’ll want to make sure the student is flying successfully, and not, you know, crashing into things.
For my staff, this specific training model looks like this:
“I do”: The students watch me do the task. Since I have the Canvas course up and running, they watch the video in Canvas, as well as look at any supplementary pictures and text I’ve provided.
“We do”: First, the new student does the task with either myself or the audiovisual specialist. Then, they do the task with other student employees. Typically, we do not have new students work a shift by themselves until they have worked for the department for a full semester. Our “We do” period is pretty long, but I’ve found a full semester is enough time to build confidence and knowledge in a new student employee, as well as help them bond with and learn from other students on the team.
“You do”: The new student begins working on their own. I touch base with meetings. I use weekly team meetings to discuss goals and tasks with the whole team, and monthly 1:1 meetings to ask about highlights, lowlights, and processes, and to address any questions or concerns that either the student or I might have.
The “I do” “We do” “You do” model is ripped straight from my lesson plans from my teaching days, and it holds up as an excellent step-by-step training model.
Lego #4: Value your own time.
Your time and energy will always be finite. Consider setting aside specific training appointment times, and holding students accountable to signing up for those predetermined times. If you’re always getting pulled into training and management tasks unexpectedly, you’re going to get frustrated and burned out.
Lego #5: Gameify training and use it as a bonding opportunity.
Learning how to do something should be fun and interesting! What’s the point of doing AV, a cool, fun thing, if we aren’t going to be cool and fun sometimes? Consider creating a Team Retreat, an AV Olympics, or any gamified training opportunity that will work with the personalities and time constraints of your staff. We recently held an AV Olympics, where our students went head-to-head wrapping cables, gaffing, setting up portable sound systems, and other specific AV tasks. Each task had a point structure, and the winning team earned a prize. If students struggled with a task, we took time to re-teach. We also took time to explain concepts a little deeper than we would during regular training sessions. The students loved the opportunity to show off their skills, check in on their understanding, and spend time with the whole staff. As a matter of fact, the only feedback we got was, “It could have been longer.” For the record, it was 3 hours. Time flies when you’re having fun!
At the end of the day, both management and training are skills. The good thing about skills is that they can be learned and improved upon! Just like your student employment program itself, you might need to actively build your management plan and training program. I encourage you to keep finding the right tools, tips, and methods for management and training in order to keep your work consistent and sustainable.